Business Foundation

North San Diego Business At Large
Show Notes: May 7, 2010

Jumpstart Your Business! Which moves help you win the game?

This week Barbara Eldridge, Mind Masters, joins me as we look at the foundational blocks of our business, their strengths and weaknesses.

A situation analysis is your play back of what worked for you. It allows you to look backward to the extent required to give you a proper perspective on the present, taking into consideration your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and threats to your business game.

Some of the information for the analysis is gathered from good record keeping, tracking of marketing results and bottom line measurements. Just as the game of chess is a game of strategy requiring review of each move, your every move forward or backwards needs to be checked.

This episode of North San Diego Business At Large looks at the foundation of a solid business. We’ll talk about business management, marketing, financial and leadership skills and strategies.

Your strengths and weaknesses must be looked at so you can build on the successes and learn from the mistakes. Study how you are playing the game. Target your goals to shore up your weaknesses.

Next week we take it a step further with Jump Start Your Sales.

North San Diego Business At Large

North San Diego Business At Large
Show Notes: March 26, 2010

Today, nothing plays a greater role in the success or failure of your company then execution. And if you are going to succeed in today’s ultra competitive climate, you’ve got to find the gap between what you want to achieve and your ability to deliver. Not simply tactics, but a system of getting things done through questioning, analysis and follow through.

What you must do today to:

• Get comfortable with the speed of technology that is capturing your market
• Look for what new skills will take you to the nest level
• Rethink your business model to answer the changing marketplace
• Get paid what you are worth
• Make a greater impact on your market, give greater value

Take the right steps now to:

• Re-evaluate your goals – are they big enough?
• Transform ideas to reality
• Understand the critical success factors for growth
• See better profits from more focused plans
• Enjoy the experience of learning from others
• Create a contract with yourself that results in immediate action

How would you like to have your content delivered daily to your prospects desktop? What would that mean to the success of your business? Dianna Arreola of Core Specialties shares how you can reach out to your prospects, motivate and reward your employees, and strengthen the core of your business with a variety of programs.

After listening to this 10 minute interview, I’d love to hear how you are using new technology to reach your prospects and strengthen the core of your business! Please leave a comment!!

Currently Dianna is reading, The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their Employees, Retain Talent, and Drive Performance by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton. The Carrot Principle illustrates that the relationship between recognition and improved business results is highly predictable–it’s proven to work. But it’s not the employee recognition some of us have been using for years. It is recognition done right, recognition combined with four other core traits of effective leadership.

Maybe if you read this book, you won’t have to worry about your employees suing you. If you didn’t read the book, and your employees are thinking about suing you, check out the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce’s First Friday Breakfast April 1st.

On February 5th at the Handlery Hotel, businesses can learn some new and progressive management strategies. We’re  always looking for profitable strategies. One huge investment for any small business is the hiring, training and development of good employees. Yet, what kind of atmosphere do you provide for your employees? Here’s a management style to think about…kindness!

The Management Initiative is part of a nationwide effort to promote business success through a kinder leadership style and is offering a one day workshop to share these strategies with small business owners. Endless research supports the fact that a kind working environment means better business results…and yet something is missing.

What they aren’t telling you is that it requires very specific management skills and the right marketing, strategic, and legal efforts to support that kind environment. Only about 3% of decision makers know what these skills are, but Reut Schwartz-Hebron and The Management Initiative do and they want to spread those skills like a virus.

You’ll learn what those very successful 3% know about combining a kind business style with outstanding business results, so you can start enjoying financial security without giving up on being the person you want to be.

The Management Initiative wants to give you some of the new skills you’ll need to promote your business success with the intention of modeling a new set of excellence standards in the most influential part of society. You get accessibility to top expert skills, tools, and keys for outstanding business results and we all take another step toward a better future.

I recently met Reut Schwartz-Hebron, international speaker, an author and a trainer. She is the founder of the Managzement Initiative Project, the president of the Kind-Excellence Institute and the owner of MetaConsulting Solutions. Reut is the author of "Outswim the Sharks" and is personally dedicated to training executives in using Kind Excellence management skills. Over the past 12 years, Reut supported organizations of all sectors and sizes to increase their overall productivity.

Reut and I sat down for an interview about her vision and the passion behind sharing why kindness is your strongest ally and how to make it lead to more income than any other business style. She’s holding a one day event on February 5th here in San Diego on The Management Initiative. To get more information, or register for the event visit The Management Initiative.

As always, I invite you to share your theories on management strategies by commenting! Enjoy the interview.

You, Inc., The Art Of Selling Yourself by Harry Beckwith and Christine Clifford Beckwith is an easy read. I took it on our holiday road trip to Mom’s house. I was able to finish it within a few days. However, being an easy read doesn’t mean it wasn’t full of valuable info for running a small business.

What I loved best about You, Inc. is that in short stories and examples you discover strategies for selling, planning, relationships (which we are hearing so much about these days), and attitudes. They also reinforce the need for integrity in what you do.

One of the things I struggle with is remembering names. There are a couple of great examples of how to develop the ability to put a face and name together. I also enjoyed learning how to strengthen my relationships, and why our relationships are so important to our business success.

I like little books.  Little books that I can keep within reach for that moment of inspiration or motivation that these books offer. This is one of those little books that will always be within reach to help me move past any obstacles that might come my way. Check it out. If you’ve read it, offer up a comment!

I’ve always been fond of kindness. I always thought if I could be as kind as my mother, I’d die a happy woman. In fact, February 12-18th is "Random Act of Kindness Week." One of my earliest Toastmaster speeches was about random acts of simple kindness. Wikipedia has a nice section on how random acts of senseless kindness started and what organizations are doing about kindness, not only in the realm of humanity, but now as a management strategy for getting the best out of your organization.

 I recently met Reut Schwartz-Hebron, international speaker, an author and a trainer. She is the founder of the Management Initiative Project, the president of the Kind-Excellence Institute and the owner of MetaConsulting Solutions. Reut is the author of "Outswim the Sharks" and is personally dedicated to training executives in using Kind Excellence management skills. Over the past 12 years, Reut supported organizations of all sectors and sizes to increase their overall productivity.

Reut and I sat down for an interview about her vision and the passion behind sharing why kindness is your strongest ally and how to make it lead to more income than any other business style. She’s holding a one day event on February 5th here in San Diego on The Management Initiative. To get more information, or register for the event visit The Management Initiative.

As always, I invite you to share your theories on management strategies by commenting! Enjoy the interview.