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

Guest Post by Michelle Bergquist, Mind Masters Entrepreneur Association Pro

Our Digital World

While we may live in the technological and digital world, we’ve become more and more disconnected to the personal approach in building business relationships. While we need to use technology to make ourselves more efficient and productive, it shouldn’t replace the human, personal touch to build better business relationships.

The question becomes how do you use technology and still be personal at the same time to build solid relationships in business? Your database is the one central hub that allows you to use technology as an efficient way to reach out at a personal level and communicate with those you’d like to stay connected to.

The challenge for most business professionals is how to use their database and organize their database to relate personally. Choosing a database system becomes a little confusing today, as there are many choices to select from. All systems have pros and cons associated with their ease of use, training, costs and application. The system you choose needs to allow you to do the following:

• Ability to enter basic contact information and track and sort via name, address, phone, city,state and email.
• Ability to enter and sort by the title and function of your key contacts and relationships.
• Ability to categorize your contacts according to specific types (client, prospect, referral source, distributor, contact, supplier, key relationships, connections of influence, etc.).
• Ability to segment your contacts and give your relationships a hierarchy of their importance to you and your business (best clients, hot prospects, most important referral sources, A-B-C-D,etc.)
• Ability to provide a field of information as to how you met the relationship or how the contact came to know you and was entered into the database.
• Ability to track and profile personal information and preferences to build and enhance the relationship (birthdays, spouse and family information, personal preferences, hot buttons, likes and dislikes).
• Ability to code, track and measure prospects through the sales channel and pipeline.
• Have a calendaring system to pinpoint follow up dates, follow through and action items.
• Ability to make notes on items of importance to build and connect with relationships over time.
• Ability to group and categorize contacts into other sections that allow you to customize your message to an array of groups and associations.
• Ability to set up recurring touch points to keep connected with contacts and relationships.
• Ability to keep track of referral partners and strategic alliances for referrals and connections.
• Ability to use an integrated email-send-system that complies with the CAN-SPAM Act for blasting out permission based email communication.

Whatever system you choose needs to help you relate and communicate in a systematic and organized fashion. I always tell my clients that you need to have a system in how you communicate, interact and engage with your contacts, but never let them know they are part of a system to staying in touch.

Added by Debra Simpson…check here for information on email services…..

How can annual planning grow a business? If you want to get a jump start and go into 2010 with clarity, focus and confidence, then you need to plan. Planning requires a strategy, focus on high priority, high payoff areas of the business, management of your cash flow and personal & professional growth.

Join Barbara Eldridge, Co-Director of Mind Masters Entrepreneur Association as she shares the Five Stage Business Building Process, Thursday, December 10, 2009 2pm PT. Listen Live!

Every business needs a plan, unfortunately there are myths that associate planning with startups. Because of that myth, inertia, putting out fires, and related reasons, a lot of businesses miss out on the opportunity to manage themselves a bit better. Don’t miss out, Barbara will to talk about how the right kind of planning using the 5 Stage Business Building Process creates expansive growth for any small business.

North San Diego Business Show Notes for November 13, 2009, Give Your New Business A Solid Foundation

With all the news about the extended unemployment, and unemployment being around 12% here in California, you may be thinking of starting your own business, charting your own course.

In today’s episode I spoke with Debbie Lousberg, Lousberg Unlimited, and Barbara Eldridge, Mind Masters Entrepreneur Association.

Debbie Lousberg, a career transitional specialist, who helps companies retain their employees after a layoff shares some of the questions one should ask when making the decision to start a business.

Barbara has been a staple in the greater San Diego business community for many years. Just awarded the Small Business Owner of the Year by the East County Chamber, Barbara works with the small business community in laying a sound foundation for business success, then giving them ongoing tools and encouragement. She is a wealth of information, and connections in San Diego County.

If you are a small business owner, I invite you to visit MindMasters Entrepreneur Association and sign up. We are a vibrant, online community dedicated to helping your business be successful. Let me know what you think by commenting.

North San Diego Business At Large

North San Diego Business At Large
Show Notes: October 31, 2009

Barbara Eldridge, founder of Mind Masters and Co-Director of the Mind Masters Entrepreneur Association, guest hosted the show for me this week.

Barbara interviewed Tina Marino, who is with the HEIM Group. During the 1980s Tina was successful in selling businesses as a licensed business opportunities agent. She speaks to many groups, brokerage firms, attorneys, and other business owners regarding business tax and accounting issues; in addition, Tina has taught business accounting and tax classes at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

Her experience in working with a diverse spectrum of business classifications allows Tina to bring a wealth of knowledge to THE HEIM GROUP, INC. In addition, Tina is the founder and Executive Director of a 501c3 non-profit charity, The Encouragement Center.

I was able to listen in from Hawaii, where I was on vacation and found this to be an inredibily informative interview. Let me know what you think by commenting on the post.

Are you falling prey to the relentless focus on what is going “wrong” in the economy? You are bombarded daily with information, in the newspaper, on TV, over the internet, and from the people around you; some times it is positive – “there were robust job gains last month, or exports remain strong” and sometimes they are not – “housing starts have tanked, the economy is slowing”.

As you begin to look down the road you will have to choose what position you will take to plan your business. You might start by asking some tough questions. Do you recognize the need for change? One client is researching a new direction for his business, a whole new model, as his market is disappearing.

• Are you prepared to look reality in the face?
• Are you willing to change the way you do business – and change yourself?
• Will you turn the plan into action?
• Do you have the guts to take your business in new directions?

I would like to lay out a road map that will get you to view your business through a lens that eliminates the distortions of everyday business. Let me warn you, you may not like what you see. But if you are going to meet the year head on it is a necessary process. Let’s look at what a strategic plan could do for you.

1. Develop a statement of purpose. Why does your business exist?

Sometimes why we started the business is not the same as why we continue to work it. One of my long time clients over the years has added staff, and possibly her successor, so that now she can travel more. The business was started so she could support her family.

2. Conduct a SWOT analysis. This will help you evaluate your business’ internal strengths and weaknesses, along with the opportunities and threats you face in the market place. It will give you a basis for developing a plan.

3. Crystallize your thinking.  Determine what specific long range goals you want for your business. It is never enough to just want more money. They should cover all aspects of the business.

4. Create benchmarks, with specific results for meeting those goals. It is easier to make adjustments along the way without losing sight of the long range goals.

5. Brainstorm strategies for reaching each of the results. There is more than one way to achieve a result, ask others for ideas.

6. Develop a Plan of Action. Plan the progressive steps, along with who will do what when. Nothing ever happens without action, but there is a world of difference between mere action and constructive action.

7. Be confident in yourself and your own abilities. Be determined to follow through on your plan, because without determination the plan will deteriorate.

The 8th step is to track your progress. Write out your numbers (yes I said write), know your sales number, gross profit, cost of goods/time. It is a sure way of staying focused.

The Challenge: You have the ability to choose your experience.

Barbara founded MindMasters, an organization for entrepreneurs to master the challenges they face in an ever-changing market place and is the Co-Director of MindMasters Entrepreneur Association.

Today on North San Diego Business At Large,  I’ll be interviewing Paul O’Neal, President and CEO of the Vista Chamber of Commerce. For several years Vista has held the Vista  Business Expo, and they will be holding this year on October 21st.

I’ll be speaking with Paul about the expo and how the Vista Chamber works with the small business members in growing their businesses.

I’ll also be speaking with Barbara Eldridge, Mind Masters, about planning for the fourth quarter in our businesses. What do we need to look at in order to finish out the year as strong as possible.

I hope you’ll join me. You can tweet me questions for my guests on my North San Diego Twitter profile.

Innovative Video Solutions has launched it’s CEO Advantage online video show.

The first guest is Don Sando, Strategic Results Group, discussing how small businesses can compete on something other than price. Take a look and let me know what you think by commenting below!

Outrun The Elephant

Wow, it’s the second quarter already.  Where does the time go? I don’t know about you, but I’ve been looking at doing some things differently. I decided to run with North San Diego Business to help you discover the many no-cost and low-cost marketing and business building tools online.

Now is time to think about the changing marketplace. Are you feeling pressure, looking to gain a competitive edge, or ready, like I am, to unleash the power of owning a business?

Maybe your stuck? You need a team of trusted advisers to bounce your ideas off of and brainstorm strategies and solutions? This may be the best way to spend next Monday, April 6th.

Barbara Eldridge, Mind Masters, will be holding her Second Quarter Business Planning Workshop in Mission Valley.  What Barbara brings to the table is the opportunity for you to sit down and take some time to work on your business, not in it, with other business owners. It’s a great time to bring a new idea, strategy or challenge to the table and get feedback from business owners who are also in the trenches!

I hope I see you there? In the meantime, take a listen to the archived versions of North San Diego Business @Large on the right sidebar. Barbara’s been sharing the 12 Keys to Business Success.

To your Success!!