Dunkin Donuts vs. Starbucks

Dunkin Donuts wanted to know. To find out they offered to send their customers to Starbucks and paid them to go there and drink and eat. But they also paid Starbuck customers to come to Dunkin Donuts to eat and drink. In exchange, the people involved agreed to answer Dunkin Donut’s questions.

This test was reported by the WSJ and what Dunkin Donuts discovered was that there are very loyal people to both businesses and they are not interested in the competitor. The Starbucks Tribe will continue to go to Starbucks and the Dunkin Donuts tribe will continue to go to Dunkin Donuts. That was the conclusion.

Why did Dunkin Donuts conduct this test? The business of Dunkin Donuts has a strategy of growing and attracting more customers. So they want to know more about what appeals to people. Of course they could have their customers in a data base and communicate with them regularly and offer them incentives for answering survey’s, but that is all the subject of my rant in other articles at www.stevereports.com

Duncan Donuts used a traditional focus group approach. Duncan Donuts is to be commended on testing. They are to be commended on wanting to know what changes, upgrades, new product offerings will appeal to their customer. When you review their history, you may conclude they should have done this more often. The facts are most companies fall into the trap of not reinventing themselves. Why is this important to do? Well, look at Kmart. Do you recall when they were in Chapter 11? How about Delta airlines and General Motors? Do you think Microsoft can be in trouble? What about Google and EBay? Interesting to look at history and then ask the hard questions?

There are lessons to be learned from the work done by Duncan Donuts. I remember working with the leaders if The Limited when they were the premier retailer in America. The culture was amazing. New fashion ideas, new store formats, new promotions were always being tested. Merchandise managers were expected to bring their insights of what the competition was doing to the famous weekly Monday meetings where performance was scrutinized. The point is every company has a development history and at a point in time if you become a champion, a challenger emerges. This is the “king of the hill” game and as kid we didn’t know it was a universal law but it seems that it is. Whenever you are winning someone will be out to take your place.

How do you sustain revenue and profit growth long term? How do you do that when as soon as you are on top there is a challenger? In The Profit System I teach how to track information that tells you how you are doing. Initially, the information is developed for you to track actual vs. plan and the plan is your own performance improvement plan. This evolves to where you are confident in your ability to achieve internal targets, then you set your site on local, regional, national or international champions. At that point your goal is to be the champion. By the way The Profit System course is FREE.

Why is that? Why do I offer something that I promote as being so valuable for FREE when I should be selling it for a million dollars or 10 million dollars or more? Simple, I know this works, and as Joel Bauer says (www.joellive.com) my life does not change at all if you use what I teach. But yours is likely to change a lot. If I can be a catalyst of positive change for you and your company, I am delighted to offer these principles and The Profit System to you at no charge.

Wait there is one more thing. There is a major price to pay for using this system. This price is your time, attention and action to implement. My material is FREE. Even if I were to charge $50,000 for the this material and I am considering that, it is a small sum in comparison to the time you and your company will invest to apply the principles of The Profit System. Return on investment is off the charts. So if you want to make a lot more money go to The Profit System and register for the FREE course.

Will Ducan Donuts’ latest testing mean new store formats will be hugely successful? I don’t know but I do know this if they keep monitoring and keep testing they will figure it out. You can also solve the issues facing your business with a rational management system. I have given you one source for a management system roadmap.

Contact me now.

Steve Pohlit

International Business Development Consulting
Real Estate Investment Consulting
Executive Coach

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About: Steve Pohlit CPA,MBA has been the CFO and COO of  major domestic and international companies.  Steve has extensive business ownership experience having purchased and started off line and on line businesses.

Steve offers his  build business profits expertise to companies and entrepreneurs with business coaching and business consulting.  His  focus is on building business  profits and net asset value at above average rates.  Steve incorporates health and wellness plus relationship guidance in his work as they are at the foundation of achieving all goals.

All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

7 Figure Success in Less Than 1 Year

Near $0 One Year Ago…On Track To Make $1 million This Year

6 out 0f 10 People who  were at near $0 business profits in the spring of 2010 are now on track to net more than $1 million in 2011.  Quite honestly when I realized what was developing I looked very closely at the characteristics of this group.

The numbers are even more compelling since 2 of the 10 people were making six figures with their business when they started and now are on track to make multiple 7 figures.  80% of this group is on fire with their business performance.

What Are The Key’s To Their Success?

1.Each made a significant investment in coaching . In most cases they  have one or more coaches. In all cases I am their primary coach.

2. All follow the directions.  This means they follow the advice of their coach.  Each has their own style and each implement the professional business coaching advice they receive differently. However, each one implements the program developed with their coach.

3. There is a bias for action meaning they implement and get closure on key action steps.

4. Each measure return on investment of their time.

Are There Any Unique Educational or Work History Attributes?

Candidly everyone is different. Some had college degrees, others did not. Most had experience as an employee, some did not. I am not aware of anyone having come from a family with wealth. The only common denominator was a commitment to taking action on a success plan.

What Are The Primary Steps That Account For Their Success?

Considerable time is spent on developing an appropriate plan for their business success and an action plan for implementation. Then we monitor results and make adjustments.

What Have I Done Different As A Result of This Experience?

Hired a coach.

Are Their New Success Stories In Development?

Yes and I am beginning to see the time line to success shorten.

Would you like to be in the next group of millionaires?

Contact me now.

Steve Pohlit

Business Development Consulting
Executive Coach

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

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Build Business Profits Success Stories: 1

Build Business Profits Success Stories are actual experiences of clients as a direct result of following the action steps developed as part of the coaching process. These are verifiable case studies and while the popular marketing technique is to publish testimonials, I consistently protect the confidentiality of all clients.

10 Times Increase in Net Income In One Year

When I asked the question as to the income this client expects to bank this year the answer was $300,000.  That is a very good number for an individual working from his basement office with one employee.  I already knew this was his first year working full time on this business and that he had been working part time on this business in the previous year.  He had no experience in this particular business (real estate investing) prior to two years ago.

I have been coaching him by phone for about 2 months and then we scheduled a day and half session on site at his office location.  During dinner the first day, I asked him to be prepared to finalize a game plan the next day for building his gross income next year to $6 million.  Now going from $300,000 to $6 million and actually a net closer to $3.5 million is quite a leap and I normally would not implement that aggressive of a plan with most clients.

This client was different. I already experienced his “action attitude”  he was in motion everyday on networking and deals that converted into a growing list of funding partners (people with money to put to work) and people sending him profitable deal opportunities.  He was successfully implementing the coaching guidance on focused networking.  He was and still is missing a management system for taking his business to the level I could see that was possible.

The number one issue anytime I work with client  on a model for increased revenue and profits is mindset.  If they don’t believe it there is nothing anyone can do or say that will turn the idea into reality.  In this case, there was not instant acceptance of my $6million plan.  However, he asked me how I arrived at that number and I told him.  He nodded his head and said alright “let’s do it”.

The exact strategy was developed the next day and included defining the niche markets he would pursue as well as the overall profit to be generated by each niche. That work resulted in him being able to see the results happening. It  became believable for him.

Will he achieve performance targets of this plan?  No….he will beat them.  Just two days later he text me at 6AM in the morning with “we need to talk”.  Close to 7 we were review an opportunity for  deal that has he potential for a for $500,000 profit before the end of this year.  In addition I looked at another deal with him yesterday and that one has a $500,000 potential by the end of this year if he flips it or an excellent rate of return if he keeps it.  I could go on but my point is this client has transformed himself into a deal and money magnet.  Does he have any special skills?  He is an effective communicator and he follows the direction of his coach.


Steve Pohlit

Business Consulting, Executive Coach
Turnaround/Crisis Management
Temporary CEO, CFO, Controller Services

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

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About: Steve Pohlit CPA,MBA has been the CFO and COO of  major domestic and international companies.  Steve has extensive business ownership experience having purchased and started off line and on line businesses.  Steve offers his  business building experience to companies and entrepreneurs with business coaching and business consulting.  His  focus is on building business  profits and net asset value at above average rates.   All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

The Secret To Beating Business Profit Plans

“Steve, I am so grateful for how you have helped me understand my business and how to achieve profitable growth. “

…This comment is direct from one of my clients whose 2010 profits are on track to exceed plan by at least 50%. Exceeding plan by 50% is worth nearly $350,000. This is one very happy client and there are many more.

What is the one component that every successful client says is the reason they are achieving business profit goals?

The answer is consistently taking action on those areas of their business that make the most difference in growing business revenue and profits.

How do successful business owners and managers consistently guide their companies to outstanding profit performance?

Most have a business coach/mentor who guides them on remaining focused and holds them accountable for taking the right action.

When I look at the difference in business performance among the clients I coach it always comes down to taking directed action or not.

What does directed action mean?

Directed action is a sequential path of steps that achieves business revenue and profit goals.  It is common for business owners to actually be experienced in what to do but are not consistently implementing.  In other cases, they are taught what to do and always held accountable for taking action.

As a business consultant and executive coach with very valuable experience running companies owned by others as well as my own companies (click here for my resume) I know what works and even more importantly I know the mistakes most  make.

What is the number one mistake made by business owners and managers?

That mistake is thinking they are the only one who can do what needs to be done.  I am always working on the mindset with the people I coach of leveraging tasks that must be done and training them on effective leveraging of those tasks.  I address the mindset of the person running the company. In the case of businesses working with employees or contractors, we are consistently looking at ways to have everyone become more valuable by leveraging tasks to less costly people or technology.  Systems, meaning the way people work and the tools they use are the key to effective leveraging.

A Program That Fits Most Budgets

If you want to be successful with any business, work with an experienced business consultant/coach who will guide you to building business profits faster than you ever imagined.  I am an expert business consultant/coach. I have a program that will fit most budgets. Email me now and tell me about your business. Include your complete contact information and I will schedule a 20 minute complimentary call to determine how we can work together for the benefit of your business.

Steve Pohlit

Business Consulting, Executive Coach
Turnaround/Crisis Management
Temporary CEO, CFO, Controller Services

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

Twitter

Facebook

Linked in

MySpace

727-587-7871

Email

About: Steve Pohlit CPA,MBA has been the CFO and COO of  major domestic and international companies.  Steve has extensive business ownership experience having purchased and started off line and on line businesses.  Steve offers his  business building experience to companies and entrepreneurs with business coaching and business consulting.  His  focus is on building business  profits and net asset value at above average rates.   All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

The Business Profits Reported Next Year Are Created Now

The business performance goals you achieve for the next year begin today. In order to achieve business performance goals you must have ones defined.

If this seems perfectly obvious, then why is it that the majority of companies do not have an annual business plan detailed in financial performance terms. Hardly any business has the disciplined management system in place to manage the business to achieve financial performance benchmarks every week.

This is a summary action guide that should help your business performance excel :

1. Define the outcome twelve months from now that you expect. What are your targeted: revenue, profit and cash flow (takes into account investments in non cash assets). I recommend these goals be higher than your historical trend.

2. Define the business performance you need to achieve in the next two months by week to achieve your annual goal.

Steps 1 and 2 become the budget numbers for your business and step 2 is adjusted every week so you are always looking forward two months. Can be three but should not be less than two.

Part of Step 2 should be a cash flow projection. Again it is very important to have a budget for all these items including cash flow.

3. Once you develop your budgeted items then you track actual every week. Now you are in the position of addressing variances. Positive ones should be viewed as carefully as negative ones. You are either investing in more of what resulted in positive variances or address the cause of negative ones.

Since a CEO should be spending most of their time, meaning about 80% on marketing for growth, there needs to be a rationalized process in place where there is clear accountability for the operations in the other key areas of the business.

This process is a management system. If you are an international multi- billion dollar business or a single entrepreneur the principles are the same.

Sending you energy of health, happiness, prosperity

Steve Pohlit

Business Consulting, Executive Coach
Turnaround/Crisis Management
Temporary CEO, CFO, Controller Services
International Business Resources

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

Twitter

Facebook

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MySpace

727-587-7871

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About: Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies.  Steve is a business owner and an expert business consultant focused on building profits and net asset value. He is very experienced with Internet marketing and social media marketing.  All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

Marketing Is All About Traffic and Conversion

If you are in a for profit business you must have a continual stream of customers that buy what you offer. If you don’t have that working nothing else matters. Given that, what is your priority?  Correct…Marketing!!

There are only three ways to increase revenue:

1. Sell more products or services to an existing customer

2. Sell the same amount of products or services to a customer at a higher price

3. Add more customers

When anyone visits your business that is traffic.  When anyone who visits buys your offer that is conversion.

Recently, article posted here have been highlighting social media marketing for business. That arena is increasingly being used to generate traffic. I have helped many companies implement marketing programs that use a combination of tools including: a blog, a website, pay per click advertising, email marketing and more. These are all tools that work when used properly.

The landscape is changing with droves of people pouring into sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and more.  There are many people who claim to know why social media sites have become so popular but the reasons don’t matter. The facts are that there are huge numbers of people entering these sites and others like them for the first time each week.

Open up a Twitter account at Twitter.com and use the search feature at the bottom of the page and type in the keyword phrase social media.  Then begin to click on profiles and discover how many people are referring to themselves as a social media expert.

Key Point: If your primary intent is to do business, having a growing network of connected people on Twitter or anywhere else for that matter means nothing if they are not buying your offer. You have traffic but they are moving on by and the conversion piece of the formula is missing. So when someone calls themselves an expert ask them to show you the profitable business they have developed using social media. Don’t be surprised at the lack of response.

We started from scratch and developed two businesses that are profitable and cash flow positive using only social media. Social media we used  includes a blog for each business, and  a network we grew on several of the larger social media sites.

There was a lot of work involved in doing this. I know because I did a lot of it and so did my business partner.  Brian Campbell is the strategist on the detailed steps needed for this to work. Does this mean we are experts?  It means we really have a lot of skills, and now systems, for building meaningful market share in important niche markets.

My Top Two Recommendations for Businesses Wanting To Improve The Effectiveness of Their Marketing

1. Building a contact data base is key. Effectively communicate with that list. This is not new and remains a foundation principle. It is still an alien concept for most companies.

2. Have a find tuned marketing plan, budget and return on investment monitoring in place and reviewed weekly and for some actions, daily. All activity must be focused on building traffic and converting that traffic.

Closing Comments:

The social media landscape is hot and getting hotter. But there are also other proven business development tools including pay per click, email marketing, print media, electronic advertising, trade shows  and more. Each must be evaluated and tested in terms of benefit to your business. You can invest your time and that of your employees or outsource a lot of this. If you want fast results, outsource.  If you do, again migrate based on priorities and test.

Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance

Steve Pohlit
The Profit Expert

Email Steve to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits.  Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing, Internet Marketing and Direct Response Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high.

FREE Report:

How To Increase Business Profits by 30% or More in 90 Days or Less 

Job Loss, 7-Eleven Layoffs, Incentive Compensation

Today another announcement regarding layoffs. This one in particular caught my attention for several reasons. First 7-Eleven’s press release disclosed it was cutting 10% of it’s non-store staff.  It also disclosed it was suspending certain benefit contributions and it’s incentive compensation program. 

Before continuing, please note I am not in any way associated with 7-Eleven. If I were the content would have been different. 

In general, anytime I read about infrastructure layoffs, the ones at the support level, or enterprise level as it it sometimes called, I question, how these positions were justified in the first place. Every support position should be essential for the business and in retail there is trememdous leverage. Consequently I wonder what management was thinking when they allowed staff to grow by 200 extra people.  

I wonder what percentage of the annual payroll cost was cut. That number is not necessarily and most likely not 10%. The operative question is what is 7-Eleven’s, or any company’s support structure cost target, as a percentage of projected related revenue?  The related question is how is that going to be calibrated given revenues that could very well be lower than projected?  At what point are support structure costs fixed given the size of the customer base? What is the strategy for increasing customer loyalty and revenue?

These and other related questions don’t seem to be answered in press releases or related public disclosures very well. They should be for public companies and any private companies where they are benefiting from community tax incentives while such insanity continues.

Now that I am warmed up, let’s look at the point on incentive compensation.  I don’t know how a company can take away a properly structured incentive compensation program. In fact, the reverse of this decision should be implemented. Nearly everyone in the business should be on a pay for perfomance program. Incentive compensaton should be the catalyst for …well profitable performance.  

In summary, the principle is you are in business to make a profit and and people who work in the business should be rewarded for their contribution to that profit performance. With some exceptions, everyone’s compensation can be tied to performance.  In my experience with hundreds of companies, this is a hot topic that gets nods of approval and gets dropped like a hot potato as soon as possible. Why is that? Everyone feels they want the guaranteed income. As we have seen… there are no guranatees.  

Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance

Steve Pohlit
www.StevePohlit.com
www.ManifestMastermind.com 

Network with me on Facebook: LinkedIn: Follow me on Twitter

Steve is the President of International Business Consulting Resources. His firm specializes in guiding companies to rapid increases in revenue and profits with a sustainable growth rate. Don’t miss my FREE Report: How To Make More Money With Your Business Now and Long Term

This report may be freely distributed without restrictions with the original content including this resource box remaining unchanged. Author: Steve Pohlit, Business Consulting Services, Executive Coaching, please visit www.stevepohlit.com

 

Building Business Profits Linking To A Major Event

Major events offer an opportunity to capture traffic searching on the keywords for the event.  Caution: there needs to be  credible link to the event or you could develop negative goodwill with the campaign.

In this example the business is Manifest Mastermind which teaches the principles of focused intent, imaging results, using a mastermind group and in general all the principles of The Law of Attraction. 

The Law of Attraction’s popularity increased significantly with the release of the movie The Secret and the book by the same name.  

In this example, we were testing the idea of drawing the parallels to President Obama’s successful campaign and inauguration. We knew the inauguration would be a very popular search term. We choose YouTube video as the network for a short video clip. Our goal was to measure our opt ins during the two day test. The two days included the day of the inauguration and the day before. 

Our results exceeded our expectations with opt in rates more than double our projections for the test period. 

Manifest Mastermind is using video throughout the sales cycle and I highly recommend your business adopt this business building technique.

You are invited to experience Manifest Mastermind’s  free course 7 Steps To Manifesting Your Dreams. Click Here 

Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance

Steve Pohlit,
The Profit Expert
www.StevePohlit.com

Network with me on Facebook: LinkedIn: Follow me on Twitter

Steve is the President of International Business Consulting Resources. His firm specializes in guiding companies to rapid increases in revenue and profits with a sustainable growth rate. Don’t miss my FREE Report: How To Make More Money With Your Business Now and Long Term I am building my practice and welcome new client inquiries. Call me for a fee consultation at 727-587-7871

This report may be freely distributed without restrictions with the original content including this resource box remaining unchanged. Author: Steve Pohlit, Business Consulting Services, Executive Coaching, please visit www.stevepohlit.com

PS. My doors are open for new clients and referrals are well compensated.

Is Your Business Strategy Largely Determined By How You Feel?

How we feel about anything is a great barometer for prioritizing an action plan.  If you feel a major pain in your chest, the actionable options  and the time frame for implementation are generally clear. However, once we move past a life threatening emergency, we have a tendency to not move as purposely.

Why is it that we often take a “let’s see what happens” approach?  Actually there are many reasons. We rely on the news to tell us how we are doing. Currently the news reports the US is in a recession so we decide to accept that and feel bad.  We also decide to live in fear.  We fear lost sales and profits, we fear losing our business or our jobs and more.  This feeling bad or feeling negative state results in us being “off our game”.  Life a professional athlete, we don’t perform to our potential.

There a many companies in a hiring freeze and  have indefinitely suspended pay increases even when they are deserved by a star person’s performance.  The valued employees in place are asked to do more for the same or less pay.  Businesses scale back on marketing programs, investments in technology and in general any spending that seemingly hurts short term cash flow and earnings.

All of these actions and more have a direct negative impact on long term results. When the news tells us things are getting better and we decide to be back “on our game”, we find valuable employees leaving for a better place to work, we find competitors who have become stronger rather than weaker while we were holding back and we find a shortage of excellent outside talent to help us with projects that are now coming out of hibernation.

Does this scenario sound familiar? If you are younger than 25 it may not. But if you are under 25 pay attention and maybe it will be you who will learn from the current economic experiences.  Maybe it will be you who decides there is no law for us ever to be in an economic downturn. There is no  law that requires us to feel bad or be angry about anything.

We have an opportunity at the start of each day to move forward or stagnate and eventually fade away. I suggest you decide right now to move your business forward.

The Top 5 Action Steps For Moving Your Business Forward Starting Today
1. Decide what revenue and profit before tax you want to report for the year ended twelve months from today.
2. Roll those numbers back to what you want to report one month from now and for each subsequent month for this next year. (It makes no difference when you are starting this. Use the twelve month horizon right now.)
3. For the next two months, roll the revenue and profits number back to what your business needs to do each week starting this week to hit your monthly target.
4. Translate your two month weekly and monthly targets into specific action plans with assigned accountability.
5. Measure actual vs. planned performance with close attention to your actual vs. planned cash position. Support and hold people accountable for performance.

Taking purposeful action is the key to moving forward. The alternative is to sit back read the news to find out how good or bad you feel.  Your choice.  (If you would like to discuss these steps and how I have helped companies effectively implement these for long term business performance improvement, contact me at 727-587-7871.)

Sending all my readers the energy of wellness, peace and abundance.

Steve Pohlit http://www.stevereports.com

Network with me on Facebook: LinkedIn: MySpace: Follow me on Twitter

Don’t Miss These Free Reports from my new business consulting site:

The Top 10 Action Stops That Will Make Your Business At Least 50% More Money in 90 Days or Less While You Spending Less Time Working Click Here For The Free Report

The Key Issues That Must Be Addressed Before You Buy Any Business of Any Size. Click Here For The Free Report

Steve is the President of International Business Consulting Resources. His firm specializes in guiding companies to rapid increases in revenue and profits with a sustainable growth rate. Don’t miss my FREE Report: How To Make More Money With Your Business Now and Long Term I am building my practice and welcome new client inquiries. Call me for a fee consultation at 727-587-7871 Remember many of my business building articles can be found at Steve Reports and my prosperity building tool (best tool ever for helping you manifest your goals and dreams) is The Prosperity Tool Chest and guiding articles posted very often at Prosperity Tip

The Exact Steps To Increasing Profits In A Challenging Economy

There is a very important fact to understand that applies to every business…”nothing stays the same”. The current business environment in the United State is one where the real estate market in general is one with declining property values, the value of the dollar is declining, and revenue for many companies is under pressure.

So!!!

Companies struggle because they continue to do the same things while everything around them is constantly changing. Every business, in theory, has a primary goal of increasing revenue and profits. The process of achieving that goal is no different in an economy that is experience major challenges in key sectors than in one that is vibrant. The introductory lessons in my 10 Minute MBA Program gives away the roadmap.

There are a huge number of examples of companies thriving and failing in both strong economies as well as weak ones. The only thing that matters for your business is what is happening in your business in relationship to the clearly defined performance gaols you have set. You have clearly defined business performance goals correct? These goals are in alignment with your own personal mission and lifestyle goals correct?

I am injecting the point about personal mission and lifestyle goals since I realized one of the key differences between many business successes and failures is the passion of the company’s leadership for the business and there is a direct link between the level of passion and the individual’s view of how the business contributes to the achievement of their personal mission.

For the record this goes way beyond achieving personal income objectives and includes: how much you really enjoy the business model; is your position one where you know you are using and developing the talents and skills you are passionate about and does your position fit in with how you want to develop the family, friends and community relationships that are important to you? I am now very focused personally and with clients on addressing the total picture of satisfaction and not just the business goals. Join the growing Prosperity Tip List that is FREE and you will be surprised at what this material will do for you personally.

Here is an example of a common situation that I have found in business. Business leadership will say, when the profits improve or when the cash flow improves or when this acquisition is done, or we fill this open position, or etc. then I will spend more time with my family or fishing or restoring my favorite antique or …well you get the idea. I submit to you the personal activity, whatever it is, never happens for those people even when those business milestones are achieved. If you are spending a lot of time with your professional mission, I hope you really love it. If you do not and you are frustrated because you are not spending time with your family, if you are not exercising like you should, if you are not enjoying your home, your car, your boat or your fishing pole then there is no way you will optimize the performance of your business. The negative personal energy will transmit throughout your organization and you will not consistently optimize your performance. If you have lifestyle issues, they need to be addressed. How do you think I know that?

Back to delivering what I promised with the headline of this article:

The Exact Steps To Increasing Profits In A Challenging Economy:

1. Set clear clear measurable performance goals for the next 12 months. For example: Revenue and profit goal is an increase of 30%.
2. Understand and instill in the culture that performance goals for the next 12 months are achieved by what happens today. All parts of your business need to be in sync with achieving the goals for the company. As and example what do sales need to be this week and this month to hit the 30% growth goal? What does gross margin need to be and with what expense structure for the 30% growth in profit goal to be achieved?
3. Each function within the business must have clearly defined performance goals and defined accountability for achieving those goals.
4. An objective performance monitoring process must be in place to identify quickly any areas of unusually positive as well as shortfalls in performance. For the revenue, gross margin and expense driver areas of the company this usually means a formal weekly meeting along with informal daily monitoring. There are exceptions and one is where there is a cash crunch situation. Cash flow is then monitored very closely daily.

There are two reasons why companies ask me for assistance:
1. They know what to do but want an independent third party experienced business development consultant to drive the process as that approach demonstrates management’s commitment to achieving the goals.
2. Management understands the need for improved performance and understands they do not have the experience to implement what is required.
3. There is actually a third reason and that is where a business is in a crises situation and turnaround business consulting procedures need to be implemented fast. Nobody likes that situation, even the consultant. However, many companies can be salvaged with the right action. Think of the what goes into action when a person has a heart attack. Timing and action are the differences between life and death.

Be Well and Prosper,
Steve Pohlit
Business Development Consulting

Steve Pohlit has more than 20 years experience running very large and medium sized companies. Steve consults with clients to design and implement processes that will deliver improved business performance for the long term. Learn more about the process of Increasing Profits by 30% or More In 90 Days or Less by visiting 10 Minute MBA or you can call 727-587-7871 and speak with Steve directly. Have a question? Click Here To Visit Ask The Consultant