You are always Networking(whether you know it or not)

No matter what you or your company does, connecting with other people is a vital part of running and growing your business. Whether they are customers, potential customers, suppliers, business associates, or personal friends engaging them in any type of social interaction helps build relationships that is basis of your network.

In its most basic form, anytime you communicate with someone else you are in actuality networking with that individual. On the surface you may not see this as networking, but it is often these subtle interactions that can yield the most benefit. When most people hear the word "networking" they envision group meetings, organization functions, and planned social events. Simply meeting some associates for lunch to catch up with each other can be as powerful a networking tool as attending the local Chamber of Commerce mixer.

The key is to understand that anyone you interact with has the potential to help your business. You must also understand that this interaction is a two way street, as should be aware of how you may potentially be able to help theirs as well.This "mutually beneficial" exchange is the true essence of networking.

Networking is really about creating a working relationship with someone, as opposed to trying to find out "what can this person do for me?" Another key aspect is keeping your ears and eyes open whenever you are talking and more importantly, listening to others. It is amazing the information you can obtain when you make an effort to "actively listen" to others.

Once you embrace the concept that all social interaction is a networking opportunity, the more you put yourself in the position to benefit from your activities. Remember, networking is more about listening, learning, and sharing than trying to sell yourself or your company.

How Fast can you Turn Your Boat?

Several years ago, the company I worked for at the time went through a series of seminars designed to institute a system of continuous process improvement. Various areas that were covered included leadership, facilitation of teams, empowering employees, and impacting sales. This variation of TQM (Total Quality Management) was specifically designed for our industry, beverage wholesaling but could easily be applied to any type of business. One of the fundamental concepts was change. Old paradigms had to be eliminated and people needed to begin to think "outside the box" to keep up with the fast paced changes in the market that every industry was facing.

One of the first analogies the presenting consultant used to explain the way we would be able to change was to compare the size of the company to the size of a boat. He compared large corporations to the Queen Mary in that because of the ship's size, it takes a fair amount of time to actually turn around. Corporations can not change overnight as new concepts need time to work their way into their culture. Small business on the other hand (for the sake of discussion a small business was described as having 200 employees or less) was compared to a speed boat that should be able to make turns rather quickly.

The greatest influence on change comes from the top down. Just like the Captain decides which direction the boat should go, a company's Senior Management needs to be the driving force behind any meaningful attempt at improving their company's performance. If all they do is talk about the need for change, but do not completely buy into the concept that it is a vital part of growing a business, all they will be doing is paying lip service to the idea and nothing will improve.

As an owner you have the ability to commit yourself, and thus your company to continuous improvement. This involves being willing to change what is not working and explore better ways to try and achieve your objectives. Too many companies fail to recognize this need out of fear, complacency, and/or not having the proper tools.

Once you make this commitment, you need to get the rest of your employees involved. In order to quickly institute the necessary changes to take advantage of a changing market you need complete buy in from those whom can make it happen. Think of your company as a sail boat that has a number of deck hands, all working together to quickly turn the boat in the proper direction to take advantage of the changing wind. Remember, no matter what the size of the boat, it takes someones decision to turn it. The timing of these decisions often mean the difference between sailing into calm waters or stormy seas.

Effectively Tracking and Measuring Your Efforts

Every business has goals and objectives they are trying to accomplish. The most important ones will be based on growing revenue and increasing profits, and other ones will be based on certain aspects of the business that contribute to these first two. When you put everything together, you will end up with a short list of issues that are critical to a company's future growth and success. The question you have to ask yourself as an owner or manager is, what systems do I have in place that can determine if we are on track to address these issues and achieve our goals. Sales and revenue can easily be measured, but you need to examine how are you measuring the actions that can positively, or negatively influence these two primary areas.

As a sales manager, one of my responsibilities was to access the performance of my team on a regular basis. Since sales numbers alone can be a complex issue with any number of factors contributing to gains and losses, there had to be a more complex system in place to properly track actions and measure results. We wanted to be able to measure effort, effectiveness,and consistency in each persons performance to develop a true picture of their work. Often times there would be someone who was doing everything right, yet their efforts did not result in increased sales. We also had people who, quite frankly got lucky and were in the right place at the right time and their sales gains were not reflective of their efforts. To address these issues, we developed a score card that tracked actions and measured results. These "point sheets", as we called them gave credit for positive actions and consistent effort. The theory is that if you keep doing the right things over and over again, you will eventually achieve positive results.

While every business is different, the general concept of a score card can be applied to every department in the company and every person no matter what their job. Everyone has work tasks assigned to them from the owner down to the person emptying the trash. In my personal opinion, every one's actions are equally important in relation to the role they play, therefore every one's actions should be tracked and measured. The only way you will instill accountability is to monitor performance. It is much harder for someone to make an excuse for poor results when there is an actual record of their efforts. By drilling this concept down to an individual basis, you will effectively guide performance of your company as a whole.

Creating an Action Plan

Every owner of a company has certain objectives they set out to accomplish in order to run and grow their business. While increasing sales and making money would be a rather universal goal, there are a number of action items that need to be put in place to achieve this. Once you have taken the time to identify your goals and objectives, you need to create an action plan that clearly defines the proper strategies to achieve them. Unfortunately, many owners do not take the crucial step of writing an actual plan that creates an agenda for what must be done.

Not having a written action plan is like driving to a new location without any directions. You know where you want to go, but you have no idea the best way to get there. This doesn't have to be an elaborate process, rather all it takes is some time on your part to prioritize your objectives, delegate who in your organization will be the lead for each one, develop the strategies to achieve them, designate a time line, and create a system to measure your results. Completing this exercise creates your map to reach your destination.

An action plan ideally has only four to five initiatives. Any more than that will tend to bog you down. Once one is achieved to your satisfaction, a new one can be added. You must be very clear when assigning responsibility as that has a way of getting blurred if not properly put in place. Strategies must be practical and the necessary resources to achieve them must be available. Keep your time lines as short as possible in order maintain everyones focus on what must be done now, not six months from now. The most important piece is how will you track and measure results. Too many times action plans fail because no one is actively recording results. You want to make sure the actions are on target and actually moving the dial. This also helps to keep everyone focused on the tasks at hand.

While this may sound a bit silly but, once you have your action plan make sure you follow it. I have seen some of the best plans in the world go to waste because they were never executed or executed poorly. If these are items that are crucial to the success of your business, it is your job as the owner to make sure everyone involved has bought into the plan and thus has a vested interest in its success. Not adhering to this basic concept has derailed many companies over the years. Remember this plan is your map and your destination.

Prioritizing Your Critical Issues

Every business is faced with issues that effect the level of success they will and can achieve. Some of these are positive and can drive the overall growth of the company, while others are negative and left unattended, will ultimately hinder this growth. As an owner, it is important you fully understand the forces that are guiding your business before you begin to try and address them.

The first thing you need to do is list everything you can think of that is having an effect on your business. The goal in this step is to identify what is working and what is not. Write down some opportunities that exist as well as the obstacles you need to overcome to take advantage of them. Determine which activities are productive and need to be increased and which ones are not, and need to be eliminated. Remember, there are many issues that influence your business, this exercise is designed to identify the ones you can control and change if needed. If you complete a thorough examination of your current state of affairs, you should end up with a fair amount of items on your list.

Next comes the hard part, prioritizing your list. The goal here is to identify the top four or five issues that are having the biggest impact on your business. These will then become your company's "critical issues". These are the ones that obviously need the most immediate attention in order to keep or get you back on track. The other items on the list cannot be ignored, but they will not demand the same amount of energy your critical ones will.

Both of these steps require the proper time and commitment on your part in order to derive the most benefit from this analysis. You need to be willing to make an in depth and honest evaluation of the issues you currently face. You are probably going to find things you didn't realize were so bad, as well as find some that are better than you thought. The whole goal is to identify what is making your company run and what needs to be done to make it run better.

Keeping a Sense of Humor in these Troubled Times

It has gotten to the point where I avoid the daily news on TV, look away from the newspaper's headlines, and dread opening up my computer's home page each morning. Bad news keeps getting worse, doom and gloom are societies most popular couple, and there is no real incentive to even get out of bed each morning. To make the steepest economic downturn in seventy years even worse, most expects are predicting we haven't even come close to hitting the bottom and it may take three or more years to spiral out of this.

While I do admit things are bad, getting consumed in it is counter productive. Most everything that has gone wrong is completely out of your own control. Even if you did make some unwise financial decisions in the past, it is far to late to undo them now. One thing you can control is your attitude and your outlook. An extremely important aspect of this is keeping your sense of humor. While we are all facing some pretty serious stuff, fight the urge to take it too seriously. Take time out of each day to laugh. Go on the Internet and seek out things that are funny and when you do find something, send it to everyone you know. Make it a point to watch some comedy shows on TV. There is enough drama in the real world, why surround yourself with more when you are trying to relax. Buy a book of jokes and entertain your family and friends. Most importantly develop the ability to laugh at yourself.

It appears that we have a long dark road to go down until we get to the light of day. You can choose to walk it with your head down and a frown on your face, or with your head up high, smiling and laughing. We all have gone through hard times in the past. It simply comes down to how do you want to get through this current rough patch.

The Power of Peers

As a business owner or sole proprietor I'm sure that you often feel as if you are stranded on an island with no one around to help. When the weight of the world around you falls squarely on your shoulders and you are solely responsible for the decisions you make, the stress can sometimes be too much to bear. Before these feelings overtake you, take a step back and remember you are not alone. In actuality there are thousands of other people in your shoes. While their problems and concerns may be different, these peers share the same burdens and blessings of responsibility as you.

There are numerous opportunities to share and learn from your peers. It could be an organized group that meets on a regular basis, or simply an Internet forum where opinions and information can be exchanged. The main thing you need to do is seek out a group or groups that best suit your needs. If you cannot find one, then start your own by gathering a few close colleagues who are willing to learn from each other. The main result you want to achieve is to shed the notion that as a leader you have to go it alone and tough things out. The weight of any decision will still be on your shoulders, but you will have a support group that can help you carry the load. As long as you are open to an honest exchange of information, you will learn new ideas you never thought of before and handle situations in ways you never did before.

Everyone in a position of responsibility has made mistakes and has had success. By sharing these with others, the entire group can benefit. I love the saying "hindsight is twenty/twenty" because it is so true. Mistakes are often made due to lack of experience or knowledge, so why not try to learn from one and other to help avoid them in the first place. Make the effort to learn from your peers as well as let them learn from you. When put into action this concept becomes a very powerful tool.