World Business Web

Are you going through the same old motions that worked in the past with fewer results today? Have you run out of good ideas? Are your competitors taking business away from you? If so, what you might need to do is make a few tweaks to energize your business improvement and growth.

It doesn’t need to be a major overhaul of your business. A few minor tweaks might be enough. The important thing is to recognize the need for action and make informed decisions.

To identify where changes are most needed, you will have to dig for details about various aspects of your business. Don’t focus on individual issues, but how they fit together as a whole.

Start with these 5 areas:

1. Create a New Image
Has your customer base changed since you first started? Is the market broader or narrower, older or younger, more upscale or less? You might need a new image, revved up branding or perhaps just a rewrite of your website and marketing materials.

2. Improve Value Delivered
Take a hard look at whether your products or services are competitive and performing up to customer value expectations. Your goal should be to exceed value expectations. Your own customers can help with this. Talk with your customers and get feedback on how your products or services are adding value to their business and what could be done to improve them.

3. Improve Marketing Results
If your marketing is not generating a large number of leads and buying customers, it may be time to re-evaluate and devise a new marketing strategy. Take a look at your message, presentation, what you are offering and the marketing methods used to reach your target customer.

4. Recapture Your Enthusiasm
Revisit your original business plan. You might be able to recapture some of the insight and enthusiasm you originally had when starting your business. Think back to your most successful promotions, presentations or sales efforts. Rather than reinventing the wheel, you might be able to update and expand an approach that has already worked for your business in the past.

5. Seek Outside Perspectives
Don’t be afraid to seek outside perspectives from others. After all, you might be too close to the situation to understand the key issues, sources and potential solutions. Meet and brainstorm with your trusted advisers, mentors, friends, partners, employees and outside consultants. Ask customers to give you frank feedback.

A few tweaks to your business may be just what is needed to energize your business improvement and growth.

Have you ever met with a prospect who thought they knew everything about your product or service? But, after talking to them you discover they have been misinformed or did not know as much as they thought they knew?

With search engines like Google being such an easy place to get information for your prospects, you may find prospects who are educating themselves before talking with you. The real challenge becomes making sure the information they are researching is really good information to help them in their decision process.

Imagine for a minute you’re going to have a kidney transplant and you decide to do some research on the internet before hand. Do you take that information and tell your doctor how they should be doing the surgery, or even how you plan on buying their service? My guess is you would probably not do that, but it is just a guess.

Your doctor would probably do a good job of explaining how the procedure was going to go, what things you should be aware of, where to expect pain, why they’re doing what they are doing, etc. If you have good rapport with the doctor you will allow yourself to fall under their care, guidance, and protection.

So the ultimate question you need to ask yourself is who is the expert with your product or service? You or the prospect? Just because somebody read some information on the internet does not make them an expert. Remember that you are the expert in what you do, it’s now time for you to take charge and act like the expert.

Let me share how I go about guiding my prospects through the key areas they should be concerned about as it relates to growing their small business. There are two main areas I share with them.

The first area you want to be aware of is where can you achieve business growth. You have three opportunities to grow your business.

Growth Area #1: You can sell to more clients.

Growth Area #2: You can increase your frequency of sales to your clients.

Growth Area #3: You can increase your average sale.

The second area you want to be aware of are the four disciplines in your business to achieve growth in each of the three areas.

The first discipline is getting in front of enough new prospects.

The second discipline is converting your prospects into paying clients.

The third discipline is expanding the current client relationships you already have.

The fourth discipline is getting the right people on your team to execute the disciplines.

So after I share this information I ask my prospect the following. “Mr. Prospect, as you and I talk about growing your business, do these areas and disciplines make sense, and more importantly, are they relevant to the conversation you and I are going to have?” My experience is that after starting the conversation together like this, my prospects are in complete agreement with me.

If they are in agreement I always ask if there is anything else we should add to our conversation to make it worthwhile to them. This makes sure that any other items they may want to discuss are added to our meeting together.

There was a time where I had been instructed to ask people what they wanted to accomplish together and it almost always lead to nonsense. When I say nonsense I mean prospects said things like, “I want to find out how much it is, who else you work with, why I should buy from you, etc.”

I’m not saying these things are not important, but they never shared their real issues openly. All that other stuff is just intellectual fluff and not the real emotional goals and frustrations that drive prospects to buy.

By sharing the structure of the areas we help small businesses grow I have been able to guide prospects on the key areas that are either helping or hindering their business growth. I promise you that people want to be lead, and as small business owner it is your duty to lead them in the right direction.

Now it’s your turn. I want you to think about the areas or structure of what you do that helps your clients. How can you do something similar to what I created?

I have a client who sells furniture. We helped them define the best objectives for clients in the areas of comfort, quality, and style. By creating a basic outline you give yourself a framework to operate within. It also gives your people responsible for building business relationships great confidence, and helps you manage the process more effectively.

Your objective is to now go and brainstorm the components of structure that will help you guide your prospects. Then you can help them discover you are indeed the best fit to help them achieve their goals and overcome their frustrations.

The Internet is a great place to search for information about just about anything – even answers for people who are drowning in debt. But sometimes you read things that leave you confused rather than illuminated. As an example, you thought you knew the answer to the question, “What is a consolidation loan?” until you read about debt consolidation programs. What is it and does it differ from a debt consolidation program?

How Consolidation Loans Work
With a loan you borrow money from a single source to pay off several existing debts. If you currently owe $15,000 to 3 different credit card companies you consolidate those three debts of $5,000 each into a single debt of $15,000 which you borrow from another source – a bank or some other financial lending institution.

You’re left with the same amount of debt but a lower monthly total debt repayment. The best place to start looking for a loan is with your own bank or mortgage holder. Mostloans use equity in the home as collateral. If your equity is sufficient, you have a verifiable and stable source of income, and your credit is still in reasonably decent shape, you have a chance at getting a loan.

Consolidation Loans versus Debt Consolidation Programs
With what are commonly called debt consolidation programs, the total debt remains with the original creditors either in part or in full, but the monthly payments are combined into a single payment paid monthly to the provider of the program. Some programs involve paying back all you owe within 3 – 5 years, while others require a negotiated reduction in the principal you owe each creditor to allow repayment in the allotted time frame.

Advantages of Consolidation Loans
First, you will almost always get a consolidation at a much lower interest rate than you are currently paying on the unsecured debt you are consolidating.

Second, the lower monthly debt repayment will leave you with more income at the end of each month.

Third, as long as you can continue making timely payments on the loan, your credit rating remains unchanged.

Disadvantages of Consolidation Loans
There are two ways to use your home to get a loan – a total refinance or a home equity loan. Generally speaking, a total refinance is for an extended period of time and although the interest rate is lower, the extended repayment period may end up costing you more than had you maintained the original accounts.

The most serious disadvantage is a flip side of one of the major advantages – lower monthly payments. This can give the uniformed the impression they actually have more money when they don’t. If you owed $15,000 before consolidation you still owe $15,000 afterwards.

The extra money at the end of the month coupled with the fact that credit cards that may have been maxed out prior to taking out the consolidation loan now have zero balances can be a combustible combination. Some people fall into the trap of recycling old behaviors and soon the credit card balances begin to rise and you can end up in a more troubling situation.

There are so many ways to save money that it’s impossible to list all the secrets. Every day, people pay less for airline seats, rental cars, credit card payoffs and new cars. Some people seem to be lucky and win contest drawings more than normal. People get higher interest on CDs or lower rates on loans simply by asking. Fees magically disappear at banks if you know what to ask. Being knowledgeable can help you make more money or save money. Here are some secrets to help you out.

Rental cars provide great options for vacations or even as a substitute for a second vehicle. If you use them on your vacation, the worry of a breakdown is never a problem. The company takes care of everything. If you only have one vehicle but occasionally need a second one, renting a car once a month is far cheaper than even paying insurance on the second car. You do have to be aware of some specific tips to save dollars on rental cars.

If you carry full coverage on your regular vehicle, there’s no need to add the high cost of insurance on your rental car. Call your insurance man to make certain your coverage transfers to a rental before you even begin the process. Don’t rent by phone or in person. One of the secrets to save hundreds of dollars is to use the internet to make your reservations.

If you use a debit card, be aware that most car rental places place a hold on an extra amount, between $100 and $500 dollars. Not knowing this could cost you fees for a bounced check or simply embarrassment at the car rental agency.

Airline seats are the same whether you pay full price or find discounts on the seats. You’ll save money when you shop for the price by using the services of several different websites. There are bargain days for flights and if you can adjust your travel. Use those days to save as much as 50 percent on your ticket.

Another one of the secrets to save when flying is to cut down on the cost of baggage by rolling your clothes when you pack them. Pants, shirts and even undergarments take up less space when rolled not folded. If you want to carry more, wear a fanny pack for your purse and carry a large purse to pack clothing. You won’t pay more for baggage.

Find yourself up to your nose in interest payments on credit cards? As long as your payment history is good, you can negotiate a better rate on your card. Simply call and ask for one. If you are behind in payments and receive a small lump sum, you can negotiate a payoff at a lower amount. Banks want to retrieve at least the principal and a little bit of the payment. They know that a small profit is better than writing off the entire debt and they’ll be happy to work with you but keep that option as one of their secrets.

If you want to increase your odds of winning a drawing, one of the secrets is to slightly bend the corners of your entry. The bent corners prevent your entry into the drawing from packing against other people’s entries and make yours far easier to select. It’s not a guarantee you’ll win but it does increase your chances.

Watch out for fees on bank accounts. If you’ve been a good customer of the bank and still find there’s a monthly fee on your account, don’t put up with it. Every bank has a checking account that doesn’t cost you anything in monthly fees. Stop by and ask. Normally you don’t have to change accounts they simply make a change on the computer and you magically go into the new account with your same checking account number. Sometimes the fees go away if you have a direct deposit into your account. Most banks count PayPal as a direct deposit, so if you have a PayPal account, ask.

Banks normally don’t tell you when you can make more money on your money. Always look for the specials when CDs come due. However, these specials are normally odd numbers of months such as 10 months. If you allow them to roll over, they receive a lower rate of interest than one that’s a year.

Save on your auto insurance by looking for discounts that apply to you. Many agents forget to tell you about some discounts, like multiple policy discounts or good student discounts. You need to ask. The same is true on homeowners insurance. That security alarm you installed could save you hundreds of dollars.

Not all off brands or store brands taste as good as the name brands but many of them are the same product in different packages. The packaging and promoting of the brand is one of the secrets that keep you paying more. One major dog food manufacturer makes the same dog food for seven different companies. They simply put the food in different bags. Of course, you pay more for the snappier packaging of the name brand. Check labels for ingredients or taste test off brands to see if your favorite food is available cheaper.

A few years back credit was so loose that people could even get a credit card for their dog. Why pay with cash when you can put it on credit and pay for it later. Not only credit cards, but there were attractive mortgage loans allowing individuals to buy a home that would be normally way beyond their means. Many consumers got sucked in by these loan schemes. Because of that, millions got caught in a situation where their monthly income was less than expenses for the month. It’s a bad situation to be in when you can’t even make your minimum monthly payments. People that got caught up in this situation, depending on their income, might be a candidate for bankruptcy. However, there are other alternatives to filing bankruptcy. Filing for bankruptcy is an extremely tough decision to make. While bankruptcy should make you debt-free, it will also negatively affect your credit for up to 10 years.

In the last few years, there has been a huge marketing campaign for debt settlement companies. The basic campaign is, “Who wouldn’t want to settle with their creditors for pennies on the dollar?” The premise of debt settlement is not always the truth. Debt settlement companies claim you can wipe out all of your debts without filing bankruptcy. The ads and the telemarketers try to offer hope with no real guarantees. There have been many unscrupulous companies entering this market that take the last money from people to offer a settlement with their creditors. Later, the debtors might find out that no deal was made and their money is gone. Any time someone offers the benefits of bankruptcy, with no risk, you should question it. There are some legitimate nonprofit financial advisors and debt settlement companies that will help negotiate deals with your creditors and help you create a budget for the future.

When being in financial trouble, it’s important to figure out your income to debt ratio. This will help you make future financial decisions with confidence knowing you’ll be able to afford it. Lenders use this same ratio when determining whether or not you will qualify for a loan. Knowing this monthly ratio can help stop an individual from making impulse purchases. When going to the mall you will think about that payment you will have at the end of the month, and see that will hurt the amount of extra cash you have to live on, if any. It’s also good to stretch it out to an annual debt to income ratio for making larger purchases such as a car, a house or even moving into a more expensive rental property. The bottom line is, if a person wants to stay out of trouble they need to lower this ratio and not increase it.

When your income to debt ratio is basically one-to-one you probably have no other choice than to file for bankruptcy. After exhausting other options it would be good to take a pre-bankruptcy counseling course along with consulting a bankruptcy attorney to give you advice on your situation. Understanding how the bankruptcy process works will save you much frustration through the process. It will also help you from making deadly mistakes that will have long-term ramifications because of the bad decisions. Learning the basics of bankruptcy, money management, and techniques that will help you understand your finances better will get you back on track faster. After the bankruptcy is finished you will receive a discharge making you debt free and hopefully you won’t fall back into the same hole that got you into trouble with debt.