Established Business Plan

When Ren first began running his own business he questioned the importance of the “soft stuff,” like business planning. But as he grew and ran into glitches in the beginning, he took a step back and created a plan. Ren found the clarity this provided was crucial for identifying issues and moving his business to the next level. Now, Ren reviews and tweaks his business plans regularly. Have you created a business plan? How has it helped you?

Marketing Well Spent?

When your business is just starting up, how you spend money marketing can be critical to the success of your business. It is important to focus your marketing dollar on the locations and demographics where it will have the most impact.

What have you learned through your experiences with marketing? Have you ever dealt with a business that was ill-equipped to handle a particular operation, even if they advertised they specialized in that service?

Prospecting

Cold calling is without question, not the most effective method for finding prospective. : In this week’s program, Ren discusses The Prospecting Toolkit by Jacques Werth. Jacques’ Toolkit helps identify methods of improving current prospecting, what to do when a potential client ignores messages, and the importance of persistence.

What are some suggestions you can offer in regards to prospecting to your fellow business owners? Does cold calling work for your business? Have you ever purchased a product or service from a cold caller? What was your experience?

Target Acquisition

Acquiring a new business is one way to grow your business quickly. Ren talked about the importance of targeting the correct acquisitions to properly fit into your business in terms of size, geography, price, and industry. Knowing which businesses NOT to buy is just as important as knowing which businesses to buy.

What are some of the criteria you have used when considering acquiring a business? What are some of signs you might want to look elsewhere?

Making a Successful Business

The Business Reality Network is all about how to begin and run a successful business. In this week’s program, Ren discusses the common traits he has noticed personally that make a business successful. As a guideline, the BRN will be providing a list of Bob Parson’s “16 Traits of a Successful Business” in this week’s newsletter.

Do you have the magic recipe for creating a successful business? Have you seen family members or people you know make critical errors in running their businesses?

Strategic Marketing

A business without a strategic marketing plan is akin to a ship without a rudder. A wise entrepreneur will use and update his or her plan regularly as the business grows and changes. Ren spends the hour talking about the benefits and importance of reviewing both your short term and long term goals and revising where you are and where your business is headed.

What benefits have you seen from developing a strategic marketing plan for your business?

The "R" Word's Back

You hear it everywhere; our country is in a recession. Ren talks about what you can do to drive sales and make your business profitable even in tough times. He also talked about if your culture is focused on the downturn in the economy, it can affect every aspect of an entrepreneur’s business if they let it.

Are you finding that your business has come upon hard times and you feel you have the economy to blame? What are you doing to help your business stay alive in this difficult market?

Get rich quick!

The show that’s “Not about get rich quick schemes” discusses the myths and realities of Multilevel Marketing (MLM) or Pyramid Schemes. People become involved MLM products and services for many appealing reasons. Ren discusses some interesting statistics on the success, income, and time commitments involved with MLM.

Has a friend, family member, or neighbor tried to sell you on a product that will get everyone rich? Or, are you, yourself, involved in a multilevel marketing business?

Be yourself, no one else is qualified!

That could be the big picture of the two guests on The Business Reality Network this week. Bill Guertin and Andy Corbus co-authors of Reality Sells: How to Bring Customers Back Again and Again by Marketing Your Genuine Story discussed how businesses and owners should just be up front with the goods or services they provide. If you are a unique business, then use it to your advantage. Be yourself and watch people respond positively.

Do you have a story about a business that advertised that they were one thing, only to find out later that they were something different entirely? Or, have you ever seen a quirky ad that endeared the company to you because of their up front, honest advertisement.

Thoughts on Wording

This week, Ren discussed a recent presentation he gave entitled, “Greed is good.” His customers had mixed feelings about the title, which led to a discussion about the impact of marketing and the perception it can create.

What marketing techniques have worked for you? What marketing campaigns were so annoying that you swore to yourself you would never buy the product?

Strategic Plan

A strategic plan is a tool smart entrepreneurs can use to help workers focus on what is ahead. A strategic plan helps to align your staff and explain the goals the business is trying to reach.

What would you say are the advantages of having a business plan? Has anyone started off without one, and then implemented one later? What lessons were learned?

The Substitute

Rob Rickert filled in as guest host of the show. Rob works for Ren as a Director at DAS Professional Services. Rob’s show discussed the excuses people make NOT to start their own business.

What inspiration or advice can you offer those who have not yet taken the plunge into entrepreneurship, but are considering it? Would you tell them to jump in, the water’s fine, or to watch out for sharks?

An “Edison” in Training

Have a great idea for a widget or service? Is it patented? How does it get to market? How can it be reproduced? On this weeks show, Ren provided “An Inventor’s Checklist” with the do’s and don’ts of being an inventor, and what to do first if you have a new product or idea.

What experiences have you had regarding the invention of a new product?

Live from The Michigan Golf Show

The Business Reality Network broadcasts for the first time from The Michigan Golf Show at The Rock Financial Showplace in Novi. The show featured four guests from the floor of the golf show, ranging in size from a single proprietor to the well known Boyne Resorts. Each of our guests had different backgrounds and experiences in the business and golf world. Each guest placed his or her energy into creating something innovative and unique in the golf market.

Getting Financing

What do business owners need to obtain bank financing in a tough economy? On this weeks show, Ren discussed the five C’s; Character, Capacity, Capital, Collateral, and Conditions, lenders use to evaluate whether a venture is going to get the financing it needs.

What are your experiences with obtaining financing from lenders? Do you have a story of perseverance, in order to gain the funding that you wanted?

Shopping for a Business?

Those looking to buy an existing business need to make sure they understand exactly what they are getting into before they make the leap. Many unwary entrepreneurs have found themselves in situations they did not expect because they did not do their due diligence.

Are you looking to buy a business? Have you already bought a business and have advice to offer others?

Not a Money Making Scheme

Giving away services at an extremely low price is one way of getting potential customers in your door. Then, once they are in, selling them on additional services is a practice some businesses use to keep their volume of potential customers up.

Another creative way to increase revenue is to avoid unnecessary markups, i.e. commissions and add-on fees.

What methods have you used to keep your sales up?

Being the boss

As an entrepreneur, being a good boss is important for so many tangible and intangible reasons. But everyone thinks he/she is a good boss. What are seven signs you’re a BAD boss? According to an InformationWeek study:

1. The staff quietly passes on guidelines for dealing with you to new employees.

2. You have one or two fanatical acolytes.

3. You never see people walk by your office.

4. Your evaluations come back short and full of generically positive comments, with one very mild criticism.

5. People don't volunteer for your pet projects.

6. Former employees rarely give your name as a reference for new jobs.

7. High turn-over.

(Copyrighted, Mansueto Ventures LLC. All rights reserved)

What’s your best boss story??? What’s your worst???

Price versus Quality

We all have seen it. It doesn’t matter whether you are going down the aisle of your favorite electronic store or just your local grocery store. It has caught your eye and you have possibly even bought it. It is the generic “brand x” available in just about every single facet of our retail life.

When shopping for a television, there’s a set that looks like a ringer for the top of the line . What’s more, it’s a full three hundred dollars less than the name brand!

The conundrum being faced is (1.) is the less expensive TV priced because it is made from cheaper parts, or (2.) is the more expensive TV the same quality and only priced higher because of the name brand and logo?

In the 80’s, the mega popular Nike shoes company faced a similar issue. It became news when the media learned the athletic shoes, which retailed for about one hundred dollars, only cost the company between ten and fifteen dollars to make. People were appalled at how much Nike charged for a product that cost so little to manufacturer. Then, those same people went out and bought a new pair of Nike shoes!

Is a name brand product better? Possibly, but is it $300 dollars better? Will consumers be able to tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p on the screen? These questions really need to be answered by the individual consumer. For some it may be preferable to buy the highest quality product with a company that has a good track record over many years. For others, it is a great deal to buy the lesser known brand when the only difference in quality is the name. Then of course, there’s always the brand “prestige” to take into consideration. The hard part is how do consumers determine what we are being charged for? Is a name worth that much more if it’s only for a “name?” Are we willing to take the risk of a large savings for an inferior product? It is a choice every consumer must make for themselves. However, the old adage, “you get what you pay for” normally holds true in most instances.

First Show on WDFN!!!

For the first edition of The Business Reality Network on our new home of 1130am WDFN, the topic selected for the first half of the show was bank lending. As we know, the economy has taken a bit of a downturn as of late and even prior to that banks had begun to pull back from lending. While obtaining the financing may be more difficult than it once was, there is still ample opportunity for you to get the financing that you need for your business if you can prove to the bank that you are capable of being able to pay back that debt.

As was stated on the show, if you want to receive serious consideration for financing from banks, the things that you will need to have prepared are a well thought out business plan, tax returns, a budget and your story as to why you need this money.

The most important criteria that banks will look into to decide if they are going to give you this funding are equity, history of the business, personal credit as well as credit of the business. A personal guarantee for the difference between the assets that can be provided by the business and the amount of the loan is also standard practice.

In the first half we also discussed the questions that you can expect the bank to ask and expects for you to have a ready answer to.

For the second half of the show, Tom Searcy, founder of The Whale Hunters, joined us. Using the analogy of the Inuit people who hunted whales, Tom discussed how a small business grows to a certain point where not only are the smaller businesses attempting to poach your customers but you have begun to appear on the radar of the big businesses. Tom listed for us the four steps in hunting whales and the importance of moving on securing the whale, which he titles, “Sewing the mouth shut.”

Tom spoke on the use of a team in order to lure your whale, the importance of being extremely selective over the whale that you select to hunt and the strategies that your small business can employ to get the whale when there are other, bigger hunters, hunting the same whale as you.

Our first show was loaded with great content. If you missed the show or would just like to hear it again, the show is available to listen at our website www.businessrealitynetwork.com. You can add yourself to our listener database by emailing brn1130@gmail.com by providing a name, telephone number and email address. We will see everyone next week.