Grow Your Business

Over the last decade a number of things have become obsolete or are virtually on life support. It’s easy to spot in other people’s products and services that are obsolete, but what about your own? After reading this list, reflect on your business. What are the products, services, habits, marketing approaches, and managerial methods that are obsolete in your business. Is your business ready?

1. The busy signal

Phone technology has advanced so much we rarely hear a busy signal any more. Call waiting and voice mail have made hearing the busy signal obsolete. Ask a young person what does a busy signal sound like, and watch the look they give you.

2. Dial up modem

Once again a sound that you hardly hear anymore is the electronic gurgling of a dial up modem searching then making a connection. 10 years ago this was the common Internet connection, today it is pretty much gone from existence.

3. The “Blind” date

Once upon a time when you were fixed up on a blind date you had no clue who the person was or anything about her other than what your friend told you about her. Today with Google, Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter there is an encyclopedia of knowledge you can obtain before actually meeting in person. Which begs the question: Are you using these tools to learn about prospects before calling on them?

4. Poor TV reception

No more rabbit ears and tin foil to find the best channel reception. We have more than 4 stations to pick from as well. CBS, NBC, ABC and PBS were about all the choices you had and getting them watchable was an exercise.

5. Waiting to get photos developed

Photo technology has changed from waiting a few days to get back vacation pictures to having them on your computer in five minutes. Almost unlimited capacity and no waiting are the code words of the photo industry today.

6. Answering machine

Along with the busy signal the small answering machine box has all but disappeared in its short lived life span. This product was being replaced almost as fast as it was invented. It had a very short life cycle.

7. A calculator watch

We no longer need watches with tiny button to do basic calculations on. In fact, we no longer are in need of wrist watches to tell time. Good thing the industry decided to market them as status and jewelry accessories.

8. Floppy disk

Ten years ago portable memory was on 3.5 inch disks that held so little memory capacity; most current programs wouldn’t fit on ten of them. Today, thumb drives, and portable hard drives the size of transistor radios (remember them?) make memory capacity readily available. Expect these devices to go the way of floppy disks in the near future as well with the advance of cloud computing.

9. Car cigarette lighters

The ubiquitous cigarette lighter was on the dash board of every car. Who knew that penny-sized hole would transform into an electronics charging port? The lighters don’t even come with the port anymore as the transformation from lighter to charger port is complete.

10. Getting an AOL disk in the mail

Monthly I was getting a disk of free minutes for AOL. Snail mail spam as it were. When was the last time you saw one of those? AOL the pioneer of online connection is lost in the vast number of ways to access the all important information highway.

The NCAA was tired of watching Lew Alcindor beat opponents by dunking the ball over their heads effortlessly, so they outlawed dunking in college basketball. Coach John Wooden talked with a distraught Alcindor and told him to forget what was and focus on what is. He then encouraged him to find a different way to shoot, thus the Sky Hook was created. When Alcindor turned pro where dunking was legal he was doubly equipped to score over opponents with two deadly shots.

We need to focus more on what is and what will be than in what was.

Business owners are still wishing for a return to how things used to be, wishing for the clock to roll back to the good times. Forget what was; let’s deal with winning with what is.

Be in the present

I am asked frequently about what can be done to win in the present times. Here are my tips for finding success in the current economic climate. It all starts with the fundamentals.

Stop comparing

Businesses have a habit of comparing this year with the year before, the best year, the worst year and the same month of the previous year. Forget it. The comparisons are unfair. Why are they unfair? Because they are not comparing equals. New businesses come to town, traffic patterns change, economic shifts happen beyond your control, and buying habits of consumers change. Sadly in good times we loved those comparisons because they improved (frequently beyond our control) and we loved the ride. Today those comparisons beat us down. To borrow from John Wooden once again – forget the winning and the bottom line. Take care of performing the fundamentals with excellence and the winning will take care of itself.

Focus forward

Looking at what used to be isn’t going to get us where we are going when the business world is so different. The rules of engagement have changed when dealing with employees, customers, vendors, and investors. Today’s times require a renewed focus on where you are going and what tools are the best to use to get you there. An Internet presence has never been more important than today, the ability to make changes rapidly has never been as necessary as today, and being able to find the hidden pockets or revenue has never been as important in your business’s lifecycle as right now.

It’s time to navigate where you are going not where you have been.

Hard work and hustle

With the advance of technology greater demand is placed on small businesses to keep up on all fronts; and it seems fronts keep adding on! Not only do you have to be on the front page of a Google search, you need to have a solid presence in social media and have multiple sites, and that is just in the online marketplace.
I hear all the time from small business owners, “How am I going to get everything done?” In this economy where everyone is going after scarce dollars the winners are those who out-hustle and out-work the competition. Many businesses got away from the basics in the good times. Now it’s time to ramp up the effort, energy and commitment.

Try stuff

If you aren’t experimenting, innovating and trying new things on a daily basis your business will constantly be playing catch up. Forget perfection. Forget trying to find a groove. Try stuff and embrace the volatility of change and you will see your victories returning like it used to be.

We all face adversity, challenging times and tough moments in our lives. Those who succeed have the ability to bounce back from these trying times and elevate their drive to overcome and achieve. Learn how to improve your bounce.

Employees are wondering why they should care when at work. The old saying, “They don’t care what you know until they know if you care” is true even more so in today’s environment. Here are three great ideas managers can use to demonstrate how much they care about the employees. This will help them care about performing for you even more. At PinnacleSolutions.org Russsell J White teaches you how to enhance your profits with no hocus pocus.

Yesterday I was a guest attending a board meeting of an important organization that has more challenges and opportunities than hours in the day. After a presentation to the board by some concerned people the board committees were to report on their activity over the last 60 days.

Not a single committee had anything to report. This coming on the heels of a strategic plan that outlines goals and steps needed to reach those goals. One committee gave the excuse of “We couldn’t coordinate schedules of the (three) participants.” I wanted to holler “Bullsh*t” but I was there as a guest. It was obviously not a priority to them to not be able to find an hour in a six week time period.

We are in a new century, so let’s stop doing things like it’s the last century and use our time for action not words. Board meetings of the new century are about coming together to exchange information about actions that have transpired over the last 60 days, not banter about issues and what if’s.

Make sure your volunteers get a heads up that they are not just volunteering for meetings and free meals.

Set your volunteers expectations of activity beyond the meetings, of passionate involvement in the goals and objectives set, and let them know you are looking for people willing to get things done, not just talk over coffee around a board table. Make sure they know these are board meetings not bored meetings.

Volunteers should be expected to get with the program or get with moving on. This is how you make things happen in the new economy.

Companies have a tradition of luring away top executive talent from the competition. Free agency has changed the entire landscape of professional athletics as teams constantly fight for talent. The talent wars are now reaching the trenches, and companies are taking off the gloves and aggressively going after top talent at all levels, regardless of who they are currently employed by.

Because employees now know they are potential free agents, they are looking for the best package, not just more money. Who are the people you would hate to lose? It’s time to use these five best practices for retaining your top talent so they aren’t as eager to see if the money is greener on the other side of the fence.

1. Give them a quality team.

Top talent wants to work with other top talent. The best talent wants to be part of a team awash in great talent. Why? Because they know they will be challenged to improve, they know the best coworkers understand how to pull their own weight, and they will respect those they work with.

Your top talent is looking for more top talent, and so should you be, if you want to keep what you currently have.

2. Provide perks they value.

Read more »

I worked with a fast growing company that had an ex-steelworker for a CFO. Growing up in the rust belt and working in the mills of the late 60′s he developed his management style and approach to employees and life in general: Work hard, play hard and just deal with me being “rough around the edges”.

It was the “rough around the edges” which caused his steel company employer to send him to sensitivity training because of the complaints with his approach. To this day the CFO refers to that as the time he was sent to charm school. When I was hired to work with this new company in developing leadership, I heard this story from him over lunch on the first day I was there. I asked him how charm school worked out. His reply was, “It didn’t do me a G’dam bit of good.” Followed by a hearty laugh. He later confessed he did learn how to better understand how people see things differently and that he needed to have different approaches to managing a workforce, but he was still a man with his rough edges permanently in place, and proud of them.

Focus on Strengths

The old farmerism of “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” also applies to leadership development. You can’t make someone be who they are not. People can modify behavior and learn new techniques and skills to becoming a better leader. The key is setting up the proper expectations and clearly defining the expected outcome. When I coach executives or work on leadership development programs with my clients I concentrate on this piece of leadership wisdom:

People can only change so much

Someone who is not a people person is not going to attend a class and suddenly feel the need to embrace the world and give everyone a hug at the end of the day. These type transformations only happen in the movies, or with celebrities going to rehab (cough, cough) or over decades of therapy. Can someone that is xenophobic learn to appreciate differences in people and modify how to approach them for pinnacle performance results? Absolutely. Just don’t expect it to be accomplished with a completely different personality than the one they currently have. The key is to focus on results and progress toward the desired outcomes.

In this guest post for BizWizTV, Charlotte CPA, Chad Bordeaux, discusses two easy ways that small business owners can increase the value of their businesses. The value of a business is one of the most overlooked aspects of an entrepreneur’s growth strategy.

Chad is a Charlotte CPA who works with small business owners and individuals on a monthly basis to provide them with proactive guidance and advice on how to grow their business, minimize their tax liabilities and grow their bottom line. Chad is also a primary contributor to his firms blog – Beancounter Ramblings You can find our more about Chad by visiting his profile here: Chad Bordeaux

3 Ways to Cripple the Competition is about taking off the gloves in this economy and blowing away the competition in sales, service, and work culture. Create your distinctive competence and beat down the competition with the power of your skills. Checkout this short video on 3 ways to cripple the competition.

If you’d like the Lunch and Learn discussion questions to go with this clip email me at RJWhite@PinnacleSolutions.org and I will send them right away. Enjoy coming out the winner.

People love to enjoy new technology they can buy, but they are loathing going through the efforts to create it in the work place. What are these barriers and how do we need to overcome them?

We don’t do that here

How many great ideas have died because people didn’t believe the idea could fit who they were? To compete in today’s business climate, innovation barriers need to fall. Whether the discussion is about service delivery, product innovation or experimenting with a completely new direction, openness, eagerness and curiosity are the skills required to bring great new ideas to fruition.

Ford is working on voice recognition technology, individual modifications of the instrument panel, and driver preferences that can be transferred between cars using a USB thumb drive. They didn’t used to do that, but they do know. They are asking themselves: How can we make our cars a killer app?

What if you could pay for car insurance by the mile?

What if your doctor could check your vitals remotely?

What if you were able to buy power only when it was the cheapest?

All of these innovations will be here very soon because people in those creative organizations know “We can do that here” is the answer to all innovation questions.

We can’t afford it

If people waited until they could afford it, most couples wouldn’t have babies, most contractors would never build a building and most entrepreneurs would never start their businesses. A lack of funding is a weak answer to an important question – How bad do you want it?

If you want it bad enough…

Create a compelling proposal that is strong enough to convince someone to offer capital.

Create a joint venture where a number of people come together to pool resources to drive this idea to the top.

Sometimes the negative responses you hear on your proposal is something worth listening to. How can you recraft the innovative idea to improve it, redirect it or retool it to be a better idea? Negative feedback isn’t always something to overcome. Sometimes it’s a guide to creating the best idea. How badly do you want it?