Watch this 13 minute video to see why thinking differently is important and how to begin the process of thinking differently to grow sales, grow effective teams, become a master marketer and master many of the skills a small business owners need to master to become successful.

Why do most larger companies have a board of directors. The role of the board is to hold the management team accountable for executing strategy, clearing out obstacles, provide feedback on critical issues, mentoring and providing business coaching to the president and other critical management team members.

Some coaches excel at helping you  improve people skills. Other are more experienced at  building an effective team. Still others are more effective at  growing sales.

Study after study have shown the effectiveness of  business coaching and  business coaching programs to help you and your company is useful, if you are open to being coached. It is impossible for you to be an expert in all areas of business.

SCORE states that 70% of all businesses that fail do so because they do not know when to ask for help or ignore problems when they happen.

Do not be one of the 70%. If nothing else a good  business coach will provide feedback and accountability to move you forward. And the good news is if they do not perform you can fire them.

Find someone to help you.If you have a business coach and they are not helping fire them.

Ron Finklestein
Ohio Business Coach
330-990-0788
RON@AKRIS.NET

Nothing is off the agenda. We can discuss lead generation, and lead generation techniques, peer groups, advisory boards, leadership, building effective teams, growing sales, increasing revenues, people effectiveness, teambuilding, small business marketing, business coaching, performance management, to name a few.
Just email me at ron@akris.net (or call at 330-990-0788) to schedule your date and time.

The following locations are within easy driving distance and I would be happy to visit. If you are outside this area, please contact me. Though I may not be able to visit I can provide the same service over the phone, via email or over the Internet.

Summit County
Cuyahoga Falls
Stow
Hudson
Barberton
Norton
Green
Springfield
Tallmadge
Mogadore
Richfield
Peninsula
Fairlawn
Bath
Copley
Coventry
Silver Lake
Sagamore Hills
Boston Heights
Macedonia
Montrose

Canton and all Stark County Ohio including:
Uniontown
Alliance
Jackson Township
North Canton
Canal Fulton
Massillon
Hartville
Waynesburg
Sugar Creek
Louisville
Minerva
E. Sparta
Brewster
Medina and all Medina County Ohio including:
Brunswick
Hinckley
Brecksville
Granger
Sharon
Wadsworth
Westfield
Litchfield
Guilford
Lafayette
Kent and all Portage County Ohio including:
Ravenna
Brimfiled
Suffield
Randolph
Rootstown
Streetsboro
Atwater
Deerfield
Aurora
Freedom
Hiram
Edinburg
Palmyra
Shalersville
Wayne County Ohio including:
Wooster
Doylestown
West Salem
Canaan
Marshallville
Orrville
Dalton
Sugar Creek
Lebanon
Shreeve
Maysville
Congress
Creston
Sterling
Rittman
Smithville
Fredericksburg
Apple Creek
Kidron
Carrol County
Tuscarawas County
Lake County
Geauga County
Cuyahoga County
Bay Village
Beachwood
Bedford
Bedford Heights
Bentleyville
Berea
Bratenahl
Brecksville
Broadview Heights
Brook Park
Brooklyn
Brooklyn Heights
Chagrin Falls
Chagrin Falls Township Township
Cleveland (County Seat)
Cleveland Heights
Cuyahoga Heights
East Cleveland
Euclid
Fairview Park
Garfield Heights
Gates Mills
Glenwillow
Highland Heights
Highland Hills
Hunting Valley (part)
Independence
Lakewood
Linndale
Lyndhurst
Maple Heights
Mayfield
Mayfield Heights
Middleburg Heights
Moreland Hills
Newburgh Heights
North Olmsted
North Randall
North Royalton
Oakwood
Olmsted Falls
Olmsted Township Township
Orange
Parma
Parma Heights
Pepper Pike
Richmond Heights
Rocky River
Seven Hills
Shaker Heights
Solon
South Euclid
Strongsville
University Heights
Valley View
Walton Hills
Warrensville Heights
Westlake
Woodmere

Lorain County
Amherst
Avon
Avon Lake
Beaver Park
Belden
Brentwood Lake
Brighton
Columbia Center
Columbia Hills Corners
Columbia Station
Elyria
Lorain
North Eaton
North Ridgeville
Oberlin
Penfield
Penfield Junction
Pittsfield
Rochester

Just a quick review. Nothing is off the agenda. We can discuss lead generation, and lead generation techniques, peer groups, advisory boards, leadership, building effective teams, growing sales, increasing revenues, people effectiveness, teambuilding, small business marketing, business coaching, performance management, to name a few.

Just email me at ron@akris.net (or call at 330-990-0788) to schedule your date and time.

The following locations are within easy driving distance and I would be happy to visit. If you are outside this area, please contact me. Though I may not be able to visit I can provide the same service over the phone, via email or over the Internet.

According to SCORE, businesses fail for many reasons. I listed the top eight below.

Lack of a well-developed business plan  78%
Not pricing properly  77%
Being overly optimistic – sales, money  73%
Not recognizing, or ignoring, what they don’t do well
 and not seeking help from those who do  70%
Ineffective prioritization  66%
Denying problems exist  65%
Minimizing the importance of marketing  64%
Insufficient business experience  63%

Not having a business plan is the single biggest reason a small business fails and it drives all the other reasons a business fails.

Let’s translate what will happen when these problems occur:
1. Can not grow sales
2. Can not improve people skills
3. small business marketing suffers
4. can not build effective teams.
5. not reaching out for help – especially business coaching

A business plan has four primary objectives:
1.Defines what you do and why others will buy from you and your firm
2.Define the markets, companies, people, etc who can buy from you and how to reach them
3.Defines the road map to making money, where you need to spend your money (i.e., marketing, Internet, computers, fax, telephones, etc)
4.Defines weaknesses where you should be looking for help or areas to you need to address

A business plan is essential. You would not try to build a house with blueprints. Why would you start or run a business with the same type of blueprints.

The strange part is that if you don’t know how to do a business plan you need to ask. Number four above, really should be number one. If you don’t know what you don’t know, how do you know you don’t know it? How do you know to ask for help?

A business plan, depending on its purpose, can be a short as one page or more than 100 pages (venture capitalists want to know everything).

Just going through the exercise of writing a business plan will tell you more about what you don’t know about your business than any single exercise.

A business plan is a living document that should change as you and your business change. I will give you seven simple questions that you need to answer as part of your business plan:
1. Why are you in business? If you are not really passionate about your business, you will have trouble during the hard times and, most like you will lose interest and fail.
2. What are you selling? What problem do you think your product or service solves for your target market?
3. What is that one thing you do better than anyone else in my market? It could be as simple as free shipping to a lower price point using a new production break process.
4. Why would your target market care about what you do? Put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself “what’s in it for me?”
5. Why would your prospects buy from you? Even if you are the best, will people buy form you and if so why?
6. How much money do I need to get started? Do not underestimate.
7. How will I make money and how long with it take before I am profitable.

I do not expect you have these answers to all these questions immediately (except #1). The answers to these questions will changes as you mature as business owner and you gain in understanding about your marketing, your industry, your products, your customers and your services.

The important part of this plan is to test everything. Ask your prospects and call your competitors, do research.  If you spend some time up front answering these questions, you will save yourself much pain and suffering.

Call me if you have questions and a free consultation.

Ron Finklestein
303-990-0788
ron@akris.net

In today’s economic times, as a business owner, it requires you think differently about small business marketing to grow sales.

Always have at least three small business marketing initiatives going on at all time to grow sales. The intent is to make sure at least one is always producing. Three small business marketing initiatives that can help grow sales could include:

Blogging

Develop referrals

Email marketing

I get at least six leads a month over the internet. I belong to a referral group that helps small business market themselves through using others networks. Lastly, I follow up with everyone I meet using email.

Remember to grow sales through small business marketing.

Sincerely,

Ron Finklestein

Small Business Coach

330-990-0788

ron@akris.net

www.akris.net   

1.     Introduction of Best practices

2.     Objective Feedback

3.     Keeping You Focused

4.     Hold You Accountable

5.     Reduction of Risk on Your Difficult Decisions

Ron Finklestein

Small Business Coach

330-990-0788

ron@akris.net