Are You Afraid to Ask for Help?

Do you fail because you are afraid to ask for help?

According to SCORE 70% of business failure happens because business people do not recognize, or ignore what they don’t do well and do not seeking help from those who can help them?

Why is that?

Fear others will take advantage of them once their weakness is known?

Embarrassment about what others will think? After all we live in a culture of rugged individualism. Asking for help is a sign of weakness.

Not knowing who to call (who you can trust) to help?

Concerned about not have the money to pay someone?

Do you lack confidence that you may be wrong?

If any on those excuses (sorry reasons) are applicable to you then I have some bad news. The bad news is that you are human and it is part of the human condition to need help at some point in your life.

Contrary to popular opinion it takes courage to ask for help. More importantly it takes intestinal fortitude to look at yourself in the mirror and admit that you cannot know everything.

There are reasons why coaches and teachers and doctors and councilor exist and others in the helping professions exist.

When did we lose that childlike innocence we had when we first started school? Life it about learning, life is learning.  When we stop learning is when we start getting old and the dying process begins.

Go down fighting. Never stop learning.

Let me know if you need some encouragement. I would be happy to help?

To your success,

Ron Finklestein
ron @ businessgrowthexperience.com

www.businessgrowthexperience.com

Ps. Go to www.businessgrowthexperience.com and download my free eBook entitled “Answering The Six Questions Your Prospects Want Answered Before They Buy From You.”

Pss. I will be announcing a new marketing membership site for those of you who like self service. It will provide monthly marketing strategies that work to grow sales. More later.

Business Videos to Enhance Revenues and Profits

Several of my videos on business growth and achieving success have been posted on the World New and Report web site.

This is one place where you can view key videos. The videos and what we cover are listed below. As you can see all are less than 11 minutes (because I know how busy you are.)

Here is the link http://wn.com/rfinklestein

• Behavior of Successful Business Owners 6:54
• 7 Secrets to Overcoming Adversity in Business…10:54
• Anatomy of a Sales Call…6:38
• How to Grow Sales…9:49
• What Business Owners Can Do To Grow Their Business…9:56
• Hey! It is all about taking action…6:57
• Why Intelligent Self-Interest is Critical to Your Success…5:28
• Nine Principles for Inspired Action: A New & Targeted Perspective…5:50
• Only a few ideas…3:39
• Ownership and Empowerment…2:55
• Measurable, Repeatable, Predictable…3:12
• Persistence…3:29
• Free and inexpensive marketing secrets that works – part 1…9:40
• It is all about results

These videos can be used in these areas:

• grow sales
  
• improve people skills
• people leadership skills
• people performance management
• people skills for managers
• presentation skills tips
• small business marketing
• small business success stories
• team building challenge
• workplace team building

Revenue and Profit Enhancement Specialist
Ron Finklestein
ron@ronfinklestein.com
330-990-0788
www.ronfinklestein.com

Videos to help you grow your business

Several of my videos on business growth and achieving success have been posted on the World New and Report web site.

This is one place where you can view key videos. The videos and what we cover are listed below. As you can see all are less than 11 minutes (because I know how busy you are.)

Here is the link http://wn.com/rfinklestein

• Behavior of Successful Business Owners 6:54
• 7 Secrets to Overcoming Adversity in Business…10:54
• Anatomy of a Sales Call…6:38
• How to Grow Sales…9:49
• What Business Owners Can Do To Grow Their Business…9:56
• Hey! It is all about taking action…6:57
• Why Intelligent Self-Interest is Critical to Your Success…5:28
• Nine Principles for Inspired Action: A New & Targeted Perspective…5:50
• Only a few ideas…3:39
• Ownership and Empowerment…2:55
• Measurable, Repeatable, Predictable…3:12
• Persistence…3:29
• Free and inexpensive marketing secrets that works – part 1…9:40
• It is all about results

These videos can be used in these areas:

• building an effective team
• business advisory board
• business coaching
• business coaching programs
• effective communication training
• grow sales
• improve people skills
• people leadership skills
• people performance management
• people skills for managers
• presentation skills tips
• Small Business Coach
• small business marketing
• small business success stories
• team building challenge
• workplace team building

Revenue and Profit Enhancement Specialist
Ron Finklestein
ron@ronfinklestein.com
330-990-0788
www.ronfinklestein.com

Why Good Relationships are Essential to Your Success & How to Create Them

Relationships are essential to your success.

Why?

Because they are an essential component of

• building an effective team
• business coaching programs
• effective communication training
• growing sales
• improving people skills
• developing leadership skills
• managing people’s performance
• people skills for managers
• developing presentation skills
• small business marketing effectiveness
• building team

and so much more.

True profit and revenue growth comes from within, not form with out. What I mean is your personal growth in a large part drives your success. I learned that when I learned and applied The Platinum Rule in my own life. The Platinum Rule helped me create a great marriage and strong relationships with my children.

Because my personal experience has been so positive, I approached Dr. Alessandra about using this concept in all areas of business. I put together a DVD on The Platinum Rule (TPR).  TPR was created by Dr. Tony Alessandra. TPR is defined as Treating Others the Way They Want to be Treated.

In this video you not only learn TPR, you are shown how to apply what you learn. This DVD  will work for anyone trying to build better relationship, but the primary audience is small business owners who want an edge in sales or improvement in their marketing. Additional applications include building better relationships with their employees and significant others. Many of my clients use it to take the stress out of their relationships: with peers, family, customers, prospects, and employees.

Check it out here.

The material is based on a book I coauthored with Dr. Alessandra and Scott Zimmerman called The Platinum Rule for Small Business Mastery. The book focuses on the application of TPR in twelve areas of business. The DVD only cover TPR but the book covers the application of TPR in sales, marketing, customer services, IT, business process, and business planning to name just a few areas of application.

I invite you to check it out to how TPR DVD will help you with your business challenges.

Ron Finklestein
Revenue and Profit Enhancement Specialist
ron@ronfinklestein.com

To Your Improved Effectiveness, Efficiency and Productivity

Improve Effectiveness, Efficiency and Productivity

Today I want to write about something different. I believe in growing sales. There are many tools for that. Some Tools I used within my own business and personal life. Tools that are effective for me. Tools I have shared with my clients. Tools to help me stay healthy so I can grow sales to tools that improve me effectiveness and increase my productivity.

I do this because there are so many tools and many are effective and many are not. I hope to shorten your learning curve to help you increase your effectiveness and productivity. As I find more tools I will add them on my web site: www.akris.net
Here we go.

Ever Note: Ever note is a tool to capture data and information and organization it in a way useful to you. I have not used it long but what I really like is that it runs on all the platforms I use (ipad, PC and android). When I enter some data or action item it syncs with the other platforms. This allows me to stop worrying about what tool I am using that day. The info is on all platforms. I take notes with my clients using my ipad and I access the info from my phone when my ipad is not with me. I can also access it on my PC when I have lots of work to do. The investment is free (with some minor limitations – otherwise $45/year.) Well worth the time to check this out: www.evernote.com.

World Ventures: I have been invoiced with World Ventures for several months. World Ventures is a travel/vacation web site with some of the best prices on the web. I subscribe to this for three reasons:
1. I want to travel more and I need to make travel a priority
2. I get paid when I make my reservation through the web portal http://akris.rovia.com
3. My clients get stressed from running a business. I will send them dream trips so they can get away. We sometimes get too involved in our business and we need time away. These prices are really low. If you are looking for a business this could be the one. (NOTE: this is one of the businesses I expect to be involved in after I retire to stay young.) http://akris.worldventures.biz/.

Call me if you have questions. My contact info is below.

It is a membership site and costs do very depending on your options. Check it out http://akris.worldventures.biz/ or book your travel here: http://akris.rovia.com. What I am finding it that business owners are making the investment in the site to help offset travel expenses for business travel and making the dream vacation portal available to employees because of the prices and the impact on employee morale.

Let us move to two product I use daily: authorize.net and VEMMA.

Authorize.net is a web interface if you need to process credit cards online. I have been using authorize.net for many years without a single problem.

Their pricing structure varies depending on options: reoccurring payment, check processing via account clearing house (ACH) and a variety of other options.

To my knowledge they do not provide credit cards only the online interface.

The other product I use daily is VEMMA.

Vemma is a nutritional supplement that I take daily. I find I am feeling better. I tested this product out over several months and even flew to Arizona to visit with the company president. Before Vemma I was in a good deal of pain. This was from years of running and martial arts training. I just hurt. After 30 days taking Vemma I notice the pain was gone. I stopped taking Vemma to see if the pain returned. It did. I started taking Vemma again to see if the pain stopped. It did. I now have my wife and some business associates taking it because of the overall benefits. If you take supplements or if you are concerned about taking the right supplements then check out Vemma. My productivity and effective has increase because I have more stamina and I am thinking clearer. Here is the link: VEMMA.

I cannot and will not guarantee results for you but I can say I am totally pleased with the results I have achieved.

One more product.

The most valuable product in my tool kit is called dailysuccessstream.com.

Dailysuccessstream.com is a personal and business web site with training from some of the best and innovative minds in the world. The training videos are short (less than 10 minutes) and they are full of actionable tips. Training can be audio, video or PDF. They also have a guided path for those who prefer a more structured process.

I believe the only thing that holds us back is not our skills but our beliefs. Skills are easily taught when the mind is right.
dailysuccessstream.com helps keep my mind straight.

To be fair I am both a user and an secondary instructor on the site.

The price is very reasonable: $39.95 a month with a five day free trial. No long term obligation.

They have a strong affiliate program, of which I am a member.

For those of you who were familiar with Ilearningglobal, dailysuccessstream is new and rebranded ilearningglobal. I stayed with them from the beginning and through the transition. I am glad I did.

Take me up on this five day free trial. Dailysuccessstream.com , you will be glad you did. Just sign up and if you are not happy you can cancel your membership within five days and not be charged.

To Your Success,
Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788
ron@akris.net

Why The One Degree Differece is Important

Business coaching is about helping other to think differently about their business.

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.

Being Overly Optimistic About Sales and Money

Being Overly Optimistic About Sales and Money

Do you want to make more money and grow sales. One of the hallmarks of an entrepreneur is that they are typically a confident bunch. You need that confidence to start a business. I often hear people say “they would be profitable in year one.” I also hear “I can sell anything.” Reality often provides a different lesson.

When I first started my business, I thought people would see my experience and appreciate how safe it was in working with me. They would see how knowledgeable I was and immediately understand the benefits of working with me. They would flock to me.

Boy was I wrong! I never met a sales projection in my early years.

To grow sales, I had to learn new sales and marketing skills, budgeting skills, and time management skills. The effective hourly rate was too high for the market I was selling into. The competition was intense. I was dealing with job seekers who were taking the work at pennies on the dollar just to put food on the table. Some of these guys were good. Some just wanted the work. Since their primary effort was on the job search, understanding how to price was not important to them. After all they just wanted to pay the bills.

I underestimated everything because I did not understand the market.  When I did close a sale, instead of closing in one call, it would take three, four or sometimes five sales calls.

It seemed they always had to check my competitors.

If I had built my business plan first that addressed growing sales, I would have understood these problems before I went to market. I would have understood my weaknesses better and put a plan in place to address these weaknesses. I would have understood the competition better. I would have understood why people buy this particular product or service and how to price it based on  market demand.

Here are some rules to follow that work.

RULE # 1: Never be overly optimistic. What you want always takes longer that you expect. Budget both time and money for this.

I was speaking with an accountant and he said people always underestimate the road to profitability. It usually takes 3-5 years just to start making money and 10 years to reap the rewards we expect. I am not sure I totally agree but I can understand where he is coming from.

RULE # 2: Test your assumptions. Ask others who have been there and done that. They will help if you ask correctly.

In other words, do your homework! Call prospects and ask them why they buy and how they buy. Call customers and ask them why they buy from you. I was cold calling and reached an owner of a business. I asked him if he ever bought from someone who cold called him. He said no. If he needed something and he did not have an existing relationship, he called his friends and asked them who they used! I stopped calling him because I knew it would be a waste of time, both mine and his.

When you understand the market and do your homework it is hard to be over optimistic about money and sales. It almost always takes longer that you think.

Call me if you have questions or need help to grow sales.
Your Business Coach
Ron Finklestein
303-990-0788
ron@akris.net
www.rpfgroupinc.com

Businesses Fail Because

Businesses Fail Because

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

Business Advisory Board

Business Advisory Board

Would you like to get objective feedback from your peers (business owners)? They have no hidden objective except your success.

Would you like to learn small business marketing strategies that work? We share best practices all the time.

Do you feel overwhelmed because you have so much to do? If so you are not alone. Let us help you prioritize and stay focused on what is important.

Are you looking for an Ohio business coach you can trust? If so, how can you tell? Simple, look for the guarantee.

Are you looking to grow sales? If so call us today for your free consultation. There is no risk to you.

Ron Finklestein

Business Coach

330-990-0788

ron@akris.net

Grow Sales through Small Business Marketing

Small Business Marketing

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