Five steps to quickly improve your business
Do you have a single point for failure in your business?
As a business grows, so does it’s complexity, creating more opportunities for “break-downs.”
Five steps to quickly improve your business.
#1) For one week, observe and document everything (yes, everything, including lunch) that you do. Have your employees do the same. Let your employees know this is not about their performance, it is about improving the company workflow… Be completely honest on how time is spent.
#2) Review the logs. You will be amazed at what you really do, compared to what you think you do. Does only one person know how to do specific things? Identify area(s) for improvement.
Start slow, no need to overhaul all in one day… Brainstorm with others possible improvement ideas; examples include:
• Develop and schedule multiple processes instead of one large complicated one.
• Smooth the workflow by moving steps closer together or minimize handoffs.
• Find and remove bottlenecks.
• Avoid over-tampering.
• Synchronize or do tasks in parallel.
• Standardize (create a formal process or system)
• Develop operational definitions to improve communication.
• Give people access to information.
• Reduce de-motivating aspects of process or system.
• Develop contingency plans.
#3) Develop new workflows / standards / systems from what was discovered with the Time and Project Task Logs and the Brainstorm session. Put them into practice.
#4) Observe change(s) for one month. This may sound odd, but make sure you measured and changed the right things. All changes have consequences, some unintended, so Step 3 is important to make sure the changes actually are improving an issue.
#5) Continue to periodically repeat steps 1-4 to document changes and track improvements.
“An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success.”~Stephen Covey
Have a great day in whatever your adventure.
To Life! To Success!
Sharon
Get a Lock on Keywords
If your small business is dependent on search engine traffic, it is essential in today’s crowded Internet to use all possible opportunities to up your Organic Search Engine* rankings.
Here is a trick I learned from public speaking, but it holds true for copy as well; Tell ‘em what you are going to tell ‘em. Tell ‘em. Tell ‘em what you told ‘em.
An easy strategy for successful organic search placement, is to place your keywords strategically in the copy of your web pages, especially your home page and blog.
Try to use your main keyword, product or concept in your page title, headline and sub heads. The page title is not the headline; it is the little bar at the top of your browser. Examples could include Product Launch | Business Market Testing | Copywriting | Presentation Skills | Presentation Coaching | Business Automation.
After the headline, in the first paragraph, mention your main keyword again, and then develop the story by weaving the main keyword and keywords related to the main keyword or concept throughout the copy.
Summarize in the last paragraph.
Depending on the length of the article, five to seven of your most important keywords should appear in the beginning of the document, then flow throughout the middle of the copy and again be repeated in your close. Too many keywords can be used, so choose your words and their placement carefully.
One final thought on keyword placement, include keywords in all embedded links in your copy. When linking copy text to other pages of your website make a link e.g. for more information on our Safety Programs, instead of “Click here.” Most people now know that the underline is a clickable link. If you must say, “Click Here,” make both the keywords and click here the link make an adjacent link for your keywords.
Organic search engine rankings do not happen overnight. There are just too many web pages and variables out there to hit number one overnight, but with just a few tweaks here and there you can greatly improve your odds of climbing in the search engine rankings each month.
Have a great day in whatever your adventure.
To Life! To Success!
Sharon
* Organic Search: Organic search is a search where the end-user or customer uses words in a Search Engine Window they think will find what they are looking for. The “organic” results that you receive are typically right below the “Sponsored” results that are Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns. Organic results are reached by the relevancy of the topic and how well the content within an existing web page ranks given multiple factors within a search engine’s ranking program(s).
What are your odds for success?
If someone could tell you what your odds of succeeding in business were, would you want to know the answer? If you’re like most people, you’d jump at such an opportunity.
That’s why I’m excited to share news that StartupNation has introduced a simple “Odds of Success Calculator” to help you understand your odds for success based on eight simple questions. They use comparative data from over a half million businesses to help you identify and evaluate business risk, and calculate the probability of whether your business will succeed or fail.
Here’s a direct link to the Odds of Success Calculator:
http://www.startupnation.com/small-business-success-calculator
Your results are provided along with specific suggestions for how you can clearly improve your chances for success. Best of all, it’s offered at no charge. Some of the key risk factors, including amount of capital investment, difficulty in obtaining funds, quality of financial management, degree of business planning, annual industry growth rate, management experience and industry experience are considered. One thing I enjoyed was entering different timeframes for success, such as two years or four years.
Definitely give it a spin and be sure to use the advice and resources they give to improve your odds.
Seven Little Keys to Success
Unless you’ve had your head in the sand lately, I’m sure you’ve notice the people everywhere are shaken by uncertainty. Another definition for uncertainty is lack of trust.
What is trust?
The two parts to trust are:
1. an emotion or feeling of confidence or sureness that is not rooted in your intellect;
2. a performance “track” record that confirms the feeling of confidence without worry or suspicion.
Trust is frequently taken for granted. A backlash has begun to develop. Consumers are seeking products and services that give them what they promised. They will no longer tolerate hype.
As consumers take greater control of their pocketbook and carefully consider each purchase, they are demanding open and honest communication from companies – everything from ingredients they understand—and can pronounce—to clear communication on company policies and practices.
Even if we, as business owners, have demanded of ourselves and our company full disclosure, transparency, accuracy, and respect of privacy, we are now tainted by the shenanigans going on around us…
To continue to thrive, reassuring clients that we are acting in the best interest of all should become a primary concern as these turbulent times continue to unfold. Seven keys to building and maintaining trust:
1. Don’t hide.
2. Keep commitments.
3. Keep confidences.
4. Don’t lose perspective.
5. Openly communicate.
6. Listen accurately. (Don’t judge too quickly.)
7. Ask for feedback. (Respond thoughtfully when received.)
“It takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.” ~ Anonymous~
Have a great day whatever your adventure
To Success! To Life!
Sharon
Customer Loyalty
I was completely distracted last week, my local broadband provider decided I had canceled my account… I had not.
There are 2 ways to fix everything — my broadband service originally choose the first way, the immediate “fix.” To them, I had canceled my service, and “there was nothing that could be done.”
According to the service rep, there was no way the account could have been canceled unless I had done it and it could not be reinstate. When I asked to speak to a supervisor, I was told “He will not tell you anything I haven’t told you…”
Today, it seems as if many companies are fine with the superficial and immediate solution — solve the customer’s immediate problem or make the customer go away.
This is not the way to create a long-term, loyal customer. Fortunately for my broadband provider, I need this particular service. I was not about to go away — “No” was not the answer I needed. Most companies are not so lucky to have customers that need them, the competition is fierce in most industries.
The second way — taking the time to figure out and correct the error — is what the provider ended up doing anyway, so why didn’t we just start there? (They found the error and I have my account back.) Don’t take “NO” as a answer…
“I never give up, I never give in, and I don’t take “no” for an answer.” ~Doris Roberts (1929 – ) Actress~
Have a great day in whatever your adventure,
To success! To Life!
Sharon
