Small Business Minute

At one time or another, many owners are faced with a business that has stalled out, and often it’s a simple matter of a sluggish economy and with a little patience things recover and growth resumes.

For others though, their business has just plateaued and are at a loss as to how to regain their rhythm and push through to next level. When this happens, the first place I look is under the hood of the business. Is it structurally sound with the right people in place to go to the next level? In other words is the company ready, willing and able?

In many situations all the elements are in place. I then turn to the owner and ask “What made you successful?” “What did you do when you first started out to generate business?” Was it networking, participating in associations, cold calling and how much of that do you do now?

What typically happens is that we get so busy servicing customers and making money that we stop doing those things that made us successful in the first place.

So when you find yourself with a stalled business, ask yourself “What made us successful?”

Copyright © Greg Weatherdon 2015

If you found this helpful, Tweet, Like or tell a friend.

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Greg Weatherdon has been there, done that. As an entrepreneur, he learned not only how to get a business to the point of running smoothly, but also how to reduce the number of hours he worked, delegate more responsibility to his employees, and take longer vacations while his business chugged along like a well-oiled machine. And now he is providing the secret to success.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

Nothing undermines your professionalism more than using one of the many free email services available today.

Being in business is hard enough. On a daily basis we are faced with numerous challenges that keep us awake at nigh.  We struggle to take our business to the next level and yet we penalize ourselves by not taking care of some of the simple no brainer activities.

Domain named email is nothing more than having a company based email address instead of joesmith@gmail or @yahoo you have [email protected]

Registering a domain is a simple process handled online. Many of these same organizations also offer email for a few dollars a month. If you already have a website, you most likely have domain named email included in your hosting fees. You only need to activate it.

It may not seem important but it is one of the first things your prospective customer sees. Having a free email account telegraphs amateur hour and that you’re not serious about your business.

Having a named based domain removes one more obstacle for people to do business with you.

Copyright © Greg Weatherdon 2015

If you found this helpful, Tweet, Like or tell a friend.

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Greg Weatherdon has been there, done that. As an entrepreneur, he learned not only how to get a business to the point of running smoothly, but also how to reduce the number of hours he worked, delegate more responsibility to his employees, and take longer vacations while his business chugged along like a well-oiled machine. And now he is providing the secret to success.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

One of the hardest skills business owners have to learn is Networking. People regularly comment on how adept I am at networking and it usually makes me chuckle. Yes I can network now with relative ease but it wasn’t always that way. I used to hate it!

It wasn’t that long ago that I would absolutely dread going to a networking event, as I would spend most of the event wandering aimlessly through the crowd pretending to be looking for someone or worse stand at the back or the side scanning the crowd hoping to see someone, anyone I knew. It was the High School dance all over again.

Having read that people like to talk about themselves and the things that are important to them, I decided to develop a couple of questions that were simple and generic instead of struggling to come up with something clever to say.

The first question I usually ask is “So what do you when you’re not attending ..and insert the event name”? If that doesn’t get the dialogue started I’ll ask what part of the city they live in or some other simple question. More often than not these are enough to ignite a conversation. If not, I bow out gracefully saying it was a pleasure meeting them and move on.

Always having a couple stock questions at the ready will help become more comfortable in these situations.

Copyright © Greg Weatherdon 2015

If you found this helpful, Tweet, Like or tell a friend.

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Greg Weatherdon has been there, done that. As an entrepreneur, he learned not only how to get a business to the point of running smoothly, but also how to reduce the number of hours he worked, delegate more responsibility to his employees, and take longer vacations while his business chugged along like a well-oiled machine. And now he is providing the secret to success.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

Going into business is easy, running a business is hard and until we get in it we don’t realize how very hard it is. Oh sure we talk a good game by telling people that we know it will be difficult but that the hard work will pay off in the long run. The reality is, we haven’t got the foggiest idea of what lays ahead.

For those of us who have made it with most of sanity in tack, it is said that, much like childbirth, that if we knew how hard it was going to be, we would probably never have attempted it.

I constantly tell people that being self-employed is one of the loneliest jobs in the world. Just ask any entrepreneur who they talk to about their business issues and most will tell you they don’t. The internal dialogue alone will drive you crazy. Let alone the constant self-doubt that needs to be managed. And by the way, it’s okay if you don’t have all the answers, you’re no different than the rest of us. My advice is simple, do your best, learn from your mistakes and hang on until you make, because it’s worth the ride.

So just because you’re struggling, it doesn’t mean you’re failing- we’ve all been there.

Copyright © Greg Weatherdon 2015

If you found this helpful, Tweet, Like or tell a friend.

Sign up above to receive email notification

of the latest update to this blog.

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Greg Weatherdon has been there, done that. As an entrepreneur, he learned not only how to get a business to the point of running smoothly, but also how to reduce the number of hours he worked, delegate more responsibility to his employees, and take longer vacations while his business chugged along like a well-oiled machine. And now he is providing the secret to success.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

Validating your idea, is one of the best pieces of advice I can give start-ups as well as existing business owners. This one item should be at the top of your to do list if you’re considering starting a new business or thinking of adding a new product or service to your existing operation.

You may think it’s a great idea and all your friends and family nod their heads in agreement, but frankly they don’t matter. The only opinion that counts is those people you want as customers. It’s their opinion that matters, so get out in front of them during the concept stage, to see if there is any interest, would they willing to buy and at what price?

The upside to this exercise is that you may find out they like it and they may even give you an idea to improve it prior to you making a large irreversible investment. The downside of course is that may not see any value in it and tell you they wouldn’t be a buyer. In fact that may be an upside, when you consider how much time, effort, money and grief you’ll save by not pursuing it.

This way you’ll live to fight another day.

I’m Greg Weatherdon and this has been your Small Business Minute.

Copyright © Greg Weatherdon 2015

If you found this helpful, Tweet, Like or tell a friend.

Sign up above to receive email notification

of the latest update to this blog.

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Greg Weatherdon has been there, done that. As an entrepreneur, he learned not only how to get a business to the point of running smoothly, but also how to reduce the number of hours he worked, delegate more responsibility to his employees, and take longer vacations while his business chugged along like a well-oiled machine. And now he is providing the secret to success.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

Building a business is hard work and not for the faint of heart. It’s where Survival of the Fittest rules the day. In an effort to be one of the survivors, many small business owners make the strategic error of trying to make everyone their customer. In other words, trying to be everything to everyone.

Although the idea is forged on their belief that having everyone as their customer, will allow them to maximize their revenue when in fact it actually works against them. You see the more specialized you become, the more intimate knowledge you gain on your subject matter. This in turn, allows you to solve customer’s problems quicker and innovatively. Over time, you will be sought out for your expertize thereby allowing you to charge more for your product or service.

Becoming a specialist may take you a little longer to build your revenue stream but you’ll be far more profitable in the long run. Think about it for a minute, who gets paid more the heart surgeon or the general practitioner? The choice is yours?

Copyright © Greg Weatherdon 2014

If you found this helpful, Tweet, Like or tell a friend.

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Greg Weatherdon has been there, done that. As an entrepreneur, he learned not only how to get a business to the point of running smoothly, but also how to reduce the number of hours he worked, delegate more responsibility to his employees, and take longer vacations while his business chugged along like a well-oiled machine. And now he is providing the secret to success.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE