Small Business Survival Conversations

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Today Dr. Michael Troyer and Anna Steinfest will help you manage your emotions. You will learn to answer these questions:
How big is this issue in the larger scheme of things?
How much personal, relationship capital is it worth investing to make you feel better?
What other battles can you anticipate with this person in the future?
What is the big picture – what is the outcome that you most want to achieve?
Is this the war you want to win?
What is the big strategic outcome that you seek? Keep that in front of you.

 The question they would like you to answer is: What is the war and what are the battles you must win, and what battles will just slow you down from getting to the Big Win?
E-mail us at [email protected].

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Dr. Micheal Troyer will share today his own experiences as they relate to drafting a mentor in the Green Bay Packers Mentor-Protege Program. He will teach you how to use your time most effectively recruiting potential mentor.  

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Dr. Micheal Troyer and Anna Steinfest will share what to do when you make mistake. Some of their tips: 
Admit your mistake – right away 

Acknowledge it

Humble yourself 

Then explain how the mistake happened 

Now develop a strategy to rebuild the trust that you have lost

Include everyone affected by the mistake, but especially the person most directly affected 

You must work to recover trust 

What can you do to demonstrate that you can be trusted in the future?

Is there a compensating behavior you can offer?

• An apology in writing
• A call
• A message
• A gift
• An extra task 

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Dr. Michael Troyer and Anna Steinfest will help you answer the question of how do you make money?

By investing the least amount of time, resources, and expertise for each of the dollars of profit we make 

Constantly think through (monthly – set a date):  

• Who should be doing what?
• Does what they are doing fit them?
• Do they fit the “what” you are asking of them?
• Do you know what resources, time, value of skills and expertise are going in?
• Do you know what value is coming out for the customer or end-user?

If you can’t answer both of these, do you realize that you are operating without a Business Model?  

And your employees don’t know what they or you are doing either.

How can we serve the customer better than anyone else is thinking to do?

Customers pay for value

That is why it should be called the “Customer Value Proposition”

But the customer must be helped to see or experience the value!

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One of the most difficult parts of starting a new business is successfully executing on the idea. So today Dr. Michael Troyer and Anna Steinfest will share with you how do you move your product idea forward.  

• If you’re misunderstood, your idea will fail. 
• Practice – make sure you are clear in your thoughts 
• If you’re boring, your idea will fail
• Share your passion 
• If you’re uninspiring, your idea will fail. 
• Explain, in simple terms, how great the idea is to solve or correct the challenge on which everyone is focused 
• What’s at stake if your idea doesn’t reach the right people? Who suffers? What fails? 
• Make sure that everyone listening understands the impact of your idea on others – name who they are 
• Be committed and persuasive

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Today Dr. Michael Troyer and Anna Steinfest will share with you some shortcuts towards learning some techniques that can help your small businesses grow and be successful. Here are some of their thoughts:

• Work to learn from others
• Read widely and deeply
• Talk to people who have already done it in the past
• Soak up the lessons from the past – search for those lessons
• Ask lots of questions – to yourself and of others
• Prepare the questions in advance but let the follow-up question flow out of you as you think, learn and converse
• Show your curiosity to others 
• You don’t know it until you can teach it to someone else

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Dr. Michael Troyer and Anna Steinfest will share with you how to have a productive meeting. 
There should never be a meeting where the invitation does not make it clear, in general terms, what is needed as an outcome from the meeting – what is it that we hope to accomplish and have not done so to this point. 

Meetings are not for general communication. Think of the tools we have for that, that are much more efficient.

 Meetings are not for teambuilding. 

Meetings are not for “get-togethers” and the “how ya doing?”.

  Meetings are for "getting something done"!

 Or to set the steps in place to get something done!

 That is it.  

Don’t waste a useful tool (over-used) and people’s time (always scarce) by a bloated agenda that covers lots of topics, even if they bear some relationship to one another. 

 Your best and most talented people won’t attend the next meeting!

Today Anna Steinfest and Dr. Michael Troyer will share with you how you can assess if the problem your business is trying to solve is the right problem and how you can see a better problem to solve. Sometimes reframing the problem helps us "see" what is really going on and how we can solve it without wasting money. 
If you have any comments or questions please e-mail us at [email protected].

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Do you really know your customers? That is the question Dr. Michael Troyer and Anna Steinfest will be answering in their new episode of Lessons in Success.
You want your product or service to be useful and valued by your customers. Yet, in the creation of that, you have become caught up in your own "creative genius".
For your customer to find their satisfaction or to achieve their expectations, you need to observe the process through which they go to solve their problem or complete their particular job. You should answer the following questions:

• How does your product or service work for them?
• What do they add in the way of resources ( other tools) before they achieve what they want?
• How can you serve them better by providing them more of what they want?

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Today Dr. Michael Troyer and Anna Steinfest will explain what is a tagline and simple steps on how to create one an amazing tagline for your business. 
 

The elevator pitch compels customers to think of and want your product or services. When you are asked what is your business – your response should be an intriguing “tag line” or sentence that should always lead to an immediate question: “Tell me more. It sounds interesting.” 

It should be a short phrase or sentence – nothing more. Just let the reaction you need, for a longer conversation that should follow.