How To Get To It, Now!

Have you ever come to the end of your workday asking yourself, “Why didn’t I get anything done today?” Yeah, me, too. Two posts ago, before we had an interruption for exigent circumstances, I promised you I would teach you how to get to it now and get your customer’s paying work done as timely as feasible. So, let’s get to it now and see how we can make that happen for you.

If you read my book, you will find The P10 Principle, which states, “Proaction, perception, planning, preparation, practice, and persistence promote practically perfect performance.”  I conglomerated this concept from a variety of sources including Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits, W. Edwards Deming’s Out of the Crisis, John Norcross’s Changeology, and Thomas Greenspon’s Moving Past Perfect.

We can easily assume you are being proactive in your desire to get to doing your paying work done as timely as feasible. So, let’s move on to the perception part of the P10 Principle.

In order to do anything, you have to perceive three things.

  1. First, you have to perceive, in immaculate detail, your practically perfect performance of what you want to do. In this case, it will be the practically perfect performance of getting your paying work done as timely as feasible.
  2. Once you have perceived your practically perfect performance of doing what you want to do, you have to then, second, perceive how you are obviously much less than practically perfectly not getting your paying work done now.
  3. Once you have perceived what you want to be doing and what you are actually doing, then you have to perceive what of your life’s precious resources of self, time, effort, energy, emotion, intellect, property, and people you can and must apply to get from what you are doing to what you want to do.

Making the change from what you are doing to what you want to do is where most of the work of the P10 Principle comes into play. This working part of life, both personal and professional, is where the planning, preparation, practice, and persistence “P’s” of the P10 Principle come into their necessary use.

As with almost anything else in life, the exact details of how one performs each of these steps varies with the specific facts and circumstances that present themselves to anyone who needs to get their paying work done as effectively and efficiently as feasible. Most of the time, if you have the requisite skills to qualify yourself to get hired to do paying professional work, you really should not need much planning, preparation, practice, or persistence to get started.

The truth is, in most situations where you are not getting your work done timely enough, you already know what it is need to do and you already know how to do it. The real problem, however, is you just can’t get yourself to work doing it.

Why not? Why can’t you get yourself to work doing your paying work? Usually, it is because you don’t really like what you do for a living or because you cannot see yourself making any progress in your life doing what you are doing the way you are currently doing it.

This is a vicious cycle, the breaking of which, requires you to admit you need some help and resolve to go get it. You can get help internally, but you are probably presently failing at that, or you can get help externally, which is going to require you to invest something, sometime, somewhere.

The secret at this point in time, however, is to “Get To It, Now!” either doing your paying work or getting some help getting past whatever is blocking you from doing your paying work now.

 

If you need help, contact me and I will be willing to help you. But you have to ask and commit to working on the problem yourself with my help.

I look forward to hearing from you.

What Others Say About PROMO Sites

Do you ever wonder what others supposedly in the know think and say about professional referral online marketing organization (PROMO) services? Yeah, me, too. And neither of us has to look too hard to find opinions all over the place about the topic.

Here’s a link to let you read Digital Law Marketing’s article on the big ones.

Here’s a link to allow you to enjoy a comment thread on The Lawyerist. Opinions are a dime a dozen on this one and there’s at least a dollar’s worth in the thread.

Here’s a link where you can study JurisDigital’s study of AVVO.

There are dozens of places to read about PROMO advertising sites.

I’m curious what you have found about PROMO sites in your industry.

Post a comment below to tell me your experience in your workspace.[reminder]What’s your best PROMO site? What’s your worst PROMO site?[/reminder]

Remember to Plan with the End in Mind

Have you ever believed you had to have a marketing plan that would find every prospect and convert every one of them into a junkie for whatever it was you are selling? And then you over did both the planning and investment and ended up with more business you could handle and had to either expand your capacity of refer your prospects to colleagues. Yeah, me, too. Hurts, doesn’t it.

Business planning — and the branding, marketing, and advertising (BMA) planning that goes in it — is not about getting all the business. It’s about get just the right flow of business to effectively and efficiently hit your volume target so you can deliver products or services ahead of schedule, under budget, and right the first time around and make the amount of income you want, need, and desire to live the life you want, need, and desire.

Prime examples of this are the Groupon and Living Social failures. Worse than killing themselves, however, these marketing portals killed a lot of their customers using their discount coupon generators as well. All people had to do is pay Groupon and Living Social gobs of money and a great flow of new customers would jump across their thresholds. Oftentimes, however, more people picked up the deal o’ the day and creamed the business owners.

So what’s a small business owner to do? Build and use a multi-focal plan with scalable components you can throttle up and down as needed. Let’s peek at how to do this.

Picking up where we left off a few posts ago … we are a professional-service-oriented business that needs to generate $300,000 a year in revenue with $30,000 of BMA expenses. Assuming even average sales each month, but knowing things are going to ebb and flow with feasts and famine, we need to design a BMA plan that will generate $25,000 in monthly revenue for $2,500 on average per month. How do we do that?

The first thing you need to determine is, “How many new clients do I have to attract each month?” This can be revealed as a simple math problem with monthly revenue being divided by monthly spend per client. If each client spends $500 for a service, then one needs 50 new clients a month. Assuming all things being equal, you can spend $50 per client to successfully sign each client. But, wait, there’s more. What happens if you are only signing half the prospects your BMA plan brings in the top of your sales funnel. Then you can only afford to pay $25 per warm lead from the “professional referral online marketing organization” (PROMO) service for which you’ve signed up.

But, wait, there’s still more. Lead generation promoters are not going to be the one and only, be all, do all, end all of your BMA plan. So you can’t spend your entire monthly marketing budget on referral promo services.

Starting to see how difficult this is going to be to do? There are no easy solutions. The good thing about lead generation services is most of them are easily scalable. You can set a budget and the services will only send you whatever flow of leads you can afford for that budget. In our example, if they were charging you $25 per lead and you were putting 20% of your $2,500 monthly budget, i.e. $500 per month, then you are going to get 20 warm leads from your promoter, which, with a 50% closure rate, will only yield you 10 clients and $5,000 in monthly sales volume.

Nonetheless, if you put all $2,500 of your budget in your promoter program, then you are going to generate $25,000. Great, you’re on target. But, what about when your promoter goes the way of Groupon and Living Social? And, what about creating, hosting, and managing your website? What about doing any other type of BMA work?

In order to work out a full BMA plan, you are going to have to find some components that deliver you prospects for less than $25 per head.

More about that next time.

[reminder]What’s your most effective and efficient business lead generator?[/reminder]

 

 

30 Ingredients for Your Ragu Marketing Plan

Have you ever wished you could just pay someone 10% of your sales per year to feed you all the clients and/or customers you need to thrive? Yeah, me, too. But wishes like that only come true in our dreams. Real people, running real businesses, for real profits, have to have a real branding, marketing, and advertising plan to get there. And such a real, living BMA plan needs to be robusto, like Ragu Tomato Sauce, meaning, it all has to be in there, Ma.

What all makes a sellable marketing sauce?

Generally, a firm’s marketing budget should always include the following categories:

  • Advertising
  • Alumni programs
  • Attendance at industry, trade or professional association meetings
  • Charitable contributions
  • Client entertainment and gifts
  • Club dues and expenses (e.g., for whatever clubs allow interacting with targeted prospects)
  • Collateral materials
  • Continuing education seminars
  • CRM system or client database
  • Digital marketing
  • Directory listings
  • Events and seminars
  • Graphic design and branding costs
  • Internet directory referral fees
  • Mailings and communications (e.g., newsletters, invitations, announcements, alerts and holiday cards)
  • Marketing-related training
  • Market research and client surveys
  • Marketing staff professional development
  • Memberships in industry, trade or professional organizations
  • Networking activities (e.g., dues, membership, and travel)
  • Proposals and pitches
  • Public and media relations
  • Retreats
  • Social marketing
  • Tickets and sponsorships
  • Web site design and maintenance

While many people say, “The whole world uses the Internet now like the old world used the Yellow Pages then,” and while having a platform-responsive website that looks great on a laptop, a tablet, and a smart cellphone is maximally important, social-digital marketing is still not the only thing to think about in your marketing plan.

Take a moment and think about what all these things are, which of them you are doing, how much of each you are doing, what objective results are you expecting from each of them, and how you are tracking where each of your marketing components are taking you, and how effectively each is getting you where you want to be.

Come back to the next post and we will pick at these things a little more.

[reminder]How much marketing can you do yourself and still run your business and sell and deliver all at the same time?[/reminder]

See Your Branding, Marketing, and Advertising As Part of Your Living Business Plan

Have you ever found your self up to your belt buckle in alligators and remembered that all you really wanted to do at the time was just drain the swamp? Are you so busy trying to brand, market, and advertise to perfection that you have no time to actually provide goods and services profitably enough to maintain the rest of your life? Yeah, me, too.

Usually, such situations almost always result from failing to keep the end in mind almost all the time. So, let’s at least begin with the end in mind. And that end is money. There are more great quotes about money, than at which one can shake a stick. A good one is best understood by reading the entire lyrics to the song, Money (Makes the World Go Around).

Money is the scorecard of business. Money measures gross earnings, costs of goods sold, net income, general administrative and overhead, gross profits, EBITDA, and owners’ discretionary earnings (or what most people refer to as “income”). Money is the common exchange medium for the property component of life’s precious resources.

So, as you begin fashioning your branding, marketing, and advertising plan you have to first understand your score card target of your living business plan, which is money and more specifically the end product of almost all entrepreneurs, the entrepreneur’s discretionary income. How much “money” will it take to make your cash register of life go “Cha-ching!”?

A little data may help you decide. From 1967 to 2014, U.S. median household income has trended up from $45,000 to $54,000 or so. And most people are satisfied with that status, being fat and happy enough living in the middle.

Lawyers earned an average annual salary of $136,260 in 2015, which is substantially more than any other occupation on U.S. News’ list of Best Social Service Jobs. Paralegals make much less than half that. In 2015, paralegals earned an average salary of $52,390. So let’s assume for the sake of choosing an example, we are fashioning a BMA Business Action Plan for a lawyer wanting to make $136,260 and pay one paralegal $52,390 as part of his 53% expense ratio.

This means our targeted gross income from attorney’s fees collected will be $289,914.89, or so. Let’s assume the lawyer graduated law school in 1990, which means (s)he will have to bill (really, collect; but that’s another thing to worry about) the $300 average hourly rate for lawyers with 25 years of experience. This means the lawyer has to collect for about 966.382966666666667 hours, or so. Let’s round that up by the 5% effective collections rate of law firms to come to the understanding that a lawyer with 25 years of experience wanting to net $136,260 annual income must gross $289,914 a year needs to bill about 1,000 hours per year.

Established, medium and large firms spend about 3-4% of their billings on marketing. Smaller, growing law firms spend about the average of 10% for all small businesses on their marketing. Therefore,, we need to perceive a BMA plan that will generate $300,000 in billings for about $30,000 a year.

$30,000!

Besser! Have you lost your mind?!? No one spends 10% of their gross revenue on branding, marketing, and advertising. Well, many solo practitioners and small (2-5 lawyers) firms do. They may not realize it but they do.

To get a grip on how much it really costs to branding, market, and advertise a small business, in this case a law firm, start off by reading this old article from the ABA Law Practice folks. The data is just a little dated, but the theory is still fairly current and it applies to almost all small businesses providing goods and services.

So, go read the reference article and come back to the next post to begin working with the end in mind, developing a BMA plan that will result in $300,000 a year in annual collections.

[reminder]What’s your BMA plan? And, more importantly, if your BMA plan doesn’t work, then what is your plan B?[/reminder]

The First 21 Questions Any Prospective New Small Business Owner Should Ask

Have you ever played 20 Questions with yourself about a new business venture? Yeah, me, too.

Do you still think you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur and start a new business? Great! Now, ask yourself these 21 Questions to make sure you’re thinking about the right key business decisions:

1.     Why am I starting a business?

2.     Am I prepared to invest the require amounts of my life’s precious resources of self, time, effort, energy, emotion, intellect, property, and people needed to get my business started?

3.     What kind of business do I want?

4.     Where will my business be located?

5.     What products or services will my business provide?

6.     Who is my ideal customer?

7.     Who is my competition?

8.     What differentiates my business idea and the products or services I will provide from others in the market?

9.     How will I brand, market, and advertise my business?

10.  How many employees will I need?

11.  What types of suppliers do I need?

12.  How much money do I need to get started?

13.  Where will I get my startup capital?

14.  How soon will it take before my products or services are available?

15.  How long do I have until I start making a profit?

16.  How will I price my product compared to my competition?

17.  How will I set up the legal structure of my business?

18.  What licenses do I need to obtain?

19.  What taxes do I need to pay?

20.  What kind of insurance do I need?

21.  How will I run my business?

Do You Have What It Takes To Start Your Own Business?

Have you ever wondered if you have what it takes to start your own business? Yeah, me, too.

Starting your own business can be an exciting and rewarding experience. It can offer numerous advantages such as being your own boss, setting your own schedule, and making a living doing something you truly enjoy. But, becoming a successful entrepreneur requires many things.

Consider whether you have the following characteristics and skills commonly associated with successful entrepreneurs:

Are You a “Smart Creative”? Are you able to think of new ideas? Can you imagine new ways to solve problems? Entrepreneurs must be able to think creatively. If you have insights on how to take advantage of new opportunities, entrepreneurship may be a good fit.

Are You a Calculated Risk Taker? Being your own boss also means you’re the one making tough decisions. Entrepreneurship involves uncertainty. Do you avoid uncertainty in life at all costs? If yes, then entrepreneurship may not be the best fit for you. Do you enjoy learning about the opportunities available and obstacles you might have to overcome so you can enjoy the thrill of taking calculated risks? Then read on.

Are You Independent? Entrepreneurs make a lot of decisions on their own. If you find you can trust your instincts — and you’re not afraid of rejection every now and then — you could be on your way to being an entrepreneur.

Are You Personable and Socially Persuasive? You may have the greatest idea in the world, but if you cannot persuade customers, employees and potential lenders or partners, you may find entrepreneurship to be challenging. If you enjoy public speaking, engage new people with ease, and find you make compelling arguments grounded in facts, it’s likely you’re poised to make your own new business succeed.

Are You an Effective Negotiator? As a small business owner, you will need to negotiate everything from leases to contract terms to rates to getting employees and others to do what you want when, where, why, and how you want it done. Polished negotiation skills will help you save money and keep your business running smoothly.

Are You Open To Being Supported By Others? Before you start a business, it’s important to have a strong support system in place. You’ll be forced to make many important decisions, especially in the first months of opening your business. If you do not have a support network of people to help you, consider finding a business mentor or consultant. A business mentor is someone who is experienced, successful, and willing to provide advice and guidance. Business consultants do the same thing professionally, meaning they expect to be paid for their services. If you are buying a franchise in order to start your own business, then your franchisor should be a major component of your support team.

Do you think you have what it takes to start your own business?

10 Reasons Why You Can Hire Us

Here are the top 10 reasons business owners hire us:

1. You can hire us because of our expertise.

2. You can hire us to identify problems. Sometimes you are too close to a problem inside your business to identify it. That’s when we ride in on our white horses to save the day.

3. You can hire us to supplement your staff. Sometimes you discover you can save thousands of dollars a week by hiring consultants like us when we are needed, rather than hiring full-time employees. You realize you can save additional money by not having to pay benefits for consultants like us. Even though fees are generally higher than your employee’s salary, over the long haul, it simply makes good economic sense to hire us as consultants.

4. You can hire us to act as a catalyst. Let’s face it. No one likes change, especially small businesses. But sometimes change is needed, and we may be brought in to “get the ball rolling.” In other words, we can do things without worrying about the corporate culture, employee morale, or other issues that get in the way when an organization is trying to institute change.

5. You can hire us to provide much-needed objectivity. Who else is more qualified to identify a problem than a consultant? A good consultant provides an objective, fresh viewpoint–without worrying about what people in the organization might think about the results and how they were achieved.

6. You can hire us to teach. We canteach employees any number of different skills. We keep up with new discoveries in our fields of expertise–and are ready to teach new clients what they need to stay competitive.

7. You can hire us to do the “dirty work.” Let’s face it: No one wants to be the person who has to make cuts in the staff or to eliminate an entire division.

8. You can hire us to bring new life to your business. If you are good at coming up with new ideas that work, then you won’t have any trouble finding clients. At one time or another, however, most businesses need someone to administer “first aid” to get things rolling again.

9. You can hire us to create a new business. We have great experience in this field. Not everyone has the ability to conceive an idea and develop a game plan. We do.

10. You can hire us to influence other people. We can get your message in places you cannot send it yourself.

 [reminder]What’s holding you back from getting our help?[/reminder]

Crowdfund Your Next Business Venture

Have you ever had a great new business idea but lacked the money to exploit it? Yeah, me too. More times than I care to count. For many small business, however, crowdfunding may be the key that unlocks the golden door of your next opportunity to a Great! business.

Crowdfunding has been around for a long time using a variety of different names. Artists, authors, and composers have for eons presold their works and only created them once they have sufficient subscribers to make it worth their while. Now, everyone’s getting into the act. Take a look at GoFundMe.com, Kickstarter.com, Indiegogo.com and other crowdfunding sites and you’ll be amazed at what’s out there.

Two primary types of crowdfunding exist. Rewards crowdfunding, wherein entrepreneurs presell a product or service to launch a business concept without incurring debt or sacrificing equity ownership of their company. Equity crowdfunding, wherein the entrepreneur obtains several small capital infusions from several backers, usually in the company’s early stages, and each backer receives some proportional share of a company in exchange for the money pledged.

For most new ventures, entrepreneurs prefer rewards crowdfunding instead of equity crowdfunding, because they want to continue solely owning their venture, calling all the shots, and keeping all the profits. Nonetheless, equity crowdfunding does have its place in the collection of financing options out there.

So, the next time you have a great idea and no money to back it, think about crowdfunding.

[reminder]How big of a list of potential funders do you think you would need to get a new venture requiring $50,000 of initial capital going?[/reminder]

Put a New Concept in an Old Space

Have you ever been sitting in a dumpy little restaurant and thought to yourself, “Gee, this old place would be a great location for [insert your favorite food place] to open up a new store.” Yeah, me too. More likely than not the owners of the the worn out place your in are tired of owning it and it can be economically bought, updated, and changed into the new concept you desire.

My son, Yitzchak, and I recently associated ourselves with Transworld Business Advisors of Baltimore to add business brokerage to my evergrowing scope of business consulting services company, The Besser Business Bureau. Over the past several weeks, we have been wearing the soles off our shoes walking around Baltimore’s downtown harbor districts getting to know as many of the business owners there as we can. If the owners aren’t in when we pass by, we leave the head person in the store a sealed envelope marked “Confidential For Business Owner Use Only” containing a brief note from us asking them to contact us if they’ve ever considered selling their place. If the business is closed as we go by, then we tape the envelope to the front door of the business based on the high probability that the next person unlocking the door will either be the owner or will give the envelope to the owner.

Three things have surprised the heck out of us. First, drop letters are very effective contacting tools if properly done. Second, there are a ton of business owners out there running marginally successful enterprises who are tired of owning them and seeking to get out of what they are doing for a reasonable price. Third, there are tons of people looking to buy a marginally successful business in the hopes of making it better by making it their very own.

So, if you think you see an opportunity to put your expertise to work in a new location, find the owner and ask about buying the place.

[reminder]Do you have what it takes to break out of your rut and try a new way of earning a living?[/reminder]