The Esus Group

Networking

esus — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:17:41 +0000

Networking — a great word . . . a misunderstood word. What is networking anyway? Well, the way I see it, it is a conscious effort to find, contact and stay in contact with people who can expand your opportunity to succeed and who you can help do the same. You’ll note I said “conscious effort,” which also means you have a plan. In today’s noisy marketplace people become immune to the messages sent out by email, by telemarketers, by regular mail and through networking events. So how does one make their networking efforts, their efforts to market themselves, their product and or their company break through the noise and gain attention? The only way I have found is to set up face-to-face meetings over coffee or lunch or a beer (or whatever wets your thirst). This is the only way your voice can be heard above the den of noise. It does take time to set up these meetings, to drive to and from the meetings, and to sit for an hour or so, talking with someone who meets the above mentioned criteria — people who can expand your opportunity to succeed and who you can help do the same. That is where the plan comes in. Identify the people very quickly who are in the criteria and those who are out. You do not have time for the latter.

How Much Can A Business Owner Produce?

esus — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:16:24 +0000

From our experience of working with business owners, those that have a solid team which has the authority to make decisions, is accountable for those decision and takes the responsibility for those decisions, and where the business has the infrastructure (processes, systems, the people and the right mix of marketing and sales), the top line opportunity is limitless. But in those operations where the owner is more of a doer than a leader, even with a good team in place, it is tough for the top line revenue to exceed $1.5 million. While there are exceptions to every situation, this is our experience. We believe that the reason for this is simply a relationship of time. Owners that are the business, or one of the primary “doers,” can only do so much work a day, and have only so much energy to do the work and the oversight, that this just slows down the return — production and the selling of products, delivery of services, revenue growth. To some owners this level of revenue is all they want and need. But to others, who want to grow their business, they have to invest in building the right infrastructure and learn how to let go of the reins a bit (delegation not abdication) so that more people in the organization are free to produce well beyond what they can without responsibility, accountability and, most importantly, authority.

Changing Behavior To Change The Business

esus — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:56:18 +0000

To change a business, as many know, the business owner has to change because the business is a direct reflection, in most cases, of the business owner; the owner’s strengths are the business’ strength and conversely, the owner’s weakness are also reflected in the business. So, how does a business owner change? We spend a great deal of time helping the business owner recognize what needs to change in the business — better systems, defined processes, training people, getting the right people, target marketing to the right audience and on and on and on. What we also have to do, right from the beginning, is to understand what needs to improve in the owner and start working on that part of the equation, right from the beginning. Otherwise, all the process improvements and new systems implementation, will only result in the same problems, just in a different form, if the owner maintains the same behavior that they have followed before. The most important step, and the most important decision in changing a business, is to get the business owner to understand that they have to make changes in their behavior, and then get them to actually take the steps necessary to do so — which is a whole other topic.

A Climber’s Guide To Business

esus — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:52:53 +0000

Years ago I used to use a sports example to try to drive home some key points of a particular part of business. Well, I recently ran across a similar example but in video form that I found interesting. Matthew Childs is the presenter and Matthew is in advertising and is a long-time rock climber and climbing guide. I hope you find Matthew’s rules for climbing beneficial in your business.

What Business Owners Don’t Understand About Marketing

esus — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:10:20 +0000

We work with the owners of small to mid-sized business every day. We get involved because the owners understand they need outside help when they reach a point in their business where revenue plateaus and the profits begin to shrink. The interesting thing is, what is usually the main cause of this plateau is the fact that the company is not marketing or not marketing right, or may be marketing to the wrong audience or not have the right product mix. But when we are called in, the first thing we look at is the cash flow, which we can normally improve rather quickly. The problem is, once this happens, the owners think they are now set for growth, when in fact, we have just started and the business will likely not improve much more until we dig deep into the marketing, building a plan that is well thought out, that is focused, that fits the budget and that is built with the thought of ROI – getting more for the buck. But marketing is not like the finance side. It is not something that can be fixed easily or quickly. Marketing and the subsequent improved results, take time. Owners have to understand that the quick improvement in the finance and system side of the business is just the start. Marketing is the key to future growth and to long-term stability. The moral of the story — while cash flow is king, it is marketing that puts the king on the thrown.

So What Do You Do When You Have Been Thrown Out OF Business?

esus — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:31:17 +0000

OK, I’m a bit slow. I just went back to view my past postings and realize that nearly 2 years ago I was about to start a series of blogs to help people who had already been thrown out of business (the corporate world) or knew there was a good chance they would soon be thrown out or, understood that some day this would happen to them and probably with little warning — so they wanted to know how to prepare. Well, I wrote the first installment but never added the meat. So here goes. And, by the way, we are talking about getting fired, for the most part, but we could just as well be talking about making a conscious decision to leave the corporate world and start off on a new horizon.

It depends on your age — yes, age does make a difference — as to what you can and should do. If you are in your 50′s, your options are not as numerous as they are if you are in your 20′s. But that doens’t mean you don’t have options, because you do. Your options are also impacted by the amount of assets that you have to leverage — and I’m not talking about taking all your savings and using them to pay into some new venture. I am talking, however, about how you can leverage what you have to get more out of your assest than if you tried to just spend them. How does that work, you ask? The trick is to use your assets to get money, a loan, to set yourself up. The questions are, though, where do I best spend that money and how much leverage will that money get me? In order to not make this blog too long, lets look at the options and then, over the next several blogs we can talk about them so you can begn to understand which options may be best for you to consider.

Options include: starting your own business from scratch; buying an ongoing business; buying a franchise; buying into a network marketing business; going to work for another corporation; going to work for a small business; and, heading off to write that great American novel. There may be others, but these seem to be the ones that most of us have considered over time. The question is, which is the best option for you? With each option, there are many issues to consider. That is what we will begin to cover in the near future.

For Small Business Owners . . . Now Is A Great Time!

esus — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:25:59 +0000

If you are a small business owner, you should look on today’s business climate as one that offers great opportunity. What, you say — Great Opportunity? Is this guy going nuts or does he know something that others don’t? Well, I can’t say I know something others don’t but I can say that when things get tough, it is usually the owners of small businesses who figure out how to take whatever it is that is being thrown at them and find a creative way to deal with it. One of the things that makes our Country so great is our creativity, especially when used in the face of adversity. So, don’t look at today’s business environment as some paralyzing obstacle, look on it as an opportunity. What is it that you do well? What is it in your business that you need to do better, more efficiently, more profitably, more customer frriendly? Now is the time to fine-tune your business, to get those time and money wasters out of the way so that you are focused on doing the most profitable, productive and customer oriented tasks better than your competitors. Now is the time to make your business shock-proof. Now is a great time for the creative business owner to take greater control of his/her business and business environment. Have a great one!

Congress Got Us Into This — And Barney Frank Says they Should NOT be allowed to get us out!

esus — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:37:19 +0000

One of the reasons or justifications that the Executives of AIG use for having just given out bonuses to other executives, even though AIG is in a financial mess, is that the bonuses are necessary so that AIG retains these “key” executives. As they see it, since these guys got AIG into the mess, they are the best people for getting them out of it.

Barney Frank, on the other hand, doesn’t see it that way. He stated, just a few minutes ago, that since they got AIG into the mess, they shouldn’t be allowed to try to get it out of the mess because they will not be able to keep their personal stake out of their actions. In other words, those who broke the bank shouldn’t be allowed to stay on, getting paid, to try to figure out how to get out of the mess without incriminating themselves.

To take that thinking to the next level, when it comes elections time for all the Congress men and women who were on board when the AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac problems all occurred, we, the voting public, should take Frank at his word, and vote each of them out. Barney, from what he said today, should see the rationalization to that and go along with it. In fact, if he is serious about the AIG guys, then he shouldn’t even run next time. After all, the people who got us into this mess, to paraphrase Mr. Frank, should not be allowed to try to get us out of it because they will try to do everything they can to protect themselves, not the American public.

Yeh, right. That will happen. But, we the voters need to have long memories on this one, and not our normal short memories. We should not let these Senators and Congressmen/women off the hook. They should be voted out, if they supported this bailout and, we should then take the next step — TERM LIMITS!

Who is responsible for this mess? We are!

esus — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:34:00 +0000

I have no clue if the current stimulus package that just passed the Senate and House will work. My guess is that it will have minimal impact. But who knows? In this regard, it is interesting that one party blames the other party for this mess, while each plays games with our money. To my way of thinking, no one party is to blame; they share equally for various reasons. My question is, who is going to pay it back and how? I do have a view, however, who is ultimately to blame, if blame is to be parceled out. To this issue, while I am no fan of Barney Frank, in fact I think he is the punch line to a very bad joke, he actually said something the other day with which I agreed. When asked who needed to share in the blame for the current situation and after a few seconds of thought (and I am paraphrasing here), Frank said he thought the voters had to share in the blame; that they had to become tougher in their vote. Well, I agree and when next November rolls around, and all the Novembers after that, we need to vote for those who we believe will not make the same stupid mistakes as those in office now, who have an understanding of fiscal responsibility and who are actually in Washington — and in our State capitals — for us. For me, as for millions of other Americans, things are tough, money is tighter than ever, but I am opposed to bailing out banks and businesses because they made mistakes. Small business owners have had to fend for themselves all these years and those who made the right decisions and had a bit of luck, survived. Those that didn’t, well, they didn’t stay around. There was no one there to bail them out. Small business owners understand cash flow and fiscal responsibility — or they are not small business owners very long. This is not a Republican thing or a Democrat thing. It is a voter thing. We put these people there and we need to now trim the dead wood. Dead wood suffocates growth.

History Repeats Itself — Damn It!

esus — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:21:12 +0000

We usually think of the phrase, “History Repeats Itself” when something bad has happened that is similar to something bad that happened before. For example, the recent economic downturn is attributed, in part, to the “easy credit” in regards to mortgages. Many who were able to get mortgages in the period of 2005 – 2008, would not have qualified in other times when credit was more difficult to obtain. To find the “history repeating itself” period, look back to 1929 and the Stock Market Crash. When doing so, we’ll find that one of the reasons for the 1929 crash was “easy credit” when it came to purchasing stock. Many investors had bought stocks on margin, with borrowed money using stocks as collateral, and were liable for interest rate costs, loan repayment and additional margin calls when prices declined. When stock prices began to do just that in September 1929, because of a slow down in National production that actually started in June 1929, stock trading increased in order for payments to be made on the margin calls, which further depressed stock prices, causing a massive sell-off.**

The question is, “how does this apply to everyday business and how a business owner runs his/her business?”

One example that comes readily to mind is in the area of compensation. Business owners are constantly trying to devise compensation plans that motivate people to generate greater revenue for the company. The problem is, most of these attempts do not help the owner accomplish what they really want and need – cash flow and profits.

It would help business owners to read a little bit about history and what has happened in other companies that have tried to develop compensation programs that have, in the end, failed. We tend to look for successes from which to learn. I contend that it may be more productive to look at efforts that have failed and to determine why they failed. In the end this may be a better way to build success.

**”When Will We Ever Learn?” by Jeffrey Pfeffer