Women Grow Business

Are you thinking about expanding your offerings to include online courses?

Not webinars – but sophisticated deliverables that combine recorded and live content augmented by simultaneous audio, video and slides,  with searchable posted assignments critiqued by you that are either viewable by all or restricted to identified groups?

It’s a very attractive idea isn’t it; one that seems like a logical and easy to execute addition to your other products and services?

But I’m willing to bet that very few of you have actually done it.

Instead of beating yourself up about yet another initiative you think you “should be taking but haven’t,” realize that your gut has a very good reason for not letting you move forward yet – even if you’re not exactly clear what that reason is.

So trust yourself – and keep reading!

Producing and successfully marketing an online course of the caliber you’d be proud to put your name on IS a daunting undertaking.

Don’t be misled by those who claim it’s quick and easy.

Yes, it’s a smart move;  yes, it’s the future; but it’s also a multi-faceted project involving multiple competencies and requiring 3-5 months from start to first air date.

Having done it, I can promise you that it would take hours to share all the lessons learned. Someday soon I’ll finish writing about them and will submit them to this forum.

Meanwhile, for my dear friends at WGB, I’ve prepared this short video that reveals the major mistakes I made along the way.

Chuckle, cringe, and chide you may; I hope my errors guide your way!

Image: Jason Pier in DC, Creative Commons

More from Women Grow Business:

• Five tips to build your business smarts, from Patricia Frame and Melanie Spring
• Patricia says, “Remember it’s people, not sheep” on the art of management
• Turning an unhappy client around, from Lori Saitz

Guest contributor Francie Dalton, CMC, is founder and president of Dalton Alliances, Inc. and author of the recently published book Versatility. Her Washington, D.C., based consultancy helps the C-Suite solve business nightmares. Francie equips clients to deal with what they didn’t see coming (and shows them there’s always another way to win!). She welcomes a chance to meet you via Twitter or on LinkedIn.

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“Marissa, you need to slow down. People need a chance to catch their breath and catch up with you.”

Those were the words that hit me hard in a conversation with one of my VPs recently. I can’t remember the day because at the rate I have been running, all of the days, meetings, and conversations blur into one another.

Image: Alexander Goodyear, Creative Commons

The “Acceleration Trap”

According to an article entitled “The Acceleration Trap” in the April 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review, I’m not alone.

In response to intensifying competition, organizations increase the number and speed of their activities, raise performance goals, shorten time-to-market cycles, and introduce new organizational systems and technologies at an unprecedented rate.

On the surface, all of these initiatives may indicate a growing, thriving company – a company that’s moving forward at a brisk and healthy pace.

But if you dig deeper, you may realize that the organization at hand may be in danger of becoming its own worst enemy. Aggressive deadlines coupled with a consistent demand for innovative ways to be faster, better, and smarter can give way to chronic overloading, lack of focus, and burnout.

As I read through “The Acceleration Trap,” I was able to identify with some of the symptoms that are found inside organizations suffering from uncontrolled acceleration – and this bothers me because I am very committed to maintaining a healthy culture.

Too much work?

The authors of this article studied more than 600 companies over the past nine years to understand acceleration. For example, 60% of surveyed employees agreed or strongly agreed that their companies lacked sufficient resources to get their work done.

As the CEO of a firm that has not experienced a dry spell in workload in 10 years, and has identified recruitment as one of the most important strategies to keep up with our growth, I can relate to this challenge.

When people make light of my challenge to manage our ever-growing workload, I explain that CEOs lose just as much sleep when they have too much work, as when they don’t have enough work.

Business owners are constantly balancing the need to build the pipeline and backlog with ensuring our employees are not overloaded.

Further, 86% of respondents said they did not regularly get a chance to regenerate after working at full-capacity for an extended period of time. This is also something that concerns me.

Now that I’m aware of the risks of falling prey to the acceleration trap, how can I – the person who consciously or subconsciously sets the organizational pace – avoid landing in the trap?

Setting the pace

I recently brought in a business development expert to lead a proposal development boot-camp, and one of the topics he discussed was the importance of mirroring the cadence of your customer.

When you are engaging or presenting to a customer, how aware are you of their cadence… their pace? Do you speed up or slow down to mirror their rhythm and their posturing so that you are synchronized with them? This is one technique that you can use to you align with your customer.

I thought about this concept, and how I can apply it to my employees as well. “Mirroring the cadence” … What a great concept both inside and outside of your organization. As the CEO, how does your pace compare to the pace of those you lead?

What signals are you giving?

As the CEO, you own the cadence and pace of your organization. If you are seeing signs of acceleration and burnout around you, what are you able to personally do to halt them?

The first thing may be to examine what signals you are giving, and what expectations you are communicating – whether you are aware of them or not.

Are you asking for the development of new initiatives before existing initiatives have even been implemented?

Are you constantly asking employees to suggest new initiatives to improve the company, when perhaps the real question is what initiatives should be put on the back burner or even terminated?

Online, all the time

What is the pace of your communication? Do you as the CEO consistently send emails outside of business hours… at 10 PM during the week, or throughout the weekend? Now that home offices and blackberries are natural extensions of our regular offices, there is no “typical” work day.

Employees in virtually every position across the organization are online all the time, leaving no room for disconnection.

For better or for worse, when a company executive sends an email, the recipient feels compelled to respond. What implication does that have on your culture? What message does this send about constant communication?

The burden to set the pace of the organization heavily relies on the executive leadership. As leaders, our employees are constantly watching – and responding to – our behaviors.

Striving for “Sustaining Energy”

Ideally, a company is powered by what the Harvard Business Review article authors call “sustaining energy” – a joyful urgency among the employees that never burns out. When this occurs, the energy in the company is intense, positive, and definitely conspicuous.

But if the leader gets greedy, demanding the same level of urgency and output every day with no respite, energy will evaporate, morale will suffer, and both individual and organizational performance will fizzle.

Conversely, working at a sustainable pace will protect the organization and its people over the long term.

So for the CEO, this means vigilantly protecting against the dangers of burnout and acceleration by setting a healthy pace for everyone to mirror, starting with themselves… inside and outside the company.

Cross-posted with minor edits and permission from the DC Women’s Entrepreneurship Examiner

More from:

• Regular contributor Francie Dalton on seeding business and preserving life
• Sibyl Edwards on when it’s time to fire your client
• Stacey Hanke’s excellent two-part guest post on communicating to enhance leadership

Guest contributor Marissa Levin is Founder and CEO of Information Experts. Marissa was named a 2008 BRAVO Award winner, and a Smart100 CEO for both 2009 and 2010, by SmartCEO Magazine (which honors the region’s 25 most influential women CEOs); recently she was listed in Washington’s 100 Technology Titans by Washingtonian Magazine. She is also the DC Women’s Entrepreneurship Examiner. Describing her true passion as “helping other business owners be successful with their own business growth,” Marissa can be reached through her blog Marissa Levin.

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On any given day, no matter what you think, perceive or know about me, one thing I’m sure you don’t know – at least until now – is that I’m afraid.

Yes, Big News Flash: Mayra is scared!

Image: ~Erebos‘ Flickrstream, Creative Commons

Of what, exactly?

Well, it’s many things, really. I actually don’t know where to start because the list is so long.

But first let me say that my fear, in no way shape or form, should be mistaken for any lack of confidence, vision or talent. I wouldn’t be in my third year in business without these critical ingredients which are absolutely required for any measure of success.

Despite all the positive things I believe my business and I have been gifted with of late, fear permeates every corner of my day-to-day world.

It’s the fear of the unknown. It’s the fear of disappointing those who rely on me most.

It’s the fear of making a decision I will later regret.

Ironically, I do not fear failure.

“Destination Failure” is hardly a new place for me … and it shouldn’t be a new place for you, either.

I’ve been there plenty of times, trust you me. Although yes, I admit, no one seeks out to fail, but boy … when you do fall flat on your face, you can’t deny that most of us, me included, walk away from that failed pit stop with incredible insight, lessons learned and new-found experience that seasons us and makes us a tad bit wiser.

The other day a team member apologized profusely for his mistake. My response? How can you learn if you don’t make mistakes?

The knowledge we gain from tripping up here and there helps sharpen our senses as we continue to ride this crazy roller coaster of small business ownership.

Now back to that pesky fear o’ mine…

I think the trepidation I’m feeling these days is that I have first-hand experience of how fleeting “success” can be. This experience reminds me just how fickle victory in business often is. One minute you’re up, business is grand and you start feeling as if you are on top of the world – nothing can stop you.

But just as you begin to bask in your own glory, another minute comes and unexpectedly brings you crashing down, glory and all, faster than you can say “O-u-c-h!”

While some may equate fear to weakness, I actually welcome every ounce of fear I have in my bones.

My fear keeps me awake and alert. It makes me remember every single day that clients have other choices beyond us. My fear motivates me to do more, period.

“What more can I do today for our clients that I didn’t do for them yesterday?”

I am convinced that the moment you lose all your fear in your business, two critical things happen:

1. You begin to lose inspiration, focus and drive
2. You begin to take clients, projects and people for granted

I wouldn’t share this with you if I hadn’t experienced this myself back in another life and previous venture years ago. I vowed then, in the aftermath, to stay a just little fearful and never think for one moment that things will always be as they are today.

Bottom line

Use your fear to steer you clear of pitfalls such as these. My recommendation to any and all entrepreneurs is to yes, absolutely be confident and definitely stay proud but always, ALWAYS make room for a little fear.

Fear will keep you on your toes and, hey, who can’t benefit from that?

More:

• Regular contributor Francie Dalton on marketing your intuition at work
• How to transform failure into success from Staci J. Shelton
• The Small Business Success Index highlights from Grow Smart Business

Mayra Ruiz is founder of Ruiz McPherson Communications, a social media influence and digital marketing service based in historic Charles Town, West Virginia. With more than 15 years of hands-on marketing, communications and PR experience, Mayra leads her clients forward on all aspects of creative direction, online promotion and marketing communications with innovation, passion and gusto.  When offline, Mayra enjoys “old fashioned” non-techy stuff like cooking, sewing and collecting vintage treasures from area antiques stores. She can be reached at www.twitter.com/mayraruiz or www.twitter.com/ruizmcpherson (her marketing practice).

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You read their bios at the end of their posts, but we felt our regular contributors deserve a little more prominence. So here they are, in alphabetical order: the women who make Women Grow Business what it is. We couldn’t do it without them.

Tinu Abayomi-Paul rescues web sites from obscurity and shows business people how to generate leads and traffic from the web. Founder of Free Traffic Tips and Ask Tinu, she is widely published online as an ever effective, end-to-end website promotion specialist — on Web Pro News, Search Engine Guide, and more. Ready to engage on Twitter as @tinu, she’s known to say: “You can’t knock my hustle.”

Deborah Ager is principal at ClickWisdom, LLC, which helps organizations attract and keep their ideal customers using paid search, social media, search engine optimization, and email marketing. She’s a Google AdWords Certified Professional and has managed $1.5 million spends in paid search while achieving target opt-in rates. Read a Maryland search engine optimization success story and sign up for free internet marketing tips; you can also connect with her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Ann Bevans is a writer, graphic designer and web developer.  As principal of Ann Bevans Collective, she helps clients articulate messages that matter and create print and online marketing programs that communicate those messages with impact. Ann asks tough questions and doesn’t accept flimsy answers. She makes music and writes fiction. She does all her own stunts.  Connect with Ann at www.annbevans.com, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook.

Thursday Bram offers content marketing through Hyper Modern Consulting, as well as more traditional writing services. She blogs about the shift between freelancing and business through her personal blog Thursday Bram and can be reached at www.twitter.com/thursdayb.

Shonali Burke is editor of Women Grow Business and one of the country’s leading business communicators, who was named to PRWeek’s inaugural top “40 Under 40″ list of US-based PR professionals. She specializes in creating and implementing integrated (online and off), results-based, measurable communication programs for clients both large and small at Shonali Burke Consulting. An accredited business communicator, she is also Adjunct Faculty at Johns Hopkins University’s M.A. in Communications program and active in the local communications community as President of IABC/DC Metro. Talk to her via her blog, Waxing UnLyrical or Twitter.

Jen Consalvo is co-founder of Shiny Heart Ventures, a new technology startup focused on building community driven products that remind people of the joys of life. For almost 14 years, Jen has led teams in a range of product areas such as digital imaging, social platforms and personalization. The majority of her career was at AOL, planning and building products used by millions of people globally. Also find Jen at jenconsalvo.com, bodysoulconnect.com and twitter.com/noreaster.

Kellye Crane is an accomplished, award-winning communicator with more than 20 years of experience in strategic public relations, social media, and marketing communications. An in-demand speaker, Kellye addresses the intersection of social media and PR on her Solo PR Pro blog, which serves as a resource for those working as independent consultants — and those who’d like to be. She’s frequently listed as one of the top 100 PR pros to follow on Twitter.

Francie Dalton, CMC, is founder and president of Dalton Alliances, Inc. and author of the recently published book Versatility. Her Washington, DC based consultancy helps the C-Suite solve business nightmares. Francie equips clients to deal with what they didn’t see coming (and shows them there’s always another way to win!). She welcomes a chance to meet you via Twitter or on LinkedIn.

Robin Ferrier is the editor of What’s Next, Gen Y? and Communications Manager for the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus. She is also the President of the Capital Communicators Group and the co-chair of the Marketing Committee for the Tech Council of Maryland. She has inadvertently become a frequent career / professional / job hunt resource for friends and colleagues due to a career path that has included five jobs in 12 years.

Founding editor of Women Grow Business, Jill Foster was named by Forbes Magazine as one of 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She teaches communications through social media tools and community engagement in the Washington, DC area. Co-founder of DC Media Makers, she’s addicted to learning digital tech and helping professional women put their most authentic self forward both online and onstage. Her work has been in conversation at The Washington Post, Guardian UK, Huffington Post, and a range of online outlets. She looks forward to talking more on Twitter or at her brand new online home, Live Your Talk.

Patricia A. Frame is an experienced management consultant, speaker, and executive with expertise in human capital. Launching a new Women Grow Business series on human resources for small business, Patricia is founder of Strategies for Human Resources. She helps small to mid-size organizations achieve their goals through more effective human capital strategy and management. She can be reached through her website SHRinsight.com, where archives for her ongoing management series can be found.

Terri Holley is the owner of Creative Blog Solutions and a social media strategist, plus a certified life/business coach. A forward-thinker and relationship-centric gal, Terri supports small businesses who understand the value of using social technologies to build deeper relationships with prospects and customers.

Marissa Levin is Founder and CEO of Information Experts. Marissa was named a 2008 BRAVO Award winner, and a Smart100 CEO for both 2009 and 2010, by SmartCEO Magazine (which honors the region’s 25 most influential women CEOs); recently she was listed in Washington’s 100 Technology Titans by Washingtonian Magazine. She is also the DC Women’s Entrepreneurship Examiner. Describing her true passion as “helping other business owners be successful with their own business growth”, Marissa can be reached through her blog Marissa Levin.

Mayra Ruiz is founder of Ruiz McPherson Communications, a social media influence and digital marketing service based in historic Charles Town, West Virginia. With more than 15 years of hands-on marketing, communications and PR experience, Mayra leads her clients forward on all aspects of creative direction, online promotion and marketing communications with innovation, passion and gusto.  When offline, Mayra enjoys “old fashioned” non-techy stuff like cooking, sewing and collecting vintage treasures from area antiques stores. She can be reached at www.twitter.com/mayraruiz or www.twitter.com/ruizmcpherson (her marketing practice).

Shannon Mouton is the social media and mobile marketing manager for an online higher education institution. She is passionate about utilizing social media for the greater good, information sharing and networking. Shannon has nearly 20 years of community building, outreach and relationship marketing experience. She is the owner of The Mouton Group, a real estate investment firm, and a principal at Topaz Consulting, a public relations and marketing consulting enterprise. She serves on the board of directors for the In Series and a regular volunteer at Calvary Women’s Services. Her blog, Shannon Sez So, examines life, its joys, pains and idiosyncrasies. Shannon is also a contributor to Gridiron Gals, as a die-hard fan of the Washington Redskins. Contact her on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

Founder/CEO and self-proclaimed Chief Troublemaker of Matrix Group International, Joanna Pineda is known for her visionary big-picture thinking and drive for excellence. Combining her broad liberal arts background and passion for technology, she started Matrix Group in 1999, today a leading interactive agency. As a trusted advisor, Joanna inspires and motivates her clients and employees alike to simply, “be better” with her mantra being: Do or Do Not. There is no try!

Lori Saitz is founder of Zen Rabbit Baking Company. She helps people show appreciation for and give recognition to others. The main (delicious!) tool her team uses to help accomplish this important feat is through The Gratitude Cookie™. A thin, crunchy cross between a butter and a sugar cookie, The Gratitude Cookie is so named because if you’re eating the cookies, you’re encouraged to think about something you are grateful for as you munch on each one. Connect with her on Twitter.

Liz Scherer is a digital writer and consultant specializing in health/medicine/wellness. She produces Flashfree which brings her closer to her goal to engage, entertain and provide women in midlife with the tools to make informed decisions about their health. In addition to her blog, you can find Liz on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Melanie Spring is the principal and project director at Sisarina Inc.. An expert networker, Melanie and Sisarina connect individuals and companies with the tools they need to market and promote their brand successfully and efficiently. Connect with her on Twitter where she’s @sisarina.

Amanda Steinberg is the founder of DailyWorth.com, a free daily email about personal finance for women. DailyWorth gives women key insights into building net worth. Sign up today!

Twenty-year PR Veteran and Chief Creative Officer of Wasabi Publicity, Michelle Tennant Nicholson has seen PR transition from typewriters to Twitter. Called a five-star publicist by Good Morning America’s Mable Chan, Michelle specializes in international PR working regularly with the likes of Oprah, Larry King, BBC, The Today Show and all major media. Recently she secured a Dr. Phil placement for a client within eight hours of signing the contract. Contact her at PR blog http://www.StorytellerToTheMedia.com where she teaches tips from the trade.

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Put on your thick skin. It’s time to get down to business.

A model approach

Image: Franz Janusiewicz, Creative Commons

As a successful entrepreneur, friends regularly approach me to share new business ideas.

Can I be honest? I’m not that interested in your idea, or even how fabulous your product is.

What I care about is how your business will make profit.

Don’t start throwing your hard-earned dollars into product development until you clarify your financial model.

1. Get real on costs.

All products cost money: e.g. materials, labor, shipping, and some portion of your overhead (rent, utilities, taxes). As production costs rise, your sales margins drop. So let’s consider the price.

2. Pick your price carefully.

Price is a core issue, notes Megan Auman, CEO and founder of CraftMBA.com, and the author of a new ebook, released last month.

“Too often, entrepreneurs fail to grasp the difference between wholesale and retail price,” she says.

Auman’s rule of thumb: Wholesale price = Cost of materials + labor + expenses + a markup for profit.

3. Calculate customer acquisition cost

Calculate what it costs you to acquire each new customer, advises David Ronick, founder of UpStartAdvisors.com.

Whether you’re selling a product or service, “Pick a time frame, like three months,” he says, “then figure out how many new customers the company attracted during that time, and what were all the expenses involved in acquiring that customer?”

Your expenses divided by the number of customers yields the cost of acquiring one customer.

Ronick adds that the margin (i.e. what you pocket) should be about three times the acquisition cost.

Bottom line

Love your idea. Love your model more.

More from:

• Regular contributor Francie Dalton on what she’d known when her business first launched
• Why “homepreneurs” are a vital economic force from the Small Business Success Index
• 10 ways to market your small business with limited funds from Cash Money Life

Amanda Steinberg is the founder of DailyWorth.com, a free daily email about personal finance for women. DailyWorth gives women key insights into building net worth. Sign up today!

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In business, some of the toughest decisions are made based on intuition. Admitting this, however, can be uncomfortable, even unwise.

Want to earn respect for your intuition?  Want to legitimize it in the minds of others?

That’s easy.  Just stop calling it “intuition.”

Here’s a more scientific context within which to ground your advice and suggestions, a context that might help you “sell” the utility of your intuition to relevant internal colleagues.

What mental pictures come to mind when you read the words “nurse,” “auto mechanic,” “pastor,” “adolescent”?

C’mon – admit it.  Scores of images flew through your brain.  And those images didn’t stop at appearance.

Didn’t you also associate certain behaviors with the words?  As you imagine them in their respective work places, don’t you also develop images of their performance?

These images, based on knowing nothing more than one’s function, are called “schemas.”

Our schemas of others create expectations regarding the behavior, the performance, and even the appearance of individuals.

Schemas aren’t absolutes;  but they do help predict job fitness;  they provide guidelines for interaction; and they help us articulate performance measures.

There are, most assuredly, exceptions:  engineers who are poised socially;  financial experts who can think abstractly;  public relations and marketing experts who can be structured and compliant.  But don’t you find they’re the exceptions?

Let’s take a look at two examples and consider the probable, if unintended, consequences of ignoring schemas.

Example 1

Let’s assume that to one solitary VP is assigned the responsibility for outcomes produced by the efforts of several VPs.  If, based on your intuition, you suggest that such a decision is destined to generate hostility, conflict and chaos, you’re likely to be criticized for imputing to them an inability to function as a team.

If instead, you ground your suggestion within the context of schemas, you’re likely to achieve agreement more easily.

Here’s how to do it.  Provide a brief description of the “senior executive schema.”  They’re usually competitive; they have the guts to risk high-profile failure and they strive for the recognition that comes from high-profile success;  the CEO is likely their sole source of meaningful professional affirmation so they vie for his/her favor and attention, which means they’re often territorial.

Based on such a description, suggesting that the assigned outcomes be made discrete to each VP no longer seems insulting;  instead it seems reasonable and wise.

Example 2

Or how about this one.  Let’s assume the engineering department has invented a new product to be introduced at the next sales meeting. The boss wants relevant speechmaking assigned to the inventor. S/he may indeed be a brilliant expert, but speechmaking is virtually antithetical to schema.

Ignoring this is likely to result in the dryest, most monotone and verbose speech ever given on this planet. If the objective is to foster attention, retention, and enthusiasm, the schema most likely to achieve those objectives must be considered.

In advancing this viewpoint, having nothing other than intuition on which to base your suggestion seems personal.  Grounding your suggestion within the context of schemas makes it more legitimate.

ROI… Return on Intuition

Attempting to educate others about schemas may alienate those who have historically demeaned your intuition.  Instead, just look for opportunities to deploy the skill. Remember, you can only increase the frequency of successful personnel decisions if you increase the frequency with which you are consulted.

Ground your contributions to discussions about personnel within the context of schemas.  It will become indisputably clear to your colleagues that there is real value in consulting you when making personnel decisions.

More from:

• Judith Orloff on how intuition can be your career’s secret weapon
• How to Harness Instinct and Intuition to Make Better Business and Career Decisions from Meredith Levinson (CIO.com
• Also check out Gary Klein’s book, Intuition at Work: Why Developing Your Gut Instincts Will Make You Better at What You Do

Image: Angela Marie, Creative Commons

Guest contributor Francie Dalton, CMC, is founder and president of Dalton Alliances, Inc. and author of the recently published book Versatility. Her Washington, D.C., based consultancy helps the C-Suite solve business nightmares. Francie equips clients to deal with what they didn’t see coming (and shows them there’s always another way to win!). She welcomes a chance to meet you via Twitter or on LinkedIn.

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Editor’s note: It’s been a while, so let me refresh your memory. This is the third part of guest contributor Francie Dalton’s three part series on what can help small business owners do well in a down economy. The first looked at six disciplines to build revenue for your business. The second examined five measures for meeting qualified prospects.

This is the final installment in the series that will show you how to solidify those prospects. Talk about the complete toolkit to growing your business.

You can’t find gold if you don’t pan for it

Our focus here in Part Three is on prospecting. Effective in eliminating what one client referred to as the “yuckie part” of selling, the following 5 tips provide a sophisticated way of establishing and maintaining a backlog of potential clients.

Image: B Campbell, Creative Commons

1. Virtually “Stalk” Your Prospects

Describe your ideal client. What types of organizations do they belong to? Join them. What kinds of publications do they read? Read them. What types of events do they attend? Attend them. Differentiate yourself with detective work about your targeted prospects. Research them; research their industry; tap your network to learn more about them.

Think about how impressed you would be if someone had clearly extended effort to learn about you, your achievements, and your industry.

This tip will help you warm up the cold contacts and will set you apart from most others who won’t go to this much effort. The result? You’ll be more likely than your competitors to get the business.

2. Your Pipeline is your Lifeline

NEVER stop prospecting. In good times or bad, keep your pipeline full! Even when you’re flush with business, don’t get cocky. Realize that if you wait to prospect until you need new clients; it’ll be too late to achieve immediate results. Sales is, in large part, a numbers game. If you aren’t getting enough business, a major contributing factor is that you’re not contacting enough prospects, which means you’ll erode or prevent your success.

Understand this: whether you like it or not, prospecting is how to keep your business pipeline full of potential clients. If you neglect this critical function, you can hardly complain when business is down.

3. You Gotta Network to Get Work

Whether you enjoy it or not is irrelevant; networking is an imperative.

Learn how to do it well. If you want to survive the lean times, you have to network regularly. Go to appropriate events with the objective of helping others rather than seeking those who can help you. Doing so will make others want to help you in return.

Remember – nothing “comes out of the blue.” The seeding you do today will produce unexpected business in the future. Suggested reading: Make Your Contacts Count by Lynne Waymon.

4. Don’t Defer Getting Referrals

If you’re not comfortable asking your satisfied clients to provide referrals, do it anyway! Once you’ve delighted them, conduct a brief interview to learn what they valued most about working with you. Using this information, draft a brief testimonial for them to edit and print onto their letterhead.

Suggested reading: A great resource to develop your referral prospecting skills is – not surprisingly – Get More Referrals Now by Bill Cates. Or, purchase a Flip camera to capture brief video testimonials that you can upload wherever you wish immediately.

5. Link Value for Free to Service for Fee

Consider providing an educational or experiential event to prospective clients at no charge, structuring the delivery so that they want more. For example, deliver the information promised, but make reference to additional, high value information that you can provide and how it has helped your clients.

Consider making complimentary presentations at conventions whose attendees are great prospects for you. Or select a few organizations locally that would be great clients for you, and invite the top 3 executives from each to breakfast, or offer a no-fee brown bag session to their employees.

Anonymous but priceless advice is to “plan your work and work your plan.”

The use of these tips will enable you to do just that. Consistent application of these 16 suggestions has repeatedly sustained my consulting practice for over 21 years – even in tough times.

In addition to tapping every ounce of your strength and resilience to endure the slow times of ’09 that might continue in ’10, my hope is that you’ll integrate these tips into your work plan, so you can more easily secure increased sales and enjoy enhanced success.

More from:

• Francie Dalton and what she wished she’d known when first launching her business
• Jen Consalvo’s 5 launch lessons on business partners, time and teams

Guest contributor Francie Dalton, CMC, is founder and president of Dalton Alliances, Inc. and author of the recently published book Versatility. Her Washington, DC based consultancy helps the C-Suite solve business nightmares. Francie equips clients to deal with what they didn’t see coming (and shows them there’s always another way to win!). She welcomes a chance to meet you via Twitter or on LinkedIn.

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Building community pre-monetization
We launched our product in September of 2009 and while we of course had a variety of monetization ideas in mind, we decided to begin building our audience and fine-tuning the site before testing out various concepts.

Cash-flow positive: the unexpected
So imagine our surprise when less than two months later a large publisher (perfect for our demographic) reached out to us asking to work on a collaborative project that would have immediately made us cash-flow positive. Now, my partner and I both have a lot of experience working with large companies and know how these things can go. But after a few weeks of back and forth on terms, we got the green light to start.

It was an exciting moment.
Not only were we happy about the financial terms and all the potential future possibilities, but -

- we were also thrilled to have such immediate validation of our business. There may even have been a little jumping up and down. What there wasn’t…was a written contract.

Of course we knew not having this deal inked was a risk.

But we had emails and calls and excitement all around – they even asked us to accelerate to get the project done asap. We started quickly. They promptly backed out.

Lessons learned:

1. It’s not personal when large companies shift priorities.
After a morning of heavy emotion, a 2 mile run on the treadmill and some general sulking, I realized I could sit there and let this situation drag me down into a swirling vortex of negativity and doom for our business, or I could use it as motivation to figure out bigger and better possibilities. I went with the latter. After all, they loved our idea but as we all know, priorities at large companies can shift like the wind and it’s not a reflection on us. To be honest, I’m proud of how quickly we were able to mobilize and respond.

2. Balance the cost of protecting yourself with the potential loss you would have if your potential partner backs out.
Knowing how priorities change, I should have known better and at least had them sign a simple contract. It may not have changed the outcome but at least it might have forced them to think about the deal a bit more carefully before giving us the green light.

That said, I know first hand how difficult this can be – the last thing we want as a small startup is a lot of back and forth with lawyers. I say this because having worked at AOL for over a decade, I know that legal departments can do a number with those red lines and startups don’t have the cash to burn on legal fees. In the end, you need to balance the cost of protecting yourself with the potential loss you would have if your partner backs out.

3. Learn to bounce.
The success of your business is dependent upon your ability to bounce back from adversity and learn from it. It was a major disappointment but there will be other companies and other deals. And along with those, there will likely be other disappointments. But that’s the risk and cost of doing business and you can’t let it stop you.

So, we continue into the season of gratitude
…growing our audience and while I wish our project would have happened, I’m also thankful to that publisher for helping us see additional possibilities for our business, learning early lessons and about our own resilience as entrepreneurs.

Would I do business with them if they asked in the future? Absolutely. With a contract.

More from:

• Jen Consalvo and her Women Grow Business series on all things product launch (pre, during, post);
• Francie Dalton and her retrospect: What I Wish I’d Known When My Business Launched.

Image I’ve Contracted an Agreement by JK5854, Creative Commons

Guest contributor Jen Consalvo writes the Women Grow Business series on all things related to launching product (pre and post launch). She is co-founder of Shiny Heart Ventures, a new technology startup focused on building community driven products that remind people of the joys of life. For almost 14 years, Jen has led teams in a range of product areas such as digital imaging, social platforms and personalization. The majority of her career was at AOL, planning and building products used by millions of people globally. Also find Jen at jenconsalvo.com, bodysoulconnect.com and twitter.com/noreaster.

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I’m thrilled about many things in 2009, both inside and outside my business. And I wanted to share a few that continually motivate me.

An accomplishment: seeding every day no matter what
My company hasn’t emerged unscathed from this recession.

We took some heavy hits. But action – consistent action – not fear – was the daily strategy. Some of the actions were counter-intuitive, like spending scarce cash on new marketing initiatives and professional development for staff when resources were low. Some were high risk, like making a new hire in a particular market segment when business was down in other segments. Most were just plain grunt work.

Some actions were successful; some weren’t. But our mantra was to stay busy seeding, and trust that the harvest would come. Once we committed to finding seeding opportunities, they appeared everywhere.

Networking. Helping. Prospecting. Brokering. Innovating. We stayed busy on purpose, seeding everyday, no matter what. Turns out it’s a great fear management tool. Looking back on this year, I don’t remember being afraid. I just remember being almost overwhelmed with seeding opportunities, frantically trying to fit them all in. And the harvest? We’re looking at a TON of little green sprouts!

An insight: preserving life
Last month, one of my virtual assistants, Kristy, who lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia found a not-yet-weaned kitten on a compost heap. She rescued it, and because she knows I’m an animal lover, emailed me to ask if I knew anyone who might want it. I didn’t, but was willing to foster it. So we each drove half way and I got the little fur ball and took it to my vet for a checkup. Happily, the kitten seemed OK (pictured above), and the vet even knew a couple that might want to adopt it.

Getting confused about how many people were involved in this?

I ended up fostering for only one night, because the folks my vet contacted did indeed want the kitten.

That kitten would not have survived a cold night out on the compost heap. Kristy only saw it by merest chance. In less than 48 hours that tiny little life passed through four sets of hands, 100 miles apart, to finally have a chance at life.

Only the 4th set of hands could give it a home – but other hands helped along the way. Makes me wonder – whose life could each of us advance just a little bit today?

A success: radiance in a staff member
I have a middle-aged female staff member who honestly has no idea how smart and capable she is. No one takes her more for granted than she does. This lack of confidence makes her shun opportunities that would elicit demonstrations of her strengths. A few weeks ago, I insisted that she attend my course on professional presenting, during which she would have to make 5 video-taped presentations in front of others over a 2-day period.

The first day she was huffy and defensive – her usual response to feeling vulnerable. By the end of day two, though, she was RADIANT.

And she deserved to be. She had done a great job of integrating all the learning, and delivered really terrific presentations. She knows she’s good at a particular set of functions, but has been unwilling to believe she can be good an expanded set of functions. This experience helped her discover another dimension of her existing strengths. It was absolutely wonderful to see that realization dawn on her. Can’t wait to see what’s next!

What about you?
What benchmarks, successes, or insights have been revealed through this year?

More from:

• Francie Dalton and her Women Grow Business series;
• Heavy Hitter Sales Blog and credibility in your sales team (hint: honest forecasts are key);
• Marissa Levin and how imagination impacts her leadership and success.

Guest contributor Francie Dalton, CMC, is founder and president of Dalton Alliances, Inc. and author of the recently published book Versatility. Her Washington, DC based consultancy helps the C-Suite solve business nightmares. Francie equips clients to deal with what they didn’t see coming (and shows them there’s always another way to win!). She welcomes a chance to meet you via Twitter or on LinkedIn.

Image of the rescued kitten used with permission by blogger Francie Dalton.

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What did you think of my initial 6 tips for generating revenue for your business? Those disciplines ranged from how to invite useful scrutiny to improve operations to prioritizing publicity to creating multiple lines of business.

I hope you’ll let me know what you think on those (and these below!) plus what has worked in generating revenue while running your own company.

Our focus in the next part of our conversation: metrics
It’s on tracking the not so intuitive metrics that will give you more control over the outcomes of your efforts.

Traditional metrics captured through standard financial reporting aren’t enough. Business owners need to establish methods for consistently tracking more than what appears on profit and loss statements.

5 measures: consider including these among those you track regularly.

• 1) Work backwards to move forward

Image Moving Forward by Laura4Smith, Creative Commons.

If you’re tracking important ratios, you know how many qualified prospect meetings it takes to generate one client and the average sale amount per client, etc. With only these two pieces of information, you can control how much you sell each month. Determine the desired sales volume, then conduct two to three times the number of qualified prospect meetings indicated in historical ratios as necessary for achieving your revenue goal.

• 2) The ‘lag before you bag’

The lag time between your first meeting with a qualified prospect and closing the sale is an essential ratio for managing your productivity. The sales you bag today likely began at least 3 months ago. In establishing realistic deadlines for the achievement of your goals, knowing your average lag time is essential. When calculating total lag time, don’t forget to add in the time it takes to render the service before you bill it, and the time between the billing and the receipt of funds — plus the time required for funds to clear the bank. Requiring an up front deposit can help bridge long lag times.

A phrase you might want to include in your contracts could be: A 30% deposit against the total contract is required before work begins to reserve space on our business calendar. For your convenience, an invoice for this amount has been enclosed.

• 3) Prepare to bend by predicting the trends

Be vigilant about monitoring relevant trends, since they’re always in flux. Just as important are tangential trends – forces that could affect the trends you’re already monitoring. Doing so enables you to foresee and adapt to emerging trends before your competitors do. Set up Google Alerts on key industry topics to better inform the monitoring process.

• 4) Establish clear intentions and quotas when attending conferences

Recoup the opportunity cost of attending conventions and other networking meetings. Get an attendee list in advance of the meeting, identifying and researching your targets before you even leave for the event. Then make it your mission at the meeting to establish contact with and engage these targets.

Remember: attendance is not an outcome. Increase the probability that your attendance at events will result in new business by doing your homework in advance.

• 5) Break it down to build it up

Identify key result areas of your business. These are large umbrella functional areas critical to your success.

Examples may include prospecting, delivery, writing, marketing, speaking, and new product development, etc. For each key result area, assign measurable goals for each month or each quarter. Break these down into component parts and include the interim deadlines for each component in your calendaring tool. In addition to helping you stay on track, this will also provide easily visible evidence that you are consistently achieving — even if the results aren’t in yet.

Don’t wait to begin tracking these metrics until you need them
Because doing so can make adjustments or recovery harder and more expensive. It is essential to maintain these metrics consistently as touch-points so you’re equipped on an ongoing basis to modify current initiatives to better ensure the achievement of desired outcomes.

More from:

• Francie Dalton and her series at Women Grow Business;
• Phil Johnson at Ad Age on how his firm uses social media to get new prospects;
• GrowSmartBiz and the power of ‘the ask’ in sales, business relationships, and more.



Guest contributor Francie Dalton, CMC, is founder and president of Dalton Alliances, Inc. and author of the recently published book Versatility. Her Washington, DC based consultancy helps the C-Suite solve business nightmares. Francie equips clients to deal with what they didn’t see coming (and shows them there’s always another way to win!). She welcomes a chance to meet you via Twitter or on LinkedIn.

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