In This Episode

Many business owners are frustrated by the sense that they spend most of their days babysitting adults. Mind you, these are adults they are paying to work at their company. As an owner you hire people to help you out, not to create more work and drama for you. So what’s a business owner to do?

We try to keep things real simple when coaching our business owner clients. We focus them on what their role should entail which can be summed up in three words: Plan Direct Control. Ask anyone you are managing, “What’s the Plan?” If you hear good stuff, great, then your job is to help Direct them through getting that Plan executed. You Control things by having regular meetings and reports.

The idea is to “trust but verify” what is being done, but it all starts with getting agreement on the Plan. Having people “Present” their plans as well as updates gives you great insights as the manager for how this person thinks, makes decisions, and processes information. The meetings you have as part of the Control should be focused on them Presenting, not you.

It’s also key to get clarity of who is responsible for what. Or making sure everyone knows who “the guy” is as Dan Gilbert says (owner of Quicken Loans and the Cleveland Cavaliers, among other things). You don’t have to put up with babysitting all day, but it’s up to you as the boss to make changes first.

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

• Dan Gilbert (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Gilbert)
• Quicken Loans (https://www.quickenloans.com)
• Cleveland Cavaliers (http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/)

The post How Come It Feels Like All I Do I Babysit Adults All Day? appeared first on Dirty Secrets of Small Business.

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In This Episode

Tonight we have had some special guests in studio, Anthony Mencini and Natalie Hocevar. We talked about the importance of celebrating victories and accomplishments during the course of the year, like a client of ours achieving $1 million in sales for the first time.

We provided some perspective for folks as it relates to big vs. small business. Tony worked for Hyatt which is a $4.4 billion corporation and attends the University of Kentucky where he was the 8-man rugby player on the SERC champion Wildcats. Natalie has worked for TJ Maxx, which is part of a $34 billion corporation, as well as American Eagle, which is a $3.6 billion.

Whether it’s a big-time corporation, a big-time rugby program, or a small business, finding and keeping good people as well as coaching and training them is the key to success. We also chatted about Tony’s initial forays into entrepreneurship which include a water bottle that can be branded and green as well as his recent investment into a couple of crypto currencies including Bitcoin.

A little different show today, but lots of fun. Have a very Merry Christmas everyone!

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

Hyatt (https://www.hyatt.com)

American Eagle (https://www.ae.com)

TJ Maxx (https://tjmaxx.tjx.com/store/index.jsp)

University of Kentucky (http://www.uky.edu/UKHome/)

Cuyahoga Community College (http://www.tri-c.edu)

University of Kentucky Rugby (https://www.kentuckyrugby.org)

SCRC (http://www.southeasternrugby.org)

The post How Do You Celebrate? appeared first on Dirty Secrets of Small Business.

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In This Episode

We are coming to the end of what’s typically called the planning season in business where owners and managers are finalizing their plans for the upcoming year…for those who do plan their business.  Most business owners know they’re supposed to put together a “business plan” or “budget” for their business but most don’t know how to do it.

First off, let’s get the terminology straight.  We call it a Profit Plan (vs. budget) because the goal of any year in running your business is to make a profit.  But most owners were never taught how to pull together this plan.  The end result should look like your Profit & Loss Statement (or P&L) and will forecast your revenue, expenses, and resulting profits for the upcoming year.

The best starting point is to pull together some of your historical data including your most recent P&L, a list of your top customers, a list of your current employees, and a month-to-month summary of your sales over the past couple of years.  These are key pieces to help you start forecasting your sales and expenses for the next 12 months.  Start at a very high level and set a goal for sales dollars for next year as well as desired profit.  Then you can use these documents to add some details to those goals.

On the sales front you can project out sales by current customers vs. new customers.  You can also look at projected sales from current quotes you have outstanding as well as potential customers you have in the pipeline.  This should make up a good portion of your forecasted sales for the next year.  Whatever the difference between your desired total sales and the details you’ve been able to cobble together in this paragraph will show the desired new sales.  For instance, if your overall sales goal for the year is $1 million and you can see $750,000 in sales from your current customers, outstanding quotes, and pipeline, then you will have to find $250,000 in sales.  You can then pull together a Marketing Plan to show how you will get those new sales.

Usually forecasting expenses is a little easier and should start with going line-by-line through your latest P&L and forecast each item for next year.  We encourage our clients to get their team involved in this process so you can get their best thinking as well as buy-in to this plan which increases the chances of achieving this plan.  During tonight’s show we gave some examples for clients’ of ours and how we guide them through this process.

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

Austin Powers International Man of Mystery (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118655/)

The post How Do I Pull Together a Profit Plan To Make Money Next Year? appeared first on Dirty Secrets of Small Business.

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Jack Mencini and Adam Sonnhalter of Maximum Value Partners www.maximumvp.com and cohosts of Dirty Secrets of Small Business discuss in this week’s broadcast how to deal with the good problem of having too much potential business. When this “issue” comes up for prospects or clients they know, the MVP coaches will ask the business owner, “How do you set your selling price?”

While most business owners will say they’d kill to have the problem of having too much business, in reality it “kills” them to have to turn away any business. This can be a real problem though for your business as not all customers are created equally. As a small business owner how do you go about setting your selling price? Do you base it on the prices set by your competition? This is probably the most popular answer we hear, but that is not the right answer if you want your business to thrive.

Copying the pricing structure from your competition is a slippery slope for a smaller company. How do you know that your competition is setting their selling price properly? How do you know they are making money at those prices? To simply be at the lowest price point is putting your company on a going out of business curve. Ultimately, that is not the way to do it.

Chances are you won’t have the information to properly evaluate your competition and how they run their business and their cost structure (e.g. their overhead, the equipment they use is it old, new or leased, etc.). All of these things within the competition’s business could be very different from the operations of your business and thus be a bad way to set your selling price. Changing the selling price to be in line with your competition or to try and beat them out of business could be a formula for disaster.

You need to start by looking at all the costs associated with your business to determine a selling price of your goods and/or services and not rely just on the price point that your competition is using. The major components are material, labor, and overhead (sometimes referred to as fixed costs). All three of these need to be factored in when setting your selling prices to help ensure the health and profitability of your business.

Even if you do have a good handle on your true costs, we have found another common mistake is people confusing markups with margins. They are related but have a very different impact on the profitability of your business. It’s important to use margins to set your selling price vs. markups which will erode away your anticipated profitability.

If your selling prices are in need of evaluation and you are mystified and even scared on how to do this, tune into this week’s podcast on iTunes or http://maximumvp.com/dirty-secrets-small-business-radio-show-podcast/   or call Jack or Adam for help with your small business challenges at 877-849-0670.

Jack and Adam also announced that Dirty Secrets of Small Business is making the move to prime time! Starting on May 3, the show will air live on Wednesdays from 7:30 pm (EST) to 8:30 pm (EST) right after Tech Talk on WINT 1330 AM. The move to Wednesday evenings has the small business coaches, as part of the station’s must-listen-to lineup with other business shows scheduled to air in the evening time slots.

Do you have any How Questions of your own to email to Jack and Adam? Do it by sending your questions to radio@maximumvp.com or submit a question on their web site at http://maximumvp.com/how/

If you have a success story or a question you would like to share, email or call (radio@maximumvp.com or 877-849-0670). You can also call in during the show each week during April at noon (EST) – 1:00 pm on WINT 1330 AM, call 440-946-9468 to ask your question to the Maximum Value Partners’ coaches or tweet your question to @MaximumVP.

Do you have any How Questions of your own to email to Jack and Adam? Do it by sending your questions to radio@maximumvp.com or submit a question on their web site at http://maximumvp.com/how/

If you have a success story or a question you would like to share, email or call (radio@maximumvp.com or 877-849-0670). You can also call in during the show each week during April at noon (EST) – 1:00 pm on WINT 1330 AM, call 440-946-9468 to ask your question to the Maximum Value Partners’ coaches or tweet your question to @MaximumVP.

The post How do you set your selling price? appeared first on Maximum Value Partners.

The post How Do You Set Your Selling Price? appeared first on Dirty Secrets of Small Business.

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