In This Episode

With the NFL Draft just 24 hours away, folks across the country are buzzing about who their favorite team is going to draft. This is especially true in our home town where our beloved Cleveland Browns own the #1 and #4 picks in the draft. Just about everyone (locally and nationally) has an opinion about what they should do with those picks. But ultimately, one person, the General Manager John Dorsey will be the one who decides what to do. And he will be the one who gets the credit or the blame depending how those draft picks perform.

How come certain executives and teams seem to draft well and others don’t? The players they are choosing from is a pool of very talented folks. So do some folks just have a better knack for picking players than others? Or is it something else that makes those players selected successful?

As a small business owner, you also get credit or blame for how the people you hire perform. Identifying and hiring (i.e. drafting) the right people is a big part of it, but there are other things that determine the success or failure of those team members. Things like your culture, training, coach (CEO).

A common thing you’ll hear about the great players is that they make others around them better. This is true of great players, coaches, owners, and anyone else with greatness. One of your biggest jobs as the owner is to not only identify the right players for your team, but also create the environment to get the best out of them.

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

• Cleveland Browns (http://www.clevelandbrowns.com)
• National Football League (“NFL”) (https://www.nfl.com)
• New England Patriots (http://www.patriots.com)
• Tom Brady (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Brady)
• Bill Belichick (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Belichick)
• John Dorsey (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dorsey_(American_football))
• Hue Jackson (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hue_Jackson)
• Indeed (www.indeed.com)
• ZipRecruiter (www.ziprecruiter.com)
• My Cousin Vinny (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104952/)
• Atlas (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_(mythology))

The post How Do You Draft The Right Players for Your Team? appeared first on Dirty Secrets of Small Business.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

In This Episode

As discussed during last week’s show, we recently engaged another Marketing firm to assist us in crafting a Marketing Plan for our business that is focused on getting our Message clarified.  Quite simply we’re trying to figure out how to explain what it is that we do.  Something as simple as business coaching doesn’t quite cover it.

Over the years we’ve utilized lots of phrases to try and encapsulate what we do.  These phrases include: Good Business Made Better; Train, Mentor, and Inspire; Get Business Owners Unstuck From the State of How; and even Dirty Secrets of Small Business.  We’ve recently come up with a few more, but who knows if they capture the essence of what we’re all about.  Things like: Helping You Get Your Arms Around Your Business or Contrarians.

One key thing we find business owners don’t do enough of is profiling their best clients/customers.  If you don’t know what a good customer looks like, how do you know when you come into contact with one?  Things like gender, age, size of business, and geographic location.

This Marketing thing is really messy, challenging, frustrating, and can lead to lots of silly giggling fits.  It can make your brain hurt…in a good way.  Listen to tonight’s continuation of the discussion we started in last week’s show about Marketing Plans.

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

Kilroy Was Here (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_was_here)

The post How Do I Craft A Marketing Plan (cont.)? appeared first on Dirty Secrets of Small Business.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

In This Episode

One of the more daunting and frustrating things for business owners is putting together a practical marketing plan…and finding someone to help you do it.  In the small business world there are a lot of people who are selling themselves as marketers or marketing professionals but we have found very few can actually deliver results.

Keep in mind that the purpose of marketing is to drive sales.  Marketing does this by generating leads for your business which can mean folks walking in the door, the phone ringing, or the email box filling up.  Once the leads come in the business’s job is to move those leads to either a yes or no in terms of buying from your business.  The most confusing thing is getting folks to understand exactly what marketing is and how to pull together a meaningful plan.

We have engaged several marketing professionals and firms over the year to assist MVP with this process.  We’ve typically gotten good nuggets from each but haven’t found sustained success.  We look at three key components to marketing: i) Targets: who are good customers for you; ii) Message: why do customers buy from you; and iii) Channels: how do you communicate your Message to your Targets?

Sounds simple right?  But it’s not easy and can take years to continue to evolve and improve your marketing plan to where you are getting the sustained results you’re looking for that will continually drive qualified leads your way.

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

• Marketing Professionals
• “When the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor” (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_House)
• I Dream of Jeannie (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Dream_of_Jeannie)

The post How Do I Craft A Marketing Plan? appeared first on Dirty Secrets of Small Business.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

In This Episode

Kids grow up so fast.  It’s hard to believe our “kid” the show Dirty Secrets of Small Business is now 100, as in 100 shows!  Where did all the time go, what have we accomplished, and where do we go from here?

We started from humble beginnings of wanting to help small business owners worldwide by sharing our experiences as well as the stories of our hundreds of clients.  We thought it would be helpful to shed some light on the “dirty secrets” of small business that we know very well but are constantly surprised more folks aren’t aware of.  There are also several commonly-held myths that the general population has about small business and we wanted to debunk those myths.  Along the way we figured we’d pick a few fights and hopefully provide some inspiration and perspective to our fellow small business owners.

We’ve taken on a range of topics where we’ve shed some light on the dirty secrets for how things are done and also debunked lots of myths.  One of the most popular has been focused on getting into business for yourself, whether that be by starting or buying a company.  Nearly as numerous have been the shows that cover the importance of the numbers when it comes to business.  This includes things like setting your selling price to understanding your financials to figuring out how to calculate and award year-end bonuses.  How about dealing with friends and family members who are part of your business?  What could go wrong with hiring your sibling? How do you get rid of that in-law in the business when things don’t go quite as you were hoping?  We also have a half dozen shows addressing the “9-to-5” or “job” mentality that can drive owners mad!  How come nobody understands why you can’t take a vacation and enjoy yourself or you can’t find that switch to turn your brain off and stop thinking about your business?

What’s the future hold?  To date, we’ve only had a couple of guests but we’re planning to have more, especially ones who can share their stories with you directly.  As we continue to promote the show and get discovered by more people, we know that you the audience will become a bigger part of the show which will include more phone calls, texts, tweets, and emails to address your questions directly.  We’d also like to become bigger advocates for the small business people in the world as they need more champions.  We see the show being syndicated in markets across the country to expand our reach to more local markets.  We’re just getting started.  Thanks for being part of the ride so far!

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

Professional Business Coaches Alliance (https://www.businesscoachesalliance.com)

The post How Did We Get to 100 So Quickly (Reflecting on 1st 100 Episodes) appeared first on Dirty Secrets of Small Business.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS