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Archive for December, 2009

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How Do I Prevent My Small Business From Failing?

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Why is my business failing? Thousands of businessmen and women have asked the same question at one time or another, especially during the early days of their businesses. To be sure, the marketplace is a high-tech jungle where only the fittest survives.

The bottom line reason your business is failing is that you are not selling enough of your product (goods or services) to cover your operating expenses and make a profit. But the problem is not with the product, it is with the elements that make the product what it is. What are those elements?

  • Do you have the right product for your target customers? Obviously if you don’t they will not buy it, at least not in the quantity that will make you a profit. Choose a product that already has a demand, but emphasize a unique benefit of the product that your competitors are not. It should be a product that is consumable, so that your customers will come back to buy more.
  • Is your product quality and durability comparable to your competitors? The quality of your product is the primary element to which all the other elements are anchored. If you do everything right but have a bad product you will not have repeat customers. Majority of your customers will be one-time customers, and the bad news about your business will spread like a virus.
  • Is your product easy to use or consume? Customers are irritated when they spend their hard-earn money on an item, but cannot get it to work. Next time when they go out shopping they will choose an item that they won’t need the brain of a biochemist to get it to work. Choose products that are customer friendly.
  • Is the price of your product competitive? If a customer can buy your product at half the price from your competitor two block down the street, why would he buy your product? Look around and do some comparison shopping to check on your competitors prices and adjust your price accordingly.
  • What is the platform from which you sell your product? Do you sell your product on the Internet or in a brick and mortar store? If you sell on the Internet, is your website or blog pleasant to the eyes, easy to read and navigate? Being mindful that if a visitor to your website is not able to solve a problem he encounters on your website in 3 seconds you’ve lost him.
  • If you sell in a brick and mortar store, does the layout of the store give customers easy access to your product? Are the price tags conveniently displayed to avoid having the customer to ask for the price of each item? Are your salespeople informed about the product enough to answer customers questions? Your aim is to give your customers a pleasant experience in the store to make them want to come back again.
  • Once you set up your website with quality content and products, nobody will know that you exist until you advertise it. How much it will cost to do so will depend on the type of ad, and the competition in your line of business. You may choose to submit your website to the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN or Bing, and wait for months to have your website pages indexed, or buy ‘pay per click’ (PPC) ads that will send visitors to your website within 24 hours of signing up.
  • You will need to know about keywords and their placement on your website. When a visitor goes to the Internet for information, s/he types in a word or phrase. The search engine checks through its indexed web pages for websites and blogs with keywords or key-phrases that match the visitor’s query, and present them in order of relevance. Search engines are scrupulous in their selection, because if they provide the wrong information they will lose the visitor, and that is bad business.
  • Advertising a brick and mortar store normally involves running ads in the local newspapers or on TV. Since this can be expensive, you may want to set up a website or blog and encourage your customers to go there for discount prices and information about your product.
  • When you attract customers to your website or store, and they buy your products, the next step is turn them into repeat customers. Ask for their names and email or postal addresses. Because this information is valuable to your customers, offer something for it. Give them a discount or a coupon in exchange for their personal information.

You can stop your business from failing by selling more of your product to satisfied customers who will buy from you again and again because you sell the right product, high quality product, easy to use and at competitive price; because they know where to find you from the weekly information you provide them by email, letters, on your website or blog about new products, discounts and coupons. Shall we get to work now?

By Ben Aidoo

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Posted in branding, business coaching, entrepreneurism, entrepreneurs, marketing, sales and selling, web design | No Comments »

How To Shop For Business Plan Writing And Small Business Consultants

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Small business consulting and business plan writing is a very personal endeavor between the entrepreneur and the company they are working with. It can quickly prove frustrating for an entrepreneur perusing the internet looking for a reputable company that will make a good fit. Hundreds, if not thousands, of small business service providers promote their experience, reputation and methodologies to make working with them as enticing as possible.

How do you know the company you choose is the right one? How do you know the company is going to deliver on their promises? How do you, as a small business entrepreneur, find peace of mind? While anyone can create a fancy website, receive an “A” rating with the Better Business Bureau (at least for a few months) and put up a couple of testimonials  only the BEST companies who consistently produce high quality deliverables, coupled with excellent customer service, survive and thrive long term. The “fly by night companies” quickly develop a bad reputation and exit the small business planning market segment.

We recommend checking out the prospective companies BBB record, how long have they been in business, are the testimonials on their site of “real” companies, and follow your instincts during the initial consultation. Does your first contact with a company get you an aggressive sales pitch or a consultant who listens to you, asks questions and addresses your specific needs? Does the person you’re speaking with have experience being in your shoes or working with entrepreneurs who have been in your situation? Or are they just trying to make a sale? Remember to follow your gut because you’ll be spending quite a bit of time with the employees of the company you choose. Make sure you do your research first and ask ALL your questions before committing.

Successfully working with a small business consultant and/or business planning company is an intimate process where expectations need to be addressed at the onset and the parties involved MUST be able to communicate effectively. Based upon our personal experience not every potential client is a good fit for us or vice versa. We have a corporate philosophy and process we adhere to. Potential clients must work within our process for the best possible outcome for us and them. We don’t attempt to put a round peg into a square hole. It just doesn’t work.

If a potential client isn’t a good fit for Ethos 360, we recommend other small business consulting and business planning service providers we know that have strong reputations within our industry and are well established along with having solid track records of delivering high quality services and products. We have nothing to gain from these referrals besides the peace of mind knowing that the entrepreneur will be in good hands as they continue their search for the company that’s the “right fit”. This ultimately saves the entrepreneur time and money along with avoiding the potentially business killing mistake of working with the wrong company.

Below is a list of companies we recommend to entrepreneurs who don’t fit into our wheelhouse. Some focus on one aspect, such as small business consulting or business planning, while others combine these services, along with additional complimentary ones like capital raising and investor relations. Some even offer investment banking and high level institutional investor introductions.

In no particular order:

Growthink- www.growthink.com

Butler Consultants LLC- www.financial-projections.com

Capital West Advisors- www.capitalwestadvisors.com

Cayenne Consulting- www.caycon.com

Venture Archetypes- www.venturearchetypes.com

The Best Business Plan Co.- www.thebestbusinessplan.com

International Business Partners- www.ibpconsultants.com

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Posted in business start-up, entrepreneurism, entrepreneurs, small business consulting, tips and tricks | No Comments »

FundingUniverse Fueling Entrepreneurism With Their CrowdPitch Events

Friday, December 18th, 2009

On December 16th Ethos 360 attended FundingUniverse’s CrowdPitch Event located at the NedSpace facility in Portland, Oregon.  CrowdPitch brings entrepreneurs, innovators, mentors, support providers, and investors together in an informal and energetic setting. Five local entrepreneurs had four minutes to pitch their company to both a panel of experts and a live audience, followed immediately by a three minute Question and Answer session with the panel. The panel was made up of investors and other area professionals who have deep roots in the local entrepreneurial community.

The attendees and the panel help the entrepreneurs refine their pitch or business model with real world feedback. Worksheets are provided to those in attendance to rate and critique each company that’s presenting along with “monopoly cash” to make an “investment” in the company or companies they feel are the strongest. After all of the presentations, two winning presenters will be announced based on the amount of “monopoly cash” that is “invested” (one by the panel of expert investors and the other by the audience).

Did I mention these events are FREE to attend and present at?

FundingUniverse (www.fundinguniverse.com) is a top-notch organization that connects entrepreneurs and investors along with providing entrepreneurs the tools and resources to become fundable.  They are leading the way with their very well organized effort to entrench their CrowdPitch events in major national markets and to help fuel entrepreneurial growth at a grassroots level. They are giving back in a BIG way.

Kudos to Alex Lawrence, partner at FundingUniverse, who we had the good fortune and pleasure to meet.  Alex brought an amazing level of energy, passion and levity to what can often times be a very stressful moment in an entrepreneur’s development.  Below is an excellent news story about CrowdPitch along with an interview with Alex.

In addition, Ethos 360 wants to thank the following sponsors involved with making FundingUniverse’s Portland CrowdPitch Event a resounding success.

Stoel Rives- www.stoel.com
NOWAdvisors- www.nowadvisors.com
SEO.com- www.seo.com
NewsWire- www.newswire.net
Jive- www.getjive.com
NedSpace- www.nedspace.com

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Posted in angel investors, business start-up, entrepreneurism, entrepreneurs, raising capital | 1 Comment »

How An Operations Manager Helps Your Small Business Start-Up

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Are you an early stage or start-up small business entrepreneur who’s so busy you’re running around trying to do ten jobs at once? Are you running out of time everyday and can’t seem to get caught up? Let’s discuss how an operations manager can make all the difference towards the success of your business.

“Operations Manager.”  The title sounds like something that is only suited for a large corporation.  No one really considers that there might be a need to staff for this position as soon as you’ve decided on your business idea, but frankly, it’s an essential part of running your own business.  As the entrepreneur, the feeling is going to be that you need to do everything yourself as the business ramps up and gets underway after funding.  Your fingers need to be in every transaction and every phone call needs to have your initials next to the schedule.  In some ways, this is true.  You should involve yourself with the business as it ramps up so that you are aware of what’s happening and you are taking responsibility for the direction.  You should also begin the act of staffing your business and there’s no better way to do that than the hiring of a competent and qualified operations manager to start handling the small day-to-day decisions for you while you handle the business itself.

The position of Operations Manager is defined as, “[being] concerned with managing the process that converts inputs (in the forms of materials, labor and energy) into outputs (in the form of goods and services).” This position generally translates to having someone whose job it is to make sure the day-to-day menial tasks of the business are run smoothly and make sure that the owner isn’t prone to micromanagement and spreading themselves too thin.  Deeming someone suitable for this role is daunting, but can usually be made slightly easier by following these requirements:

*Experience in the field: You want to have someone working with you who has a strong familiarity with the type of industry you’re embarking on.  This could lead to them having contacts in the field, personal experience with trouble shooting for this particular industry, or maybe just the general confidence from familiarity.

*Don’t work with friends/family:  We all want a familiar hand working next to us when we’re starting out, but once you’ve gotten to the point of staffing, putting someone in the position of operations who has close ties to you is not going to pan out well.  You have to be able to trust that this person is directly under you in terms of management hierarchy and willing to take orders and responsibility for the failures of others.  Having a personal history with that person tends to be counter-productive to that goal.

*How to read resumes:  Someone with previous experience under the title of “operations manager” might not have all of the skills you need for your particular venture.  Look for skills that show experience dealing with vendors, managing workflow and employees, and taking initiative regarding trouble-shooting.

Again, these are just key points to keep in mind for when you’re starting up your business and staffing this position.  People tend to forget that it’s important to have an operations manager of some kind in their company and that the position should be manned by an individual who has the required qualities required for the position.

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Posted in business start-up, entrepreneurism, operations | No Comments »

Angel Investor Partnerships Lead To Business Success

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Angel investors are your partners.  Remember those words because they’re going to have to be put on a sign over your desk in case you have trouble.  When entrepreneurs finally make that leap into securing an angel investor, the thought that has escaped them during the entire process is, “Now I have another partner to help with the decisions and the running of the business!”  You didn’t think it would be that simple, did you?

What many entrepreneurs can seem to forget is that people aren’t going to just give you money to go off and start a business on your own.  They’re going to want a say in what’s happening, the decisions that are being made, and most likely even the stationary choice that you made.  Thinking that this wasn’t going to be a logical outcome to hitting up every angel investor in town is a tad bit short-sighted.  Let’s examine why.

You’ve got a great business idea, you’re confident you could get funding once being put before an investor, and you’re ready to present.  These are all the factors in your corner that you thought were important to get the preparation for opening the doors in place, but you forgot what to say when the investors nod, shake your hands, and go, “when do we get started?”  Wait, what’s this “we” nonsense?  The “we” is that these people are sinking a large sum of their money into the prospective success of your venture and, frankly, not realizing that giving them a say while they have however much percentage of a share of the business is going to look a little unprofessional.

The first thing that’s going to have to happen is for you to try to figure out what that percentage will equal in your comfort level for sharing a commanding say in the business.  Are you going to pick fights over things that you thought you were dead set on?  Are you open to input at all for any directions the business should go?  Do you respond to disapproval regarding your own plans?  You have to make sure that these questions don’t make the hairs on your back stand up.  If the thought of having to go head-to-head with some of these potential conflicts doesn’t sit well with you, you might want to rethink the concept of investment.  You’re giving up a say in the business by asking people to put their money where your mouth is and that comes with strings that maybe you’re not ready for.

There is a bright side, though. By allowing these investors to take this percentage you’re getting the potential years of knowledge and experience that they have under their belt and the suggestions and guidance that can come along with that.  Also, besides the money, the angel investors might even have suggestions for organizational solutions, marketing plans, and alternate revenue opportunities.

If you can break yourself into the idea of looking at investors as more than “free money without interest,” and a potential way to advance the business forward, then their suggestions and decisions won’t feel like they’re taking control of your dream.

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Posted in angel investors, business start-up, entrepreneurism, entrepreneurs, raising capital | No Comments »

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