The main purpose of being in business for most entrepreneurs is profit.  Many solopreneurs have a difficult time leveraging themselves so their business grows and prospers without burning out the individual behind the business.  The question is, what are some key ways that entrepreneurs can profit from leverage within their business?

The first way to use leverage to grow your business is through outsourcing.  Outsourcing is not just for the big multinational corporations.  Even the solopreneur can take advantage of outsourcing through various online and offline resources.  An example of outsourcing for the solopreneur is hiring an accountant to handle all of your accounting and tax preparation needs.  

The benefit to you as a small business owner is three fold: expertise, time, and use of capital.  In our accountant example you will no longer have to keep up with the complex tax codes and accounting principles.  You save time because all you really have to do is keep accurate records of your receipts and income.  Many business owners are relieved at the fact all they have to do is hand over their receipts and ledger and the contractor takes care of the rest.  Finally, you will have little to no capital outlay other than paying them by the hour for their expertise.

Second, entrepreneurs profit from leveraging their marketing.  As a business owner you have many marketing assets that can be leveraged to make you more money without much effort on your part.  Here is a list of just a few assets you have: unique selling proposition, customer database, alliances with vendors, sales copy, public relations, etc.   This is not an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination, but it should serve as a starting point to get your creative juices going.

By taking the time to review your marketing and seeking ways to improve it you can generate more sales in a short amount of time.  For example, you may have a website that is converting 1% of your visitors.  By systematically testing your headlines, offers, guarantees, benefits, etc. you could increase your conversion to 3 to 5% without much effort or capital outlay. 

Third, you could sell your expertise or processes to other business owners.  In many cases small business owners have tremendous knowledge and expertise in their industries.  They know how to reach and communicate to prospects and convert them to customers.  Is it possible that other small business owners around the country would be interested in knowing what you know?  The answer is a resounding “yes”. 

Today we shared three ways entrepreneurs can profit through leverage…outsourcing, marketing and selling your expertise.  The only question left is what action you are going to take today to begin leveraging your business?

Running a small business is one of the toughest and most fulfilling occupations you can do as a professional.  As a business owner you wear many hats; one of them is marketer for your business.  So what are the marketing mistakes small business owners most often make and how does ones overcome them?

Mistake #1: Not building a three dimensional profile of your customer.  To be successful at marketing any business you must know and understand your prospect.  This means you need to know their demographics, psychographics and what drives them to take action.  Building a profile of your customer will allow you to make better decisions on how to market to them and what offers to make so you improve your conversion rates.

Mistake #2: Underestimating the lifetime value of a customer.  Each and every customer has a value to your business.  By focusing only on attracting new prospects you limit the growth potential of your business tremendously.  Take some time to figure out how you can provide more product or service to your customer.

Mistake #3: Poor positioning in the marketplace:  In order to be successful in your industry you must be able to answer the following question, “Why should my customer choose me over my competitors?”  If you are unable to answer this question you should be nervous.  By positioning your business uniquely in the minds of your customers you will stack the cards in your favor.

Mistake # 4:  Taking your current customers for granted.  You have a tremendous revenue stream in your existing customers.  Setting up a database and marketing to them over and over again gives the opportunity to better serve them and invite them back to your business.  The best method of communicating to your customer is through a monthly newsletter.  A newsletter continues to build trust because you are communicating and educating through frequent non-intrusive contacts.

Mistake #5: Not testing:  Every element of your marketing and advertising should be tested on a continuous basis.  For example, if you are advertising in the newspaper the first thing you should try is different headlines.  Testing allows you to find ways to reduce your marketing costs while increasing revenue without much effort.

Mistake #6: Failing to train your customer support and operations people.  Most business owners understand that money should be spent on training sales people.  But few realize that training and development of operations people will help improve sales.  Everyone on your staff should be viewed as a sales person and trained as such.  This type of training will give your staff the mind set needed to propel sales upward.

With a slowing economy small business owners face many marketing and operating challenges.  In order to thrive in a challenging operating environment it is imperative entrepreneurs master these critical success factors.  Taking action today is the key to moving your business in the positive direction of growth and profitability.

1. Implementing a culture of continuous improvement will engender your employees to seek out means to elevate the customer experience.  A change in mindset from “Just get the job done.” to “What can we do to deliver a better product or service cheaper, faster and higher quality?” takes time and commitment from management for as long as your company exists.

2. Benchmark and adopt best practices from other businesses in your industry.  Collaborating with other business owners in your industry on processes will allow you to accelerate your quality improvement goals.  If you are a leader in your industry you may want to adopt best practices from other industries and implement them in your business.

3. Setting and tracking metrics in your business is imperative.  Every business needs a baseline of data to work from in order to build efficiencies into the organization.  Once you have information on the performance of your business you can now analyze what areas of the business needs improvement.

4. Training your employees is a key part of any successful business.  Regular training sessions will communicate to the employee that they are important and you want them to improve their performance.  Training sessions do not necessarily have to be formal events.  Simple feedback during morning meetings with ways to improve processes may be all that is needed in many cases.

5. Systemize your operations for maximum efficiency and effectiveness.  Every part of your operations should have a standardized process that is taught, implemented, tracked and feedback given to the employee responsible.  The benefit to your business is consistency of performance by the responsible employee.

6. Develop marketing and conversion processes for predictable revenue streams.   Without customers you have no possibility to generate revenue.  Take the time to test different elements of your marketing and lead generation processes.  Once you find marketing tactics that produce revenue streams find ways to leverage those for further growth.

7. Manage working capital and minimize taxes to ensure you are getting the maximum return on investment possible.  Take every measure possible to put idle cash to work in interest bearing accounts.  At the same time review with your tax professional to make sure you are taking advantage of all tax programs available for your business.

Being an entrepreneur takes dedication, hard work and business acumen.  One of the most overlooked critical success factors most new entrepreneurs overlook is the status of their health and fitness.  So what should you do to ensure you have the energy and drive to achieve your life long dreams and goals?

First, you must eat a balanced diet consisting of simple and complex carbohydrates, good fats and lean proteins.  Forget about fad diets that have you eating low calorie meal plans. Eating a balanced diet will give your body the vitamins and minerals needed to repair itself for a stronger, healthier body.
 
Second, eat 4 to 6 smaller meals a day. Eating more frequently will give you a consistent energy level throughout the day.  You will also avoid the late afternoon cravings for junk food because your blood sugar levels will be consistent without any major dips causing a loss of energy.  You should also avoid processed junk foods and opt for whole natural foods. 

Third, put yourself on a workout schedule 3 to 4 times a week.  A workout routine consisting of strength training, aerobics and yoga is perfect.  You need strength training to build muscle and skeletal strength.  The more muscle you have means you will burn more calories.  Do aerobics to further burn calories and distress from a tense day.  Adding a yoga class one or two times a week will give you a way to clear your head and release stress even further.

Fourth, get at least 8 hours a day of sleep.  Sleeping will allow your body to further repair itself so you can function at your fullest.  You will find that you have better clarity for decision making and energy to meet the high pace demands of you on a daily basis.

Fifth, take time to play and get away.  You may have heard the saying, “Work hard, play even harder.”  Reward yourself with a trip to an exotic location to rest and rejuvenate, use this time as an opportunity to strengthen relationships with your friends and family.

Those who run profitable businesses do so because they know how to manage their time so as to accomplish all their business responsibilities. If only time were elastic and it could be stretched to accommodate all the business tasks that an owner of a business has to do, then life would be so easy, wouldn’t it? But since there are only so many hours in a day to work with, it is important to manage your time properly. Here are 3 tips to do exactly that.

1. Structure Your Hours: Determine what time of the day you are at your most productive (whether you’re a morning person or your juices get flowing late in the evening). That time will be your most valuable time. Similarly, you need to figure out when your concentration is at intermediary levels and when it is lowest. Once you structure your hours in this fashion, you should use your most valuable hours for the most demanding work activities, the in between hours for lesser demanding tasks, and your low concentration hours for jobs that don’t demand much thinking.

2. Prioritize: Even after you structure your hours, you may have many jobs vying for your attention all at once. Thus, you need to learn to prioritize your tasks. Just because something is urgent need not necessarily mean it is very important. Thus, you have to determine what tasks need your attention earliest and what can be saved for later, or even done away with. I like to select up to 5-7 tasks that are most important for me to accomplish that day and focus one at a time in getting them done.

3. Pace Yourself: Profitable businesses need their owners to be in top condition and alert. That can only be achieved if you pace yourself. Figure out how much time different business tasks will take and how best to accomplish them. Simply trying to do everything at once and overloading yourself to the point of extreme stress and exhaustion is not going to help you any. You will only end up stressing about what you’re not accomplishing and eventually ruining everything that you are doing.

Thus, by structuring your hours, prioritizing, and pacing yourself, you will be able to use your time most efficiently. This helps to enhance productivity, which in turn will lead to a profitable business.

Have you ever wondered how the brain works? Well….it's finally explained here in one, easy-to-understand illustration. I received this from a friend by email last week.  In the email it mentions that "every one of those little blue balls is a thought about something that needs to be done, a decision or a problem that needs to be solved."  I don't know how was the originator of this illustration but to me its a great illustration of what can happen when we are juggling so many things. Figures why we can get overwhelmed! 

I'd welcome your comments on this…

Recently I received an email from one of my clients who shared something that happens to so many of us at some point.  She wrote:   “It is so beautiful outside and I cannot focus on my work so looks like an evening of work once again! Now you know my conundrum. I’d love to take the weekends off, but I am not focused enough to get the work done on the weekdays.” 

Can you relate?

In many ways this sounds like a challenge of choosing between “pleasure for the now” versus “bigger pleasure for the future”.  Often we will have a bigger goal in mind that we are craving for and one thing that is holding us back from it is the amount of work that needs to get done to make it a reality.  So the question is, what can you do to make choosing between “pleasure of the now” and “bigger pleasure for the future” easier?

First of all, if you have money in a savings account you have been able to choose “for the longer term” versus “for the now” in terms of finances.  Determine what habits you have for “choosing the future” over “the current” you have in order to create those money savings.  Since money and time are two constrained resources, often the same approaches can help us maximize the effectiveness of each of them.
 

Secondly, to make the choices in these “conundrum” times, it may help if you affirmed to yourself your burning desire for the future a few times a day.  If we start and end each day by reminding ourselves with our burning desire of a goal (and also re-remind ourselves of it a few times during the day), we are more likely to make the decisions and take actions that support it. Its best if the affirmation is specific with a date attached to it and that it is worded so it connects with your emotions.  For example, “I am moving on December 1st^st, 20xx to live where I will regularly enjoy the fresh ocean air and my favourite activities in the mountains.”
 

Third of all, schedule your time with appointments with yourself throughout the week to get the stuff done that moves you towards your goals as well as your current day-to-day accountabilities.  Also include sufficient appointments with yourself to do what you enjoy doing – like getting outside, enjoying the lovely weather and getting some exercise all at the same time.  Once you have set these appointments, keep these commitments to yourself because you and your goals are worth it.

Over the last few weeks I have again and again seen the impact of a supportive environment in getting things done. If your working and living environment doesn't enable a smooth flow for results, it's working against you and not for you. 

How do you know if your work and living environments are going for or against you? It's actually quite easy to determine…

• Are you distracted easily by the piles of lists, papers and projects that should have been done by now?
• Do you find yourself not having the time for the things you find most interesting?
• Are you unsure of the next steps you really need to make?

One of the best ways to create a supportive environment is to have an independent business coach in your corner who is focused on helping you achieve the results you are yearning for.With a supportive coach you will discover better ways to get things done, attain your goals faster and easier while experiencing less effort, less delay and less mistakes.  Having a receptive ear to talk through your ideas and assist in making better and faster decision making further helps you to get more done in less time…which is priceless.  Just imagine how much things could improve for you…

Wishing you much success,
Donna Lendzyk
Your 'More Done Less Time' Business Coach