Tips on Avoiding Common Business Blunders

As a business owner, you are most likely know firsthand of all the work that goes into running a company, finding customers, keeping employees on task and handling the day-to-day operations. And, you are also acutely aware that mistakes can occur and blunders are part of the territory. 

However, there are some tips that you can try to avoid some of the common business blunders listed below so you don’t find yourself saying, “If I had only known, I would have done things differently,” or, “I didn’t realize that my decision would lead to this horrible mistake.”

Do These Mistakes Sound Familiar?

Here are some common mistakes that many of us might be guilty of doing in our own businesses:

• Jumping into a new business direction without careful analysis. You might feel excited and see the dollar signs before completely thinking through the reality of a new business venture like a new product or service.
• Rushing what takes time to build into a viable business. The wrong decisions can be made when you focus on short-term, immediate returns when what you should be doing is being patient and methodical with your decisions and actions. You might end up spending too much money that could cost you dearly down the line.
• Not getting to know customers. If you don’t know what your customers want, you will not find any return for your investment. That’s why the mistake many companies make is throwing money at advertising and marketing programs not designed around a full understanding of the target customer.
• Skipping regular planning sessions. Not focusing on strategy can lead you to make uneducated decisions because you have not studied external factors and aligned your core competencies around changes in the market. This is also a way to circle back and check on what has worked and not worked, leading many business owners to simply keep making the same mistakes.
• Giving up on the business. The biggest mistake a business owner can do is simply give up on their dream and shut down when they don’t have to end it all. While there may be times where there is no other option, that doesn’t mean that it is the only choice you have when you hit a roadblock or experience a setback. However, so many business owners assume that this is the only choice they have when, in reality, they could overcome those challenges and create the next big thing.

 A Common Thread: Lack of Experience, Knowledge, and Advice

These five common business mistakes all share similar root causes: business owners lack experience, knowledge, and advice on how to handle their businesses. It’s understandable as most business owners, especially small business owners and new business owners, feel alone. There is often not a sounding board like an executive team or a board of directors where they can approach with questions and concerns about the aforementioned issues.

While there are business associations, these often simply become networking socials where business cards are exchanged over a drink and finger foods. Rarely do significant business challenges get discussed as there may be concerns over confidentiality, competition, or just lack of real concern for each other’s problems. That’s why The Alternative Board® (TAB) was developed. 

It has become a resource for business owners that helps them gain experience, knowledge, and advice from peers in a way that is non-competitive but, rather, supportive. Here are some key differences related to the above mistakes:

• TAB members can get feedback and quantitative advice on why a new business direction may or may not make sense. New ideas might save the business owner from making a critical mistake by investing in the wrong direction.
• They can also show a business owner why it pays to wait and let the business simmer and develop before rushing it. This is one of the few times that more than one cook in the kitchen could be really valuable.
• Other TAB members may have insights about your customer base and can share what they have learned; in return, you can also offer input on something they don’t know about. Together, you both learn something new or have gained a different perspective.
• Having additional, experienced eyes looking at strategic decisions is a valuable service, which can help you to stick to a regular strategic planning session as you are required to come to each TAB meeting with strategic updates. This is not a social; it’s a think tank where real results are produced.
• Lastly, TAB members are supportive and they will go that extra mile to help you see how you can keep going even if you feel like shuttering your shop. This support is invaluable because you can be motivated to continue, knowing others have walked a similar path and did not give up.

What’s Your Mistake?

Tell us what you have experienced as a business owner? If you think these mistakes sound familiar, maybe it’s time to find out for yourself how TAB membership can help you miss these mistakes completely and leap toward success. Contact us now!

Making a Sale: It’s All in the Attitude

A lot of making a sale in business – no matter what the product or service – is not what is said, but it is based on how it is delivered and how the person responds to this delivery. That delivery can be friendly, confident, and helpful, but it might also be cold, cocky, and directorial. It’s all about the attitude and, for the small business owner, knowing what attitude to use with what type of customer will help ramp up the number of sales closes made. 

Successful Business Owners are Happy Ones

Let’s face it. No one wants to buy anything from a depressed or apathetic salesperson. Why would anyone think that what a negative person was offering would do them any good like solve a problem or make their life easier? If a prospective customer sees a happy, energized, and positive salesperson, they will more likely equate that to the product or service the salesperson is backing.

That means believing in what you are selling and what your company is doing. It also involves treating others like how you would like to be treated if the roles were reversed. That means applying the same attitude as you would expect if someone was trying to make a sale with you. How do you like to be treated? How do you react to a smiling face as compared to a glum one?

Passionate and Enthusiasm Sparks Sales

It’s one thing to believe in your product or service, but it’s a whole different ballgame when you are trying to get others to feel the same way. However, you may have had those experiences where you are describing a trip or a new-found hobby to a friend or colleague, and your passion and enthusiasm absolutely spills over to the point where the other person is taking notes and asking for more information. Your attitude has them excited and engaged. Apply this to what you are selling and you will get results.

Taking it a step farther, maybe you can turn this hobby into a sideline business or include it in your existing business. With so much enthusiasm and passion for it, maybe it is what you should be selling instead.

Knowledge and Value Closes the Deal

Beyond the emotional aspect of attitude, there is the intellectual side in which you can make great strides in closing the deal through your attitude of knowledge and value. That means you are projecting the right type of information to the prospective buyer that tells them you know what you are talking about and you know how this product or service will help them personally rather than just trying to sell them something. Remember, the used car salesman persona? Nobody responds to that attitude positively!

That doesn’t mean listing off product features; it means specifying what the product or service will do for that particular buyer. Your attitude says you did your research and you care all in one delivery. That’s a deal that is hard to refuse.

What’s Your Attitude?

Think about these attitude attributes. Where do you fall? How has your attitude or change of attitude led to a sale? Do you need help with how to adjust or adapt your attitude to suit your business and your target audience? Perhaps, it’s time to work with TAB!

   

Implementing Your Vision: A Small Business Owner's Primer

Once you’ve created a business model and set your future goals, it might seem like an easy step to launch your small business. But, sometimes, it can be a little overwhelming. That’s where TAB comes in. Your own personal independent board of directors can help you clarify your goals and incentives so that your launch will be a success.

Doubt is a Business Killer

Your vision statement needs to be very clear. Think about these questions:

• What do you want to achieve with this business?
• Are you filling a need that other businesses in your area have neglected?
• Where do you see your business in five years, ten years?

When you have doubts about achieving your goals and your mission, consulting with the board of directors is a way to put the doubts to rest so you can concentrate on the business of doing business.

Your Secret Weapon

When you don’t have a board of directors to consult, The Alternative Board serves that need. As a disinterested body that just wants you to benefit from the experience and knowledge they have as a group, TAB acts in your best interest to pave the way for implementing your vision. They’ve been there. They know how to help you make the right decisions and stay on point to really get your business moving toward your future goals.

Evaluating and Revising Your Vision

Your business vision should have specific dates for goals and achievements. Keeping track of the progress will let you know that your business is on track for success. Here are some useful ideas:

• A simple calendar can act as your assistant in watching how your business is developing.
• When you don’t meet a goal, you can analyze the data you have and find out what may have gone wrong. Once you’ve put it right, your business will be back on track. You might find that your advertising budget wasn’t big enough. Perhaps you neglected to make your goals clear to your employees. Did you remember to update your web site in a timely manner?

It’s time to take a step back and take another look at your vision. When you need advice, get it. You don’t have to go it alone because help is available and the fix might just be a simple one.

Celebrating Achievement

It’s tough getting a new business underway. One way to let yourself know how you’re doing is to look at the goals you’ve set and celebrate the achievements when they happen. Don’t wait until your company is ready to award you a gold watch to enjoy the fruit of your labor. Celebrate along the way. You deserve it!

Business Vision Experiences

Tell us what you have been able to achieve with your business. Or, if you are struggling, share your challenges. Perhaps, one of our readers can help.

Why TAB? Member Testimonials Recommend TAB’s Comprehensive Approach

You can choose to go it alone as a small business owner or you can seek out a network of individuals who are in the same place. They are running a business and could use the benefit of other business owners’ advice and ideas exchange. They say there is strength in numbers, and that is exactly what TAB offers.

TAB members benefit from a combination of resources that frame a comprehensive approach to developing business solutions. That approach includes one-on-one coaching, peer-to-peer meetings, and the advantage of third party perspectives. While each aspect of the approach has its own distinct benefits, there is one overriding principle that puts TAB ahead of the game. In his testimonial video, Tom Wechsler of Wechsler Engineering and Consulting shares the crux of TAB’s approach: TAB doesn’t tell you what to do, but instead helps you figure out what to do.

Why One-on-One?

One-on-one sessions help a business owner formulate thoughts, understand their goals, and set the direction their business will take to reach those goals. There is someone to keep you disciplined, focused, and moving forward. These sessions help you figure out “how to get there” and bring out your own thoughts on what to do.

Why Peer-to-Peer?

The advantage of peer-to-peer meetings is above all else, getting unbiased, outside feedback. That can often be difficult – if not, impossible – for a business owner to get. This unbiased feedback comes from people who sit outside of a business but you share similar issues, who have been there before, and perhaps who look at things differently. The most important takeaway is that outside feedback based on your own thoughts.

The Independent View

It’s the independent views and third party perspectives TAB members receive that make this comprehensive approach so successful. Robert L. Brown of RL Brown and Associates underscores the importance of these perspectives by observing that things aren’t lonely with TAB. You don’t have to go it alone because there are resources available when issues arise.

Bobby House of VP Commercial Lending Brookhaven Bank asks fellow business owners, “Where do you get your advice?” and points out TAB can give the valuable advice a business owner needs. TAB is like a think tank for small business owners. Having so many different businesses but experiencing similar issues is an excellent way to generate new perspectives or approaches to unsolved problems and everyday organizational challenges.

This doesn’t mean that you only have to be stuck on business problems to join and benefit from what TAB has to offer. Advice on how to capitalize on growth prospects is always helpful even when things are going well. What if you are simply stuck in the day to day issues of your business instead of attending to the creative side? Ellie Schmittenger of Eldercare Systems, Inc. explains, “TAB can revitalize things,” leaving you to get back to aspects of your business you enjoy most.

Listen, Plan, Do and Report

TAB can help medium-sized companies as well as small businesses shape their strategy and execute on tactics that will achieve specific business goals and objectives. Jay Bear of Scofield Timber Company shares his perspective by pointing out TAB has made him a better, more solid business manager. He believes this is because TAB members aren’t passive recipients. The process is a lot of work, but well worth it. Members listen, plan, do and report. With this process, solid plans are devised based on the advice given and received, and the results speak for themselves.

Get Started!

Find out how you can participate in a network that brings small and medium-sized business owners together with a local business coach and counselor to work on their problems, devise growth strategies, and enjoy the fruits of their labor together.

Third-Party Perspectives: A Good Idea if You Can’t See the Forest for the Trees

If you’re a small business owner, you may be fantastic at coming up with creative solutions for the tactical side of your business. But, what happens when you encounter a problem and, even after considerable time and effort, you are unable to devise an effective solution? That’s when a third-party perspective can be an invaluable asset to your business.

What is a third-party perspective?

Smaller businesses generally don’t have a board of directors. The Alternative Board® (TAB) is able to fill that function. TAB members have valuable expertise, but they also have enough distance from your business to enable them to have a different perspective. Often, it is this different perspective that allows TAB members to see options and solutions that you or someone from within your business might not.

Whose perspective is it?

TAB members are business owners, helping one another – peers who don’t have a financial interest in your business but who want to see you succeed. TAB members often bring informality and humor to the table, but they are also professional. Their time and your time is a valuable investment, and the feedback received is well worth it.

How does this perspective work?

This third-party perspective goes beyond just bouncing ideas off of each other into the realm of what small business marketing specialist Ann Farnsworth describes as “expanding your thinking, expanding your options.”

This works by focusing on TAB’s core values of clarifying business problems and getting good analysis and solutions. Members challenge one another, helping each other to hone what they do best. At the same time, members also hold one another accountable for implementing these solutions through these third-party perspectives and are also there to celebrate with you when you succeed.

What are the benefits of a third-party perspective?

Having more resources and advisors ultimately results in increased bankability as any weaknesses in your business are discussed and remedied. Your business benefits as you receive feedback and advice from individuals who are independent from your organization and who are not intimidated. Therefore, they feel free to speak their minds, and opinions are voiced that might not otherwise have been shared.

Credibility, trust, and mutual respect develop among TAB members through this frank and open discussion. Additionally, the third-party perspective approach results in not just one solution, but it can actually also deliver a range of varied solutions for you to select from. Your business also benefits from the collective creativity and years of experience brought to the table by TAB members.

What is your perspective?

What is your experience with third-party perspectives? Do you have more questions on how this might work for you and your business? Leave us your comments below.

Getting a Fresh Perspective on Your Business: Peer-to-Peer Board Meetings

Sometimes, as a business owner, it may feel like you have no one to talk to about the business, strategy, and how to handle problems. It can be isolating and overwhelming.

That’s why one of the benefits that The Alternative Board® (TAB) offers is the ability to increase your business acumen and enhance your knowledge through various idea exchanges that constitute the peer-to-peer board meetings that come with membership. This post will provide information on what goes on at these meetings and what those business owners who participate have experienced for themselves.

A Typical Meeting of the Minds

Following a prescribed protocol, each TAB meeting is structured to achieve a certain purpose: get the most out of meeting together, take away ideas to put into practice, and meet again with new ideas and understanding. The rest of it goes something like this:

• The board meetings are overseen by a TAB-Certified Facilitator who has years of executive management experience under their belt not to mention a host of business and life coaching credentials.
• The board meetings focus on practical solutions that address each member’s opportunities and challenges. These ideas and potential resolutions are the result of candid discussions on the ways and means by which a person may need to consider changing their managerial, strategic, or organizational approach.
• The board members and the TAB-Certified Facilitator work to create, implement, adjust and stay on track to achieve their personal and business success goals. This includes reporting back on their progress and what actions they took since their last meeting.

 Essentially, each meeting follows that old adage: you get out of it what you put into it. 

 First-Hand Unique Benefits

And, for those who participate, it’s clear that they get plenty out of being a member of TAB:

• The board meetings serve as a forum for connecting with other business owners to convey issues and enable better decision making.
• The discussions are intended to stimulate each board member to think about what the others have to say and consider their advice. It is about absorbing what was shared and putting careful thought into how it might be applied to their business.
• The ability to get outside feedback is very beneficial. An owner can ask their employees for ideas but is always consciously aware that they are talking to the “boss.” In a peer-to-peer environment, there isn’t any intimidation or interference in regards to position and rank. It is simply about getting a different perspective from someone outside of the business who might see things more clearly.
• The meetings stir debate and generate renewed excitement and passion for one’s business, providing purpose, opportunities, and potential answers to business challenges.

 Personal Experiences

TAB - Atlanta East has numerous personal experiences of how effective the peer-to-peer approach has been for small business members. Some of the personal gains they have made are summarized below:

• “I openly discuss confidential problems and issues with my TAB Board--matters I don't even discuss with anyone else in my company, or even with my CPA or Attorney. The result is feedback that I get no other way.”
• “My TAB Board has been like business therapy. The process of thinking through other members' problems has helped me to clarify my own issues.”
• “The Board Meetings, with the support of our Facilitator, have given me the confidence and business perspective to move ahead in business areas.”

Don't carry the weight of your success as a small business alone. Lighten the load and learn about TAB's business tools and resources designed to enhance your business success and meet your personal business goals. If you have your own experiences that you would like to share here, please leave your comments below.

The Benefits of One-on-One Coaching Sessions

Small business owners often feel unsure of which direction to take or even what they are doing currently will help them achieve their goals and objectives. Some may not even know for sure what types of goals and objectives they want to focus on or where they actually want to take their business.

When you become a member of TAB, you can access a greater, more personalized level of understanding about your business and how to chart a course toward success. This blog post provides some information on what is covered in these sessions and how they have helped many of TAB members. 

A Typical One-on-One Coaching Session

The coaching sessions have a specific framework that directs each meeting with a business owner in order to ensure that certain topics are covered and enough time is allotted to the most important issues a business owner faces. Here is a description of a typical session:

• Discuss follow-up on a course of action that was suggested at the previous TAB Board Meeting;
• Prepare an issue for presentation to the board;
• Track progress on the business planning process;
• Complete mini-consulting projects that might include the following issues:
• Interviewing prospective employees.
• Assisting with marketing and strategic planning tactics, such as ads, brochures, business cards, and formal marketing plans.
• Holding lunch meetings with the member's employees to get feedback on employee opinions and expectations.
• Applying proprietary business diagnostic tools, including TAB Business Vantage^® and Strategic Business Leadership^®, to hone in on unique business issues and help provide a course of action that can resolve those issues.

The Advantages of Private Coaching Sessions

Members have TAB have praised the one-on-one experience for numerous benefits they have garnered from participating in these private sessions. Here are some highlights from current TAB members:

• Serving as a facilitator, the coach does not tell business owners what to do or provide the solutions but, instead, offers the tools and pathway so that business owners can learn themselves and gain true insight into their businesses and themselves.
• Business owners receive resource materials that help them understand the business issues that impact their companies so that they can make more informed decisions about their strategic direction.
• The session creates a dialogue between the business owner and the coach in which to discuss business issues on a more pointed, personal basis than would be covered in group sessions.
• The coach’s focus on asking questions helps business owners reflect on topics, strengths and weaknesses, and business concerns that they would most likely not have done on their own accord.
• Business owners report feeling recharged after they have been given a new way of examining the present challenges and future opportunities they have in front of them. This includes receiving a custom SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis that helps business owners learn even more about themselves and their business.

Tell Us about Your Experiences

How have you personally benefited from the one-on-one coaching experience? Share your thoughts here so that other readers can understand the value proposition TAB’s service offers them as small business owners.