Entrepreneur – Page 30 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

Three Keys to Getting CASH for Your Project or Business

July 13, 2009/3 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Project Management, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Money is tight these days. Whether you’re an entrepreneur seeking capital to grow your business or you work at a major corporation and you’re looking for capital to fund your project, you have a big challenge in front of you: how do you get someone to give you their money?

Yes, it’s their money. For entrepreneurs, you’re trying to pry it away from banks, angel investors, and venture capitalists. For corporate types, you’re asking for it from shareholders, senior executives, and profit-generating business units (for the purposes of this post, I’ll refer to all of these groups as “investors” for the balance of the article).

But gone are the days of easy money based on loosey goosey “business plans.” In this environment it’s much harder to get that check written.

So how can you pry open the pocketbook, get the capital you need, and grow your business or fund your project? You have to be sure to tell the people with the cash three key things before they’ll even consider giving you a dime.

Stop Isolating Your Business: Two Ways You’re Ruining Opportunities

July 6, 2009/3 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

This post is dedicated to all the paranoid businesspeople out there who are terrified of their competitors. You know, the people who run businesses centered around “consulting” who view any other “consulting” firm as a competitor. You can insert whatever industry you like in the quotes and this perspective will apply.

Knock it off – you’re limiting your business and isolating yourself from opportunities to grow. You’re effectively placing yourself on a deserted island in the ocean of business opportunities.

Not only are you limiting opportunities, you’re building a brand of naivete, immaturity and narrow thinking. The following also applies whether you’re a one-person shop or a multimillion dollar firm. Unless you’re Coke & Pepsi or some other similar truly competitive pairing of companies, you need to pay attention.

Those of you who know me know I network. A lot. That networking gets me in front of many other business owners and executives who play in a space similar to my firm.

I run a leadership development training firm. We have a specific business model. We focus on a few key knowledge areas where we have deep expertise. We deliver that knowledge through one-day training sessions with some focused coaching support afterward.

Networking gets “interesting” when I meet others who work in the leadership development coaching and training arena. During those meetings I’ve seen two destructive dynamics play out on occasion.

How The Wrong Pricing Approach Is Killing Your Business

June 25, 2009/4 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Bob Barker used to point out when the price was right but what happens to your business when the price is wrong? Getting pricing wrong is one of the biggest and costliest mistakes you can make and that applies whether you’re a sole proprietor or a Fortune 500 company.

First, a little pricing math. Let’s say you sell a widget for $100 and your gross profit on said widget is $30. After taking out overhead, you’re down to $10. Then the tax man comes along and takes $4 of that leaving you with a whopping $6 on your $100 sale.

Here’s the critical part – imagine you want to win a new customer over with a teensy weensy little $1 discount. Sure it’s a 1% discount to him but you just blew a 10% hole in your overall profitability (changing pricing doesn’t change your cost of goods or your overhead and, after tax effects, the majority of that price decrease hits your bottom line like a sledge hammer).

Conversely, if you’re in a position where you can increase pricing by $1, you’ve just increased your profits by 10% (and in this economy, that’s huge). Pricing matters. Bigtime.

The mistake we often make is in thinking it’s only a 1% price change. You have to look at it from a profitability standpoint. Knowing how hard it is to keep your pricing intact, here are two thoughts on how to get the pricing right regardless of the business you’re in:

It’s NOT About You: 3 Steps for Avoiding the Sales FAIL

May 18, 2009/5 Comments/in Communications, Entrepreneur, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

Sales is a difficult job, especially in this economy. It’s easy to forget good sales principles when you get focused on the numbers. The sales goal can become an anvil that knocks the focus on the prospect out of your noggin.

When that happens, you’re at high risk for the sales FAIL. That’s that interaction that not only costs you the sale but leads the prospect to tell other people how bad your organization is (in a blog like this one perhaps…).

This post isn’t just for salespeople. If you’re involved in sales, marketing, strategy, or business development there are some important lessons here. If you’re not involved in those functions, might as well read anyway because I know you’re looking for an excuse not to work on that PowerPoint deck and you can claim you’re doing “professional development” instead.

I recently had a head-scratcher of an interaction with a business-to-business cold caller. First I’ll detail some of the agonizing points of those calls then lay out three principles for not getting a “DON’T ANSWER” entry in my caller ID (yes, I’ll explain that point).

Building a Personal Board of Directors

April 27, 2009/6 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Business Toolkit, Career, Entrepreneur, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Whether you’re in big business or an entrepreneur, you need advice from time to time. External perspectives can be incredibly valuable. They’ll round out your thinking, help you work through complex problems, and identify new opportunities for growth.

Unfortunately many of us don’t have a formalized group of advisors – we simply pick up the phone or stroll by the office of anyone who will listen. That construct is only partially effective. The advisor may not have time to chat. They might be unfamiliar with the issue you’re dealing with. They might not even care to help but you’ve imprisoned them for 30 minutes with your plaintive “can you please help me?” request. The result? You get suboptimal and, sometimes, even bad advice.

There’s a better way. You should create your own personal board of directors.

In the corporate world, a board of directors is composed of ostensibly wise outside senior advisors to the leadership team. Their job is to help set direction, solve complex problems, and hold the business accountable against a variety of standards. Their role is formalized (meet once a quarter, they’re compensated, they have employment agreements, etc.). There are expectations placed on these individuals both by those within the company and those outside it (shareholders, regulators, etc.).

Fortunately for you, setting up your own board of directors should be less cumbersome. No employment agreements. No shareholders. But you still need to set standards. Here’s how I use mine:

As the Chili Peppers Say – Give It Away Now!

April 20, 2009/15 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Entrepreneur, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

I love the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Great tunes especially at 3AM on a Friday night. They’ve also got an incredibly relevant message for how you can grow your business: Give it away, give it away, give it away now! (I’ll spare you the repeats).

Want to grow your business? Give it away.

No. I haven’t fallen and hit my head again. I routinely give away our stuff. Our services. Our content (ummm… yeah, you’re reading a FREE blog full of our intellectual property and the only price I ask is comments and telling your friends – you are telling your friends, right?). But I give it away deliberately and with purpose.

Have you ever been in that “free seminar” that was nothing more than a disguised sales pitch? Infuriating, huh? Did you buy the speaker’s stuff? Didn’t it grate on you when they’d say “so those are the first two steps in our secret ten step process. Buy the other eight steps for just $999.99!”

Those folks aren’t successful long term. They need to learn how to give it away. So do you. Allow me to explain.

Looking for a job? 4 Tips on How Not to be Stupid and Lazy

January 26, 2009/3 Comments/in Career, Entrepreneur /by Mike Figliuolo

It’s a tough economy. Jobs are scarce and becoming harder to find. The talent pool is extremely deep especially given the abundance of MBAs we’ve minted over the past few years (although everyone knows I don’t care about your degree).

To land that new job, it’s increasingly important to stand out from the crowd and have truly distinctive capabilities to offer. But I don’t want to talk about that today (I know – once again I’ve let you down). No. Instead I’m going to talk about the easiest ways to blow your opportunity. The overarching message of this post is don’t be stupid or lazy. Today we’re talking about the job search equivalents of having spinach in your teeth (hence the photo which I also included and forced the tie-in to the post because I think the picture is hilarious).

“Gee Mike, again, that seems like an obvious point. Why are you writing about it?”

To be honest? It’s because I see plenty of stupid and lazy out there and I want to keep my loyal readers from making some of these mistakes.

Now let’s start with stupid and lazy.

Short Term Loss, Long Term Customer(s)

June 17, 2008/3 Comments/in Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

It happened again. Not once, not twice… but three times in one week. No, I didn’t get more speeding tickets. I had three outstanding customer service experiences.

So I’m on my way to a client engagement one morning. Of course, the hotel (which was fantastic – a newly renovated Hilton in Pittsburgh. I highly recommend it) did not account for my coffee drinking preferences. There were only two of the little LaVazza coffee packets (I need about six to get going – it’s a nasty habit). I downed them but it still wasn’t enough.

I strolled over to the client site and stopped by the nondescript little coffee shop in the lobby. No, believe it or not it wasn’t a Starbucks despite their ubiquity. This place is called Buon Giorno and it’s located in the lobby of the ABSC building in downtown Pittsburgh (near North Shore Center by PNC Park).

I looked over the fresh pastries and bagels but I was on a mission – coffee. The young lady behind the counter greeted me with a warm hello in between a lively discussion in a foreign Eastern European language I didn’t understand. She was arguing with someone unseen behind the back counter. I opened my wallet to do a cash check and saw nothing but blackness and old receipts. My eldest daughter had hit the BOD without me knowing it (Bank Of Dad). No cash whatsoever but I’m sure she enjoyed her trip to the mall. I asked the lady “do you take plastic?” You know what the answer was. My quest for caffeine screeched to a thundering halt.

Strategy is About Saying “No.”

January 24, 2008/1 Comment/in Entrepreneur, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

We’ve already talked about what a strategic plan is (and isn’t) in our discussion: “strat plan isn’t ‘budget +10%.'” Hopefully now that you’ve got a direction mapped out and a list of initiatives you’re going to pursue, you’re ready for a little tactical strategic advice (yes that phrase is supposed to sound oxymoronic but it’s actually deliberate and accurate).

Repeat after me: “No.”

Try it again. This time with conviction: “NO.”

Strategy is inherently about saying “no.” It’s about the choices we make and the choices we don’t. I’ve seen plenty of strategies completely derailed due to an inability to say “no” to that incremental initiative that’s kind of “on strategy” but not really. The more effective you are at saying “no” to non-core work and singularly focusing your team on the end vision you’ve laid out, the higher the likelihood of you achieving your strategic goals. Not saying “no,” on the other hand, leads to dilution of your efforts and strategy by incrementalism (which is rarely effective).

Let’s walk this logical strategic dog, shall we? Take the following points as true:

You know where you want to end up and what your overarching strategy is
You have a finite amount of resources at your disposal.
You’ve defined the 3-5 most critical initiatives to help you achieve your goal.
There are a substantial number of “cool” opportunities you could pursue in addition to those 3-5 you’ve already identified.

The last point is where things get hairy. Read more