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Goals should be specific and measurable and attainable.  In fact, there is an acronym about it:  SMART

SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time Sensitive.

Here are some simple examples:

Specific:  “I want to help 10 people per week” versus “I want to help a lot of people”

Measurable:  If we get 20 people visiting our business per day, how many of those actually buy?

Attainable:  Is there enough time to help 10 people on a weekly basis?

Realistic:  Do we have the staff to support 10 clients or customers per week?

Time Sensitive:  The goal is to be completed within 30 days but reviewed weekly.

Setting goals is one way to stay inspired and provides a way to quantify your accomplishments. Any goals you set should have one overall objective – to further your business in some way but be aware that some goal setting techniques can be more difficult than you might think. 

In fact, figuring out how to establish effective measurements for your goals can be one of the most challenging aspects of goal setting.

To learn how to set specific and measurable goals, please watch our webinar "Goal Setting and Motivation for Entrepreneurs".  We will teach you the magic of the PDCA method to keep your goals moving positively forward. It's a bargain at just $49!  To download the webinar, please visit: Goal Setting & Motivation

When you set up a sales meeting, most of the time your prospective client already has an idea how they might like to work with you.  If they didn’t, they wouldn’t agree to the meeting.  So before you launch into your big sales pitch, ask them questions like: “How do you envision working with us?”  “How may we help you?”  “What specifically interests you about our company?”

These types of questions will benefit you in three ways:

A.      They give you an immediate understanding of how the prospect wants to work with you

B.      Human nature being what it is, when the prospective client is allowed to share his/her thoughts, it automatically makes them feel like a partner, which in turn is the beginning of a relationship and if you are to work together successfully, you want to cultivate a healthy relationship

C.      While the other person is expressing his/her thoughts, you’ll have a chance to breathe, gather yourself and feel far more comfortable than if you sat down and immediately began speaking

Once the prospective client has expressed his/her ideas regarding how you might work together, then feel free to launch into your sales pitch but be sure to address those ideas.  Provide examples and anecdotes about how you’ve done “exactly that” for another client.

The worst that can happen is the client doesn’t sign up with you – and you already don’t have them!  So be you! Smile, be passionate and try to be relaxed.  You’ll get the clients you are supposed to have!

Concierge Business Solutions™ offers webinars in all areas of business management.  For more info or to download our Marketing and Networking webinar, please visit http://goo.gl/g24bul

How is it possible in this day and age that any company would not have email? Or know how to text? Or utilize a proper accounting software solution?

We find it absolutely astounding the numbers of people (and young-ish people to boot) who have yet to embrace technology but are trying to run a business. We understand the sheer volume of technological options can be intimidating but just to ignore all technology instead to rely on old manual methods is to handicap your business.  

This month, let us share one of our recent experiences with just such a situation.

Customers not only expect state-of-the-art, they demand it. 

Let me take a step back as this story requires a little prefacing.  We had been working with a particular vendor for many years.  This vendor provided a very popular service for us and recently we’ve been overwhelmed with requests for his services so we found it necessary to bring in another, similar company to help meet the demand.

The new company had equal quality but quite a bit better pricing so at first we thought, wow, maybe we should shift more of the work to the new company – better margins, equal quality – it was a sensible business decision.

But as it turned out, this new vendor doesn’t use hardly any technology.  They still use what we consider a non-professional ISP email account; they don’t check their email very often.  Texts are hit or miss and their version of an invoice is a 2MEG jpg photo of a receipt book.  No invoice number, no client name, no service date. Nothing.

AND, we had to chase the “invoices”.  This vendor was good, yes, and he was low cost, yes, but both those things meant nothing when we couldn’t get an invoice without multiple phone calls and constant requests.  The time it took to get those photos from him nearly ate up our profit margins. 

So, as it turned out, the lower cost was simply not worth the time it took to chase the invoices and reformat his jpg images into something we could print and use as an invoice.

The funny thing is this company has been in business almost 40 years.  They provide their service and collect payment in cash or check from their customers when they are finished.  They typically don’t bill anyone (or never have anyway) so they weren’t set up to work with a company like us and they haven’t modified their business model over the years to take advantage of the changes in technology, social norms or the growth of their company.

What about you?  Are you doing things the way you’ve always done them?  Or do you look for new technology to help you be more efficient? Do you keep your finger on the pulse of your industry?  Do you know what your clients need and want?

Remember too, a client is NOT just the actual client you service.  A “client” is anyone you come into contact with - the vendors with whom you work, your support staff, your employees, the people at your bank; pretty much everybody associated with, or who interfaces with, your company.

So when you’re looking for ways to grow and to be efficient, consider ALL your clients.  Do you offer full transparency?  Is it easy for them to work with you?  Is your paperwork concise and ‘paperless’?  Do you keep impeccable records?  Do you manage by exception? Do you focus on continuous process improvement?  Do you avail yourself of the best in apps, software solutions and other technology?

If you are unsure of what to use or how to pick the best solutions, let Concierge Business Solutions® give you a hand.  We are well versed in all sorts of solutions and how to best focus your time and efforts to get the absolute best bang for your buck (and time).

In fact, we even offer a proprietary data collection system, Essential Elements™ (http://goo.gl/lC4QvK) that supports many different industries. For more information about this and our other products and services, please visit our brand new website at www.conciergebusinesssolutions.com 

The most common challenge for growing companies is the ability to maintain the same high level of quality customer service you provided as a solopreneur.  Your policies and procedures become the vehicle through which you can help ensure that customer service.

When creating policies and procedures, it is important to detail all the steps required to doing any specific task.  Policies are an overview, procedures are specific.  And as there are primarily three different methods to learning (tactile, visual and auditory) it is important that any documentation take learning capabilities into consideration.

To learn more about how to create truly effective policies and procedures, order our webinar “Policies and Procedures” at http://goo.gl/T4zVSA 

Oftentimes entrepreneurs forget to look at their personal future during their company startup.... did you?

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Congratulations to Kim Newman and Consider It Done Concierge for taking their business to a whole new level - they are our newest Essential Elements™ software licensee! We look forward to working with you!

http://www.consideritdoneflorida.com/

Did you know the key to success when working with subcontractors or outsourcing is to treat them as extensions of your own organization? If your business' success relies on the use of subcontractors you want to take this class with President and CEO of Concierge Business Solutions Leslie Spoor.

She knows what it takes to work with hundreds of vendors, making them all work together, with over a decade in the aerospace industry and now with a lifestyle business. In this class she shares the tricks of the trade.

As a gift from Leslie, please use this special link to get her class “Vendor Networks-Creating Opportunities and Profits” at her special pricing.https://goo.gl/h2fS6t