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| Greetings!
Welcome to the Impossible Futures IF Newsletter - a monthly guide to generating greatness in your business.
Our goal here isn't to simply provide you with another newsletter that tells you all the things that you should be doing to build a more profitable business - there are hundreds if not thousands already out there that do that. Our goal is to give you one or two actionable things, simple things that you can do - right now - in your business that will show results.
As a subscription holder you will receive our monthly newsletter, which includes simple tips and articles on how to dramatically improve your business.
Inside this edition, is an article called "Measure what you want to improve", that continues to build on October's article on the "Seven Steps to Business Success", our book summary of the month, E-Myth - Revisited, and our latest additions to the newsletter, a Spotlight article on one of our clients and a Tip of the Month.
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to any and all of your friends and family who you think might be interested in it.
We look forward to a long relationship with each and every one of our subscribers, clients, friends and family.
Thank you, Don and JJ |
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Measure What You Want To Improve
by JJ Reich
 It is a standard business axiom that "You can't manage what you don't measure." What does that mean? Let's examine this axiom to figure out how it can help you improve the performance of your company.
Management, in business terms, can be defined as directing a group and making decisions that will lead toward the accomplishment of a goal.
We are all pretty comfortable with directing a group - telling them what to do and when to do it, but what about making decisions that lead toward the accomplishment of a goal, do we know how to do that?
That is a bit tougher, because when it comes to reaching a goal, you must know whether you are getting closer to or further away from the goal with each decision you make. You need to know if you are improving your business or making things worse. Basically, in order to make sure that you are getting closer to your goals, you need to be measuring the things that you want to improve - hence the business axiom. And few small business owners actually do.
What kinds of goals are we talking about here? Most people like to use the acronym SMART for goal setting. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Timely.
Full Article
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This Month's Book Summary
E-Myth - Revisited
Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It.
by Michael E. Gerber
The E-Myth, or Entrepreneurial Myth,
says that most new businesses are not started by entrepreneurs who
set out to build a strong business but by technicians who enjoy the
hands-on work themselves and are tired of "working for the man".
Because of this natural bias to wanting to do the technical work,
most business owners focus on working "in their business"
and not "on their business".
There is, however, a simple and
effective way to offset the E-Myth tendency. Instead of looking at
the business as a one of a kind facility, the owner should, from the
onset of business development, consider his business as a prototype
franchise which can be sold or duplicated at any time. By adopting
this mindset, owners will not only act as a technician (doing the
work they love and excel at), but will also act as a manager (putting
systems and controls in place) and as an entrepreneur (having a
vision of how the business can create sustainable value for all
stakeholders).
A business that is built and managed by
someone who combines the approach of the technician, the manager, and
the entrepreneur will have a far greater chance of future success
than one guided by someone thinking like a technician alone.
The book is divided into three parts:
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Basic E-Myth Concepts and Principals
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Using a Turn-Key or Franchise Perspective
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An E-Myth Principal Based Business Development Process To read the rest of the summary with a breakdown of all three sections, click here.
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Tip of the Month
Ask your best customers what they like about your company and duplicate it again and again.
That sounds simple - but few businesses actually do it.
Most business owners do the exact opposite, they try to find out what's not working and stop doing it. So they listen to their dissatisfied customers and stop doing what isn't working. That's important, but it doesn't create greatness - and it doesn't create "loyal customers". It only creates a good company with "content customers".
"Loyal Customers" are customers that love your business and tell their friends about it - they are the best marketing tool you have. Unfortunately, most businesses only enjoy about 3-5% of their customers being "raving fans".
Conversely, 80-90% of most customers are "content", just waiting for you to screw-up (as they know you will) or waiting for someone better to come along. That is a huge opportunity for growth. The business that can successfully bring in "loyal customers" and / or convert their "content customers" into loyal ones will steal market share from everyone else who doesn't.
Your goal needs to be to duplicate customer loyalty again and again with more and more customers. Make this the "promise" that you make to all of your customers - make it your marketing message.
And deliver on that promise again and again!
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SPOTLIGHT
on
Creating Smiles Daily!A little over 23 years ago, Joann and Keith Guenther, a mother and son team, had a dream. Their Dream was to turn a passion for flowers and making people smile into a successful business. Starting out as a small flower cart near the Penn's Landing area of downtown Philadelphia, they took a chance. And it has paid off!! Today, All Occasions Flowers is a business that has gross sales in excess of $4 Million, over 30 employees and is an icon in Center City Philadelphia. Operating out of two locations, one at the corner of 10th and South and the other near the river front on Tasker Street, All Occasions is a company that combines a unique blend of traditional feel and modern vision.
Mission Statement
Thru flowers and gifts,
we build personal and professional relationships.
Vision
Best in class florist, built on a foundation of integrity
and focused on building a family relationship
with our customers and employees. In todays fast paced world, we tend to loose connection with the people that matter most to us. Our friends, our family, and even our co-workers rarely know how much they really mean to us - how we really feel about them. All Occasions specializes in heartfelt and thoughtful gifts that express your deepest feelings
Call them today at 1-800-443-5672 to speak to one of their gifting specialists. They will help you find a very special way to express how you feel to the people most important to you. Or you can visit their website, www.aoflowers.com and see for yourself what they are all about.
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