Monday, July 30, 2012

THE CORPORATE PUZZLE

The 7 specific areas you need to consider in your franchise prototype process:
   Primary Aim
   Strategic Objectives
   Organizational Strategy
   Management Strategy
   People Strategy
   Marketing Strategy
   Systems Strategy

These 7 areas will fine turn your plan for the ultimate level of success. In this lesson we are going to cover the first three.



Primary Aim
It’s essential in business development to set goals and see a vision for the future. This needs to go beyond the business and you need to think about what you want out of life. What do you dream about? How do you see your success unfolding? Knowing and understanding these things will give you the momentum to get started and the stamina to see it through. Even take a minute to write them down and tape to your desk for a constant reminder of what you’re aiming for.



Strategic Objectives
These are essential in taking your business from surviving to thriving. All of these objectives should offer solutions for how to get to your primary aim. There are many things you can use to set strategic objectives, but here are a couple of the most popular:

1. Money: Setting monetary goals is a great, simple way to see how you are doing at any point in the game. It’s easy to measure and easy to find adjustments to help meet this goal.

2. Worthy Opportunities: When considering partnerships and other business opportunities you need to think about whether or not they will help you reach your primary aim. Those that will are the best opportunities to seriously consider.

The key in setting standards and goals is not to limit you or stress yourself out. You need to find some quantifiable things you can use to measure your progress toward your primary aim. These are just two suggestions, but make sure no matter what you standards you set you are paying attention to the details, as these are one of the biggest keys to your success.


Organizational Strategy
The strength of your organizational structure can make or break your business, so it’s important to take the time to put together a solid structure for your business to grow from. Generally a company is organized around the roles and responsibilities that need to be taken care of on a daily basis and the personalities that need to fulfill those roles.

No matter what roles and responsibilities you’ve defined for your employees, you must always keep your personal primary aim separate from your company’s primary aim or mission statement. Once you’ve identified the primary aim for your company it will be easy to set up a position structure that will work.


Don’t forget to put together position contracts. Your employees should sign a statement of their roles and responsibilities. This helps keep them clear for you, the employee and other employees/vendors or other individuals.

You can see how these areas all work together to build a solid structure on which to build your business. If you need help defining any of these areas, you can check out the resources, tools and speak with one of our fantastic coaches during your FREE test drive of our online Marketing Business School.  
Sign-up Today www.sweetspotmarketingacademy.ca

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author: Nancy Beth Guptill
Founder of Sweet Spot Marketing Canada
Digital Marketing & Social Media Training Consultant
http://www.SweetSpotMarketing.ca
http://www.SweetSpotInternetAcademy.ca
http://www.SweetSpotMarketingAcademy.ca
Twitter: @SweetMarketing
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SweetMarketing

About Sweet Spot Marketing:  Sweet Spot Marketing is a new media marketing training and education company that lives by the motto "It is better to know than to think you know, there is power in knowledge". We have a host of education programs in the areas of digital technology, new and social media, marketing automation, creativity, commercial innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. To learn how we work with government, business organizations and corporate clients, please book a complimentary assessment appointment: http://sweet-spot-marketing-canada.genbook.com

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Mortar Makes It Happen

Today I'd like to talk about the three keys to business development and how you can put the right bricks in place to build a solid foundation.


There are three main areas of business development:
   Innovation
   Quantification
   Orchestration


If done well these three areas will help you build a solid foundation for you business.  Let’s talk about each one of these for just a minute.


Innovation
Innovation should not be confused with creativity, which is the expression of ideas.  Innovation is taking these ideas and putting them into action. This is where a large amount of your focus should be in the beginning and even throughout your business’ entire lifespan.


Quantification
This, of course, refers to the numbers. We are talking about the value of your innovation. The best way to gauge this is by your customer response. Look to positive responses for what you are doing right‐and keep doing it. Look to your negative responses to find out what you’re doing wrong‐and fix it. This will enable you to keep growing and progressing with the needs of your customers and business climate.


Orchestration
Once you’ve had a chance to find what areas are working, you can narrow down those areas and concentrate on making them the stand out ideas. You shift your focus here to get the most out of your business and to meet the needs of your customers.  We can help you work through these three areas to put together your franchise prototype during your FREE test drive.


In the next few posts we are going to transition to the 7 specific areas you need to consider in your franchise prototype process:


   Primary Aim
   Strategic Objectives
   Organizational Strategy
   Management Strategy
   People Strategy
   Marketing Strategy
   Systems Strategy


These 7 areas will fine turn your plan for the ultimate level of success.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author: Nancy Beth Guptill
Founder of Sweet Spot Marketing Canada
Digital Marketing & Social Media Training Consultant
http://www.SweetSpotMarketing.ca
http://www.SweetSpotInternetAcademy.ca
http://www.SweetSpotMarketingAcademy.ca
Twitter: @SweetMarketing
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SweetMarketing

About Sweet Spot Marketing: Sweet Spot Marketing is a new media marketing training and education company that lives by the motto "It is better to know than to think you know, there is power in knowledge". We have a host of education programs in the areas of digital technology, new and social media, marketing automation, creativity, commercial innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. To learn how we work with government, business organizations and corporate clients, please book a complimentary assessment appointment: http://sweet-spot-marketing-canada.genbook.com

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

LinkedIn Training - Private Session

1)  LinkedIn Learning Centre:        
      http://learn.linkedin.com/what-is-linkedin/
       - Watch the Video 'What is LinkedIn'




2)  Creating Your LinkedIn Profile:  
      http://learn.linkedin.com/profiles/overview/


3) Account Settings:   




4)  User Guide for New Users:
     http://learn.linkedin.com/new-users/



5)  Business Development:  
      http://learn.linkedin.com/business-development/


6)  Tips for Non-Profits:   
      http://learn.linkedin.com/nonprofits/#organizations




7)  Training Resources:                   
      http://learn.linkedin.com/training/
      Free Webinars offered by LinkedIn




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author: Nancy Beth Guptill
Founder of Sweet Spot Marketing Canada
Digital Marketing & Social Media Training Consultant
http://www.SweetSpotMarketing.ca
http://www.SweetSpotInternetAcademy.ca
http://www.SweetSpotMarketingAcademy.ca
Twitter: @SweetMarketing
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SweetMarketing


About Sweet Spot Marketing: Sweet Spot Marketing is a new media marketing training and education company that lives by the motto "It is better to know than to think you know, there is power in knowledge". We have a host of education programs in the areas of digital technology, new and social media, marketing automation, creativity, commercial innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. To learn how we work with government, business organizations and corporate clients, please book a complimentary assessment appointment: http://sweet-spot-marketing-canada.genbook.com

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Are You In The 1%


The Rule of 1% is simply defined as adding to your customer service one percent at a time. Before you can do this you must have your consistency perfected or it will never work. This one percent may seem small, but if you approach the vision for your company with baby steps, you will find a huge increase over a solid chunk of time. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

Avoid doing too much at once or you’ll set yourself up for failure. Think of the confidence you and your employees will have when you improve one percent each week. By the end of a year, you’ll have improved more than 50%!

While rules and standards are necessary for growth, always be flexible with your best customers. Most retailers only allow a set number of items into a dressing room to reduce the risk of shoplifting, but it generally restricts the large percentage of people who are not stealing from you. Flexibility is the key to what you deliver to your customers and consistency is the key to how you deliver it.

The bottom line is customers rely on you to deliver what you promise. If you spend too much on bulky advertising that promises more than you can deliver, even your best intentions will unravel quickly and you will fail.

Focus on your vision and baby steps to turn your satisfied customers into Raving Fans.

I hope you’ve learned a lot about good customer service and how it’s essential to your overall success. If you need help with any of the steps we’ve gone through, try our FREE test drive of Sweet Spot Marketing Academyand get access to some of the best resources, tools and coaches available.  

In upcoming posts we’re going to explore strategies of attracting and closing business with the big clients ... and keeping them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author: Nancy Beth Guptill
Founder of Sweet Spot Marketing Canada
Digital Marketing & Social Media Training Consultant
http://www.SweetSpotMarketing.ca
http://www.SweetSpotInternetAcademy.ca
http://www.SweetSpotMarketingAcademy.ca
Twitter: @SweetMarketing
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SweetMarketing

About Sweet Spot Marketing: Sweet Spot Marketing is a new media marketing training and education company that lives by the motto "It is better to know than to think you know, there is power in knowledge". We have a host of education programs in the areas of digital technology, new and social media, marketing automation, creativity, commercial innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. To learn how we work with government, business organizations and corporate clients, please book a complimentary assessment appointment: http://sweet-spot-marketing-canada.genbook.com