written by Hans Finzel, CEO of World Venture

Leadership is a tough calling any way you slice it.  We leaders make things happen…. People try to stop us!  I believe I have the gift of leadership and I have been at it for thirty years.  We climb mountains, slay giants, and we often get beat up breaking up the big rocks that stand in the way of progress.

I can’t tell you how many times people have poured cold water on my hot vision.  I really take criticism hard—it takes me out emotionally.  I don’t want to get defensive, but underneath I do.  I thought I had a really tough job as the CEO of our international non-profit until I studied the leadership assignment of Moses.  Wow.  He had the hardest leadership task in all of the history of the Bible.  I admire him as one of history’s greatest leaders to learn from.   I guess he knew what was ahead when he was just a young man because he tried everything to reject the job offer God presented to him at a burning bush.   He read it over carefully and said, “thanks but no thanks!”   But his ploy didn’t work and he went on to accept the position of deliverer of Israel and lead with great effectiveness in one tough assignment after another over a span of forty years.

I have learned more than a thing or two about persevering in the trenches of leadership through this great man. There is so much wisdom to unpack in the way that Moses led so I wrote a book called “Top Ten Leadership Commandments.”

You can find out more information about Moses’ leadership assignment by going to  www.leadlikemoses.com.

One thing Paul was phenomenal at was his ability and divine passion to bring his message to “all the peoples of the earth.” Day after day, Paul would stay completely focused on his mission and plan to make sure that every single person around him was under the influence of what he had to say and was completely aware of his message. Nothing could stop him; literally, nothing but death.

How does this relate to you as an Entrepreneur and leader? Well, in every way, really. Your job, day in, day out, is to make sure that your message, story and mission are known to the people around you. Your are to be the evangelist of your product and/or service!

Make sure you’re spending time focusing on improving your communication skills to ensure that your message is spelled out clearly and spend time studying the habits and actions of those people like Saint Paul.

If you can stay focused on learning and developing your ability to articulate a picture via words and action, you’ll be successful in your endeavors.

Long before you started your business, you were an entrepreneur. You spent your evenings sharing your ideas with anyone who’d listen. Sleep came only after you sketched out your plans on the napkin from the pocket of your jeans. Soon you employed a team of friends willing to work for Subway sandwiches and a couch to sleep on. Low and behold, you eventually realized your dream – you built a product! On that same couch you now sit wondering why your product isn’t making you money. The problem isn’t your product. What you really need is a brand, the thing that lives in your customer’s mind that makes them all gushy inside. Step one in moving from “product” to “brand” requires infusing your product with qualities that humans actually care about. In short, your product needs a brand, and your brand needs character.

THE BIRTH OF A PRODUCT

1886 had been a less-than-eventful year for John Pemberton, a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia who enjoyed experimenting with “liquid tonics” in his 3-legged brass kettle. Tinkering with lime, cinnamon, and seeds of a Brazilian shrub, the doctor eventually settled upon an unusual elixir, and decided he’d attempt to sell his formula at the local pharmacy.

Sadly, Dr. Pemberton’s “brain tonic” wasn’t able to remedy his own declining health or his mounting debt. In a last-resort decision, the doctor sold his young business to a friend for two thousand dollars. The new owner, knowing a thing or two about business, built the brand into what we know today as Coca-Cola, worth 58 billion dollars.

THE BIRTH OF A BRAND

What was different about the new owner that caused Coca-Cola to skyrocket? Or in the famous words of Gregory Bateson, “What is the difference that makes the difference?” Coca-Cola’s new owner, Asa Candler, believed the success of the brand depended on the customer easily understanding, remembering, and relating to his product.

By using human language such as “cool and refreshing with a punch,” the savvy businessman did exactly this. Further, he designed a contoured glass bottle that was unique, easy to hold, and unlike any other. Lastly, he decided the Coca-Cola logo needed one distinct color that would be the ambassador for the brand. He decided upon a brilliant red that would stand out on a crowded shelf.

However, Candler’s genius was not in the beautiful calligraphy of the logo. Nor was Candler’s success attributed to the contoured glass bottle. Surely the red brand color was the defining ploy? Nope. Candler understood that every drink available solved the problem of thirst. Most drinks also solved this problem at a lower price that Coca-Cola.

The industry-changing factor that propelled Coca-Cola into a 50 billion dollar company was their uniqueness – or what we call in human terms, their character. Coca-Cola became synonymous with happiness, friendship, and fun. The world chose Coca-Cola for emotional and psychological reasons – not just because they were looking to quench their thirst.

ENDEARING BRANDS WIN ENDURING CUSTOMERS

At this point you’re thinking, “That’s great Seth, but my widgets are faster, lighter, and cheaper – which is all a good product really needs.” I congratulate you on your wonderful product, but if product features alone are “the difference that makes the difference”, Pepsi would have outsold Coca-Cola long ago.  Although Pepsi has tinkered with their taste formula again and again in an effort to win a taste test against Coca-Cola, they continue to sell less than their competitor. The reason? Customers expect more from their beverage than a liquid formula. Your product needs the same thing Coca-Cola has: character.

Imagine if tomorrow you woke up, brushed your teeth, and went in to work only find that your products had grown arms and legs and were carrying on conversations with one another. Perhaps a couple of rebel-products were rolling dice in the corner. You quietly hide behind a desk and observe their culture. Flabbergasted, you realize that your products are far more intelligent, funny, and relatable than you ever realized! Casting a glance over to the loading dock, you notice that your products have actually made friends with pedestrians passing by. For the first time ever, customers are attracted to your products because they have character!

Perhaps this may seem silly, but in some ways this story is more accurate than the story you tell about your brand while on sales calls. Learn how to see your brand as a living, breathing creature with qualities humans can learn to love. If you saw your product as an animated Pixar character, like Buzz Lightyear, you’d speak of it as more than just a toy.

3 STEPS TO INFUSING CHARACTER

1. Write down a list of character traits that describe your brand. Perhaps you sell cupcakes in a quaint corner store. Your brand character may include words like innocent, lovable, and quirky. Maybe your brand sings in the shower, and forgets to match her socks before heading out the door?
2. Position your brand according to those human qualities. Customers react to consistency, so you must go the extra mile to infuse life and character into every corner of your brand experience. This means your Facebook page must use language that is consistent with your menu. Your purchasing experience is consistent with your parking experience. Your product design is consistent with your customer support resources. And on and on it goes. Over 100 years after Coca-Cola was introduced, they are still producing the same formula. We know and love the fact that we can rely on that consistency.
3. Strip your brand of inconsistent products or features. Apple is a great example of a company that provides a wide family of products that play well together. My iPhone snuggles quite nicely with my iPad. They share information, and yet they each play a unique and distinct role for me.

SUMMARY

I’m not claiming that your product doesn’t need to be faster, lighter, and cheaper. That may very well be a requirement for your customers. I’m merely saying that those features alone won’t win your customer’s heart. Like Coca-Cola, learn how to see your brand as something that evokes emotion, feelings, and memories. Create lists of words that will help you articulate those feelings, and don’t forget to position your brand accordingly! Finally, have the courage to remove features or entire products that are inconsistent with your brand character. In the end, you’ll enjoy products and customers that will endure long after your gone.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Seth Cox helps visual media artists develop brands of character, on course, in community. Seth is a Creative Director at Venture Visuals, a visual media agency in Santa Barbara, CA. Seth is also the founder of Cinemob, a community of video production artists committed to connection, inspiration, and education. Seth and his wife Leanna live in Santa Barbara and are active leaders in their local church, Reality.

www.twitter.com/ventureseth

www.venturevisuals.com

www.facebook.com/thecinemob

If you’re not already producing articles, you should give them some consideration. Well-written content that is released for free distribution have the potential of increasing a small business’s credibility as well as attracting new clients.

If writing is not your forte, there are hundreds of sites that offer writing services, such as TheWritersForHire.com, seo-writer.com, and writingassist.com where you can set a budget for a project and post the job for hire. Believe it or not, another great resource for writers is right in your hometown at the local university or college. Interns will often jump at the opportunity to write articles for school credit. You can post writing jobs in the college career center or call on the intern division in the marketing department.

Once an article is written and edited, make sure you read submission guidelines to ensure timely approval and posting. After that, the next step is making sure as many people read it as possible. Here are four tips on how to make an article go viral online:

1. Post on discussion boards and forums. Post snippets of your article or the article title in forums and on discussion boards that are related to your target market or topic focus. Don’t forget to include your full name and website or blog URL where the article is located.

2. Compile articles into an e-book. For example, if you own a gym and want to get more people in to work out, offer an e-book on the top 10 ways to motivate yourself to get to the gym. Distribute these e-books either through your website, to your e-mail list or via a safelist — a membership-based e-mail list often used by marketers that allows you to send your content to anyone who has signed up. Give your readers the right to distribute them as well. If your e-book is for sale, offer to share revenue if readers distribute it to their list and sell it. This is called an affiliate marketing program.

3. Write a variety of articles. The trick to reaching a massive amount of people is to create a variety of articles. For example, if you want to promote your public relations service, you could post content on how to write an article, how to come up with attractive article titles, what’s the right format and ideal word count, how and where to distribute the articles, how to submit to hundreds of article directories
within the shortest time, etc.

4. Add a disclosure statement. These should go at either the end or bottom of each article. They should say something like, “This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any e-zine, newsletter, blog or website. The author’s name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.”

Whatever your reasons for considering entrepreneurship instead of formal employment, there are a few traits you will need to cultivate in order to succeed.

1. Passion

It sounds like a no brainer, but the most important factor in your success in entrepreneurship is passion for your business. We’ve all had jobs we hate, and let’s face it – it doesn’t inspire you to work incredibly hard, or give your all, does it? Don’t think just because you are working for yourself, that will change!

If you’re bored to tears or just plain hate working on your business, you’re unlikely to give it the energy it needs to succeed. So find something you love doing, and you will have a solid foundation for building a successful new business venture.

2. Plan, Plan, and Then Plan Some More

There’s an old saying ‘Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.’ That’s never been more true than when applied to entrepreneurship.

You need concrete, quantifiable goals, as well as a 30, 60, 90 day strategy on how to get there. Having a plan provides a framework, something fixed to work toward, which will help keep you focused. Get your eyes on the prize and a plan onto paper before you start trying to set up your new business. A handy trick is to imagine your goal is already achieved, and then think back through the steps it took to get there.

3. Be Disciplined

It sounds romantic and exciting to “be the boss,” doesn’t it? Trust me – it’s not, especially at first anyway. In fact, before you get to that fancy corner office with five assistants, there is going to be a lot of blood, sweat and tears poured into your entrepreneurship dream. You need to work harder for yourself, and your business goals, than you ever would for any boss. That means an unlimited and indefinite amount of hours dedicated toward achieving your goal – keeping your nose firmly to the grindstone. Remember, luck is an accumulation of hard work.

4. Be a Cheapskate

Whether you have a big budget or not when you first venture into the game of entrepreneurship, you need to learn the value of frugality – bootstrap your way to success. Most small businesses fail to take time to break-even, let alone become profitable. Thus, when you’re starting out, finding cheaper and more innovative ways to accomplish tasks is one of the best skills you can learn. Think outside of the box and in terms of leverage. The longer you can stretch your capital, and the more you can save – the better for your business and your mental sanity.

5. Understand That You Are Always Marketing and Selling

ABS – Always Be Selling. Most of us think that marketing and sales is a task. However, when you jump into the wonderful world of entrepreneurship – more than at any other time in your life – everything is about marketing and selling. Don’t be shy to network, discover what your clients want, and broadcast to others that you want their business.

Treat every moment as a selling opportunity, and you will see results:

• Carry business cards with you everywhere
• Have a thirty second pitch ready at all times
• Make a point of meeting people who are your target market – those who should buy your product/service

6. Know That Your Client Is the Most Important Person in Your Business

Success or failure in entrepreneurship hinges on your ability to make your clients want to do business with you. Since repeat business is the backbone of any successful business – your client’s happiness should be priority number one.

Remember the little things. Something as simple as calling a customer back can swing the balance in your favor. Always, always, always put your client first. Build relationships, and you will see your business grow right alongside them.

7. Remember That In Business, Image Is Important

Okay, this one is a bit of a catch twenty-two. You need a professional business image, but you haven’t got the budget. Luckily though, projecting the right image is not all about flashy cars and the right business address. With the information age, you can work from your living room and still have a professional image.

All you need to do is:

• Make sure you are always well dressed and well spoken
• Have a professional looking (not necessarily expensive) website and email address
• Have professional looking business cards

When you’re first starting out, simply focus on little things – those which you can control with the resources you have. The fancy business address can come later, but make sure to get the basics right first.

And….. Now for the Good News

If you’re reading this and wondering where to start on your quest for entrepreneurship, there is one good piece of news for you. Entrepreneurs are not born – they are made.

If some of these things seem beyond you, learn them. Take a course in selling if you have to. Download planning software if you need some help becoming organized. Figure out where your weaknesses are, and work on them in small bits each and every day. In the aggregate you will achieve an exponential return on your investment.

Everyone has the capacity for entrepreneurship in some respect, if you want it bad enough (and you can), success will undoubtedly find you.

They gave up and gave in because they thought everything had gone wrong.

Yet it had not. What they were experiencing was not a disaster or a sign of misdirection but a natural part of an unspoken procedure, an unavoidable course of action that they were destined to come across the moment they took their first step as a mover and shaker.

If you are such a person, then I this for you, because to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

For this introduction, however, let me simply say this… Jesus longs for pioneers.

“Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way.”
Hebrews 12:1-2 [The Message]

A pioneer is a person or group that originates or helps open up a new line of thought or activity or a new method or technical development.

A pioneer creates a path for others where none previously existed.
Imagine an old war movie where a small unit of soldiers must take the enemy’s gun position.

A wall of barbed wire lies between them and their objective. So one of the soldiers, probably the bravest, runs out and throws himself upon the barbed wire. Lying fullystretched out on top of it, his body creates a path. The other soldiers then run single file across his back in order to gain the victory.

There are several reasons why Jesus needs pioneers.

1. Pioneers inspire others.
God used the stories of pioneers to call me to do what I do. Hudson Taylors, Jackie Pullinger and Loren Cunninghams were all missionaries who inspired me to reach into a mission field… schools. Now I have trained something like 1200 missionaries and put them in schools on four continents. Pioneering is exciting because exciting people get involved!

2. Stories inspire stories.
People listen to pioneers. Let me ask a question: Who was the first man on the moon? Neil Armstrong, right? And what did he say? “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Let me ask you another question: Who was the second man on the moon? Buzz Aldrin, right? And what did he say?
Who cares?!

Think about it. People who get asked the questions are often not the ones with letters after their names, but the ones who create something new. They are inventors of a new way of thinking or doing.

3. The signal of a pioneer lasts.
In 1972, NASA launched Pioneer 10, an exploratory space probe, with the primary target of reaching Jupiter.

Pioneer 10 surpassed expectations and its target, as Jupiter’s immense gravity hurtled the satellite onward towards the edge of the solar system, passing Saturn and Neptune as well. Six billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 continued to beam radio signals to scientists on earth. And what was the most surprising thing? That signal emanated from an eight-watt transmitter as powerful as a bedroom night light and took nine hours to reach the earth. With a ‘life’ of just three years, Pioneer 10 kept going for over three decades.

The signal of a pioneer is simply their story and statement. Such as…
Martin Luther King, Jr.: “I have a dream.”

Winston Churchill: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Jesus Christ: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.?
People are captured by the statement, but they will read your story.

I truly believe that when the Church raises up pioneers, the world will come to hear what the Church has to say.

1.) Utilize the public library. We need to stay educated. But with education comes a high price, right? Well, not necessarily! In most cities and towns located around the nation there is at least one public library. The public library is FREE and it provides you with thousands of pieces of literature that most will spend thousands of dollars on.

2.) Outsource your repetitive work needs. Why hire on full-time employees with average skill sets in multiple categories when you can outsource your specific need to an expert in the field who does freelance work? You’ll save hundreds, even THOUSANDS of dollars over time and will even see greater work production and quality. This will also save you in having to establish additional salaries and will only force you to pay out when additional work is needed.

3.) No meeting with clients= no need for an office. There is no sense in paying rent fees for an office if you’re never meeting with clients. You can either work from home, Panera, Starbucks, etc and save THOUSANDS of dollars over a period of just a single year. Most places even offer free WiFi and can provide you with meeting rooms at zero cost to you!

4.) Oh, the beauty of Google Docs. Google docs are perfect! This is a free way to collaborate on projects, stay organized, and can be accessed from anywhere with it’s cloud storage (no network needed).

5.) Carefully plan your business traveling expenses. Using webinars, Skype for video conferences, etc. can dramatically cut down on the costs you typically spend on traveling all over. This also saves your precious time; which also equals money!

6.) Ask for free stuff. What’s the worst that can happen besides hearing “no”? You’d be surprised on the number of free services and helping hands you’d get by simply not being afraid to ask for it. Remember, being a cheap skate in the start-up stages really isn’t being a cheap skate at all; it’s being smart.

7.) Find some college interns. Finding some hungry, driven college interns to help you out is a great way to get things done. By doing this you benefit in task execution and they benefit from it by gaining experience, possible college credits and another source to add to their resume.

8.) Cloud storage over paper filing. The best thing you could possibly do for your storage needs is to use Dropbox. Face it, using paper files gives you a headache, consumes your time in creating new folders and costs you an arm and a leg to constantly be purchasing more file folders and cabinets. On the other side of this, cloud storage options makes information accessibility much easier for your employees.

9.) Eliminate unnecessary costs. Make sure to review all of your monthly subscriptions and commitments. There is no reason to pay extra for things that you aren’t utilizing to the full capacity. Plus, you’ll be surprised on the number of things you probably don’t utilize AT ALL.

10.) Do things yourself. Why hire on extra employees when you can do most of the things yourself? Sure, it may take a little more of your time, but it will save you thousands of dollars annually on additional salaries. There’s a time and place for additional hiring, but if you’re in the infant start-up stage, that time isn’t now.

Did this help you at all? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

A good idea will always cure your own sickness. By this I mean, the best way to create a great product or service is by developing something that you’d actually use yourself. By being inside your own market, you obtain the wonderful opportunity of knowing if your idea is poor-or is a homerun. Here at Identity, we use all of our own information, training resources and tools. We’re young entrepreneurs; therefore, it just fits!

Since the point of business is to cure sickness, you should always start by thinking about what people are sick of. The easiest way to go about this is by brainstorming about the things you think function poorly in this world. For example, do you wish there was an easier way to clean your kitchen? Do you wish you could travel from point A to point B without having to use C? Are the current solutions to these problems horrible in your opinion? You will encounter many things throughout your days that you wish would operate or perform better. Make a long list of these things and tuck them away in a folder in your Email. You will be surprised how many you come across when you have somewhere to stick them.

Below are some frequently avoided questions that inexperienced entrepreneurs forget to ask when coming up with ideas. We recommend you answer these questions with a group (3-4 people) that can maintain an optimistic yet realist perspective. By doing this exercise solo, you can end up with a dump truck of confidence in an idea that only one person on the whole planet likes. And guess who that one person will be?

1.) What sickness do you have? Can you cure it? Keep a pen and paper with you all day for a week and commit to writing down a minimum of 5 ideas a day. This is a great exercise to get the creative juices flowing. If you already have a cure, skip this question and take your group carefully through the following questions.

2.) Can you achieve your purpose with it? It is very important that your idea provides purpose. Can this idea HELP you achieve your purpose? Can you get creative like Sevenly and achieve your purpose through a product? Will this idea make you feel like you’re doing what you were born to do? Or is it only about making money? Remember, consumers don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

3.) How hard is it to get into that business? Does it fit a niche? Moving your market into a niche allows you to go “niche hatching”. This is a process where you can start with, say, graphic designers, photographers, videographers, etc. Hatching each one in a time period then moving to the next market.

4.) Can you avoid reinventing the wheel? The main reason people try and reinvent the way is because they don’t know what has already been done. Ignorance, one way or another, is the leading cause of wasted effort everywhere. people who don’t spend time studying the market they’re trying to join are bound to reinvent something, and likely not as well. There are only so many ways to develop a T-shirt company, an e-commerce website, or even a nightclub. Instead of wasting time in further brainstorming, ask if anyone else has done something similar. Then ask yourself, can I do it better?

5.) Can you develop a perceived need? This will mostly pertain to your marketing efforts. Will your product be easy or hard to explain to the consumer? Start-ups with complex systems or processes have less chance of success. Keep it simple and be sure to you could explain why a customer needs your product or service in less than 5 seconds.

6.) Can this really make money? In reality, how much annually? Many novice entrepreneurs get into the business of being poor. They spend months on business ideas that realistically can never reach the goals they have set for their lives. Keep in mind the astronomical amount of hours that you’ll be investing and be sure that you don’t find yourself making $50K per year but only $3.00 an hour. The best way to avoid this is to be completely real with yourself when answering this question.

7.) How much are the start-up costs? Don’t fall in to the common thought that a hugely profitable business takes massive start-up capital. Some of the largest companies in the world started on less than $50,000.

8.) Does it require manufacturing a physical product? If you’re thinking big, like iPod status, which requires huge over head costs for prototyping and development, that’s just fine. But make sure you have huge capital to back up that start-up cost decision. A great rule of thumb is if you can avoid manufacturing a product, you can avoid huge start-up costs. Then again, where the costs are large that profits tend to be too.

Remember, it’s important to identify the “Why” behind your business idea. People don’t buy what you do, but also WHY you are doing it.

Every single one of these business owners thought that they had a “great” idea, which is not to say that their businesses failed entirely because their idea was poor. Statistically, 50% of businesses fail due to their marketing and communications. What about the other 50%? Was their business idea not as good as they thought it was?

This statistic begs the question to be asked: What is a good business idea?

It entirely depends on who the idea belongs to! A Chef who has been cooking food for restaurants for thirty years is not going to be prepared to launch an online subscription-based enterprise like a web-developer would be. Same goes for the web-developer; he’s not going to build websites for thirty years then pick up and step in to the kitchen as a chef and start opening restaurants, right? Although they might have some awesome, innovative ways that could impact the industry, they might not be the right person to implement those ideas.

Personally, our staff is always coming up with new business ideas. Some good, some bad, and some flat out stupid. The scary part is that in the beginning phases of developing that idea, we all thought that the idea was good! Not entirely so.

Lets get some conversation going: What ideas for business have you had? Did they fit you as a person?

It should be noted that before studying the future of the economy and business, especially the plans for yourself, your family, and your company, that there is a huge God factor to be considered. Even in the best of economies, God is in control. And when things look darkest, God is in control. We then, are to be stewards of our businesses whether in smooth sailing or in the storms of life.
But when the storms of life do come, it is imperative that we be prepared. You must be all the more “On Your Game”. Jesus points out, “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace”. Luke 14:31-33

On the other hand, it is also important NOT TO GET TANGLED UP in the worries of this world. In the book of Isaiah 8:11-13 we are told, “For thus the Lord spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, You are not to say, `It is a conspiracy!’ in regard to all that this people call a conspiracy, And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread.”

So consider the following to be a call to action…an appeal to be the best stewards we can; to stop pointing helplessly at “The Economy” as a reason for impasse, but to take up the tools we have been given and to do as Colossians 3 instructs to do our work with our whole hearts. What does it look like to act as if our Whole Heart is in it? Is there more we can do? Are there pieces of business and financial wisdom we have yet to employ or access? What is your stewardship in this matter?

The following are points of advice from Howard’s presentation, roughly interpreted. While it can be argued that these are fundamental and obvious, the question is not how well known these are but how well heeded.

1. Plan for risk in the entire system (systemic risk)
You can protect and diversify against most elements of risk in any economy, but you cannot diversify your way out of systemic risk. Plan with that risk in mind

2. Plan for multiple scenarios
Make a plan for the Best Case, Worst Case, and Probable case. This will ensure you have studied the thought processes for each, and then set trigger points at which plan B or plan C go into effect if Plan A falters. This is a basic of any economic plan, but so much more important when distress is anticipated.

3. Be agile, anticipate and react quickly
There are elements of agility. Agility in the workforce can be maintained by avoiding hiring employees and using clever methods to fill capacity (temporaries, overtime). Agility in overhead and operations may be increased by avoiding excessive brick and mortar commitments, long term leases and purchases, avoiding large equipment and machine commitments, etc. There are also agile methods that can be employed in pricing, customer interfaces, product line changes, inventory levels, etc. Strategic agility may be achieved by launching side by side initiatives, double betting, stepwise deployment, and avoiding the 800 Lb. Gorilla.

4. Mitigate risk by minimizing fixed costs
How can you lower the fixed costs in the organization? Some of these are mentioned in the agility note in 3 above. Travel light.

5. Get Lean, minimize defects (6 Sigma), and continuously improve
Lean manufacturing is the science of reducing waste and any kind of cost in the processing or manufacturing of products and services that your customer will not be willing to pay more for (non-value added). Get rid of waste, added steps that don’t contribute to value, redundancies, and wasted time. Reduce cycle times to the minimum (this by itself will simplify and reduce costs). Reduce the footprint of space needed to get any given job accomplished. Reduce the amount of material, paper, parts, pieces, etc. to complete the work. Reduce the amount of unnecessary travel a part or project needs to travel to be completed. Reduce handoffs. Reduce suppliers. Reduce labor hours. Reduce elapsed time. Reduce opportunities for mistakes to happen. Reduce paperwork. All of the time and money saved will benefit your customer in cost of goods and will accelerate both your business and customer’s time to market.

6. Reduce inventory: Buy JIT, Optimize Purchase Volume, Order Quantities, Finished Goods
Don’t be tempted to over-purchase in order to save a few dollars. The hidden costs of too much inventory are seldom discovered (until it’s too late). Obsolescence, errors, spoilage, storage space, retrieval, cost of money, and many more factors go into work on materials and components that are purchased before their time. JIT should be a practice you learn, whether or not you can optimize it to the nth degree. If you can reduce inventory by 10, 25, 50, or 75 percent, you will realize proportional savings. You will find urgency in this area once you discover those hidden costs. Better to be proactive today than to find out when it’s too late. But you will not get started until the costs are no longer hidden.

7. Build Revenues!
No matter how well you get your costs down, there is no future in allowing revenues to stagnate. This has been a huge challenge for most businesses since the recession came to us a few years ago. Orders stopped coming in automatically. When we realized this, many of us expected the “Cheese” to just continue showing up. When it did not, many went out of business. Those who began to realizing “what causes sales” acted by increasing lead generation and sales activity. These Sales and Marketing plans and initiatives will be required of us in an ever increasing way as our competitors start realizing also that this is the way of the future. We must stay ahead of our competition in this area, which will require work, discipline, and investment. Find the resources needed to make progress in this area sooner than later.

8. Aim for Long Term Gains for Increased Tax Protection
Don’t make short term decisions that penalize you long term in the form of taxes. In fact, don’t make any material financial decisions without expert tax counsel. Find expert resources that are agile as well and can answer spot questions as you go through your plans and implementation.

9. Target Payroll/Headcount/OH for Reductions
How can you get more done with fewer employees…not just by working your team to the bone, but by reducing redundancy, fluff, double efforts, and non value added work? There are top executive duties, staff duties, middle management duties, and clerical duties. Most entrepreneurial leaders model awful task management methods to their companies. Many leaders are consumed doing the jobs of other people. This mismanagement is then the example of “how it gets done here”. If leaders would pay attention to the amount of redundancy, rework, and tail chasing going on in their companies they could conserve a lot of salary dollars. We justify it by saying that “We don’t have the kind of people that can handle these duties. Only I can get this done correctly”. But we pay others to complete these tasks, so what are we getting for those salary dollars?

10. Get the Most out of Each Player on Your Team
All of us know of an organization (our own?) where employees are working less than 100% contribution level but protection of sacred cows, inactive partners, etc. have been allowed to stay on far too long. Success in the future will demand of us actions in confronting these areas of unnecessary and avoidable costs.
Involve each player on your team in the process of managing the company. Find out their insights. Get their input. Employ their ideas. Go with their impressions. Use their discernment. Capture their passions. Share the vision, mission, plan, and results of the company with your team and feel the acceleration they can bring.

11. Avoid Tax Exposure: Reinvest in Productivity
It’s never good to just spend money to avoid paying tax, but if we are wise, we can get a big lift out of the investments made. This is especially true where productivity gains can be made and enhanced customer access to your company. One example is handheld devices (like Rental Car Return) in the field to report in estimates, invoices, schedule, etc. Websites can be used for more than just another pretty face. Consider allowing customers to get quotes on line, or access shipment schedules, work progress, and even order entry over the Internet. What about labor savings with new machine technology, automated software, more functional office space. Stay ahead of your competition this way and make the investments pay off.

12. Minimize Borrowing/Reduce Interest Expense and Stay Liquid
You cannot avoid debt totally in most cases, but make sure any debt incurred is calculated shrewdly for its ROI. Companies with higher debt will have trouble competing on price, speed, and agility. Try to run financial models with and without debt and be sure you can afford the downside before borrowing more. If possible, collect outstanding receivables as an alternative to borrowing more. Keep plenty of “dry powder” for the battle.

13. Use short term loans
Instead of taking on long term notes and liability and interest costs, consider short term loans and rapid repayment where appropriate. Get tax advice prior to borrowing.

14. Accelerate collections, always have a full time person on A/R
This is one of those obvious low hanging fruit areas, but few people actually can tell you how many days of sales their receivables represent. Few leaders track their collections efficiency and the amount of money outstanding. They just assume they are optimizing. Do you employee the best people and practices to keep your receivables to a minimum? Are you using your capital or are your customers borrowing from you?

15. Use Caution When Taking or Offering Discounted A/Rs
You should know the actual value or cost of discounts before offering or taking them in business. A few percentage points add up quickly. Analyze before deciding when to act or decline.

16. Hire multi-disciplinary workforce
It makes sense if you want to remain agile that you hire employees and staff that are agile to begin with. Without sacrificing the quality of your candidates, you can be more selective and seek candidates that are skilled and experienced in more than one silo of organizational management. Financial managers with skills in Operations or Distribution or Contracts Management can be especially valuable. Or if the Operations head has experience with IT and Accounting, it will enhance in cost controls and scheduling. Add to this cross training at every level and a lean/mean organization and you will remain much more competitive.

17. Use interim/PT management
Interim management is a concept of the future. There are large organizations where highly qualified senior executives can be found to help run your business. When a role is vacated, most people rush out to fill the vacancy with the first person that comes along who appears to have the qualifications. But highly qualified interns on the other hand can be hired to fill these roles and do great work preparing the way for the person who will eventually take that position. They can also be the transitional manager/coach to make sure the new person is a “hit” during the onboarding process.
In the case of part time executives, why choose between having either a good HR director or a CFO when you can have a professional manager in each role, only on a part time basis. We have all grown up in a world where full time people are the rule rather than the exception. But considering many roles in management can be accomplished effectively in less than 40 hours, the future will involve optimizing the staff and hours worked. With that in mind, you may be able to have great managers in many department roles in your organization for roughly the price of partial staffing.

In summary, “Execution is the Chariot of Genius”. William Blake. Those who act will be much more likely to survive the storm. “Put your trust in God and keep your powder dry” Oliver Cromwell. Oh, and also “Join Convene” -Jeff Abbott