I always believed that being a member of the Royal Australian Air Force gave me a great foundation for my life, both professionally and personally.  The things I learnt from my time in the military have been invaluable to my business success.  The expansive skill set of strategic planning, competitive intelligence, decision making, leadership development, high standard enforcement, and innovation in execution are just a few of the skills that I walked away with.

When I first started out in business, I looked at the skills I had, but then quickly realised that to be effective, I needed to translate them from a military context, into a context that would provide me with the greatest value to my business.

I am reminded of these skills whenever the end of the year is upon me, as I normally will spend the last couple of months of the year planning and preparing for the next year. 

Here are three of the skills from the military that I find most useful for my business:

Intelligence:  In the military, there is always a systematic and ongoing analysis of competitors.  Understanding and reviewing the intelligence of your competition allows you to stay alive!  So when was the last time you spent time studying your competitors?  Do you know who your top five competitors are and what can you learn from them?

Action Step: Before now and the end of the year, take time to identify your top 10 competitors.  Use the questions set out in my previous article – Competition is not a Dirty Word and diligently work through these questions, so you have a better understanding of what your competitors are doing.  Use this information to either make changes to what you are currently doing or allow it to show you that what you currently do is cutting-edge. 

Planning and Preparation:  The military are known for their comprehensive and structured planning – which they do very well.  Not only is the planning  comprehensive, but it is timely and well executed.  There are only 64 days until 2011 hits us – have you begun to put together your strategic plan for 2011?  What are your goals and targets?  Have you started to develop your 2011 Marketing Plan?  Remember that 90% of all small businesses don’t have a marketing plan in place.  Make sure you are one of the 10% that does.

Action Step:  Block out time between now and January 1st to plan for 2011.  If you're not sure what you need to do here, now is the time to identify the specific type of support you need to help you develop your plan.  Get clear on this, and 2011 will be your best year.

Leadership Development:  The value of a great military leader was more than just what they did, it was how they did it, how they made decisions, lead their teams and presented themselves overall.  Many had to learn to be great leaders, and often in very trying circumstances.  I often find that when working with SME’s, they either don’t understand or don’t see the importance of being a strong leader.  But I would like to challenge you to think about this differently, whether you are a solopreneur or have a small team, your leadership skills and development is vitally important. 

Action Step: Please don’t make the mistake of not seeing yourself as a leader.  Take time to create a vision of the leader you would like to be and see the impact this can have on your business.

I look forward to hearing how you plan to spend your next 64 days.  Feel free to let me know.

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Client Satisfaction - What are your ideas/strategies for extraordinary client satisfaction?

Would love to know what you think......Please take a moment to share your thoughts. Tweet

 

  Do you have a mission statement?  If so, what is it and how
  does it help/assist you with your business success?

  Would love your thoughts, so please take a moment to share!  Tweet

I was reading a report last week that said that only 10% of small businesses in America take the time to properly develop a marketing strategy. It made me think that if this was happening in the US, I’m sure the figures would be similar regardless of where you are in the world. Why is it that you may start a business, but decide not to put a plan into place of how to grow your livehood? If you were heading out on a road trip to a new destination, my guess is that you would have some type of map, whether it be a GPS, a list of directions or a good old-fashioned map. It just makes sense to know where you’re going!

Often when I begin working with my mentor clients, and we begin to speak about their marketing strategy, they overcomplicate the process and aren't quite sure what this needs to look like or be for them. And, I need to let you know that in some cases, these are woman and man who have been in business for five or more years. Now, I'm not saying this to make them wrong, but I wanted to highlight the fact that it's not just a challenge for those who are new to business. As you will know, I’m a big believer in using the “KISS” principle. Keep it simple (stupid) and make it practical, so that you firstly, develop the strategy, and secondly, make sure you implement the strategy.

Having a marketing strategy in place is good business sense, and as I mentioned if you need something simple, than please make it simple. My request is that you take the time to develop this strategy, so that it helps you grow your business, helps you increase your sales funnel, boost your client list, pay your bills and most importantly bring you back to the reason you are doing what you are doing.

Let’s take a look at two simple steps you can put in place to begin developing your marketing strategy for 2011. (Yes, I do mean 2011, because it is coming fast!)

Step 1 :

Develop your strategy .

a) Be very clear on who your ideal clients are. I’m going to presume that since you have been reading my newsletters you are clear on who these people are. If you’re not sure, then take time to re-read this article. If you haven’t done so already, take the time to work through my latest report on “How you can identify your ideal clients.”. If it has been over 2 months since you subscribed, then you may want this updated report to work through .

b) Look at what you can do to take your solutions from ordinary to extraordinary. As there are so many small businesses out there, you may not be getting noticed, because you seem just like everyone else. Take a moment, ask yourself and be really honest here with your answer; “What do I need to do to make my service extraordinary?” If you’re not sure, ask those people around you that you trust, ask some of your most valuable clients – find out and listen to what people are saying to you. The answers you receive may require you to re-think your current business strategy. But don’t despair, because I know this will be worth it; especially if you can offer a product or service in a way that nobody else can, your competition can become redundant. And I heard this saying recently and want to share it with you: When it comes to your prospects, don't be a choice - be the choice.

Step 2:

Develop your plan

a) Block out some time, and begin to develop your 12-month plan that fits in precisely with your strategy. To achieve your goals for the next 12 months - what are the strategies you need to put in place each month and how are you going to track them? Here are a few ideas to begin thinking about: email campaigns; advertising campaigns; public relations campaigns; your live events; keynote speaking; training webinars; etc .

b) Once you have developed your 12-month plan, and broken it down into monthly targets, break it down further into what you will need to do weekly to meet your overall goal. Then each week, block out some time to evaluate what happened the week before; what you will be focusing on this week and what is coming up the following week. It’s like your road trip, you know where you are going but if something comes up unexpectedly, you are prepared to meet this current challenge or issue.

Let me know how you go with this. If you’re still not sure what you need to do here to begin, then you won’t want to miss out on October’s Business Building Blocks webinar – this is exactly what we will be working on. So get the jump on your competitors and join our call.

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Who are your ideal clients?  Do you think knowing who your ideal clients are - is important to your business success?

Would love your thoughts, so please take a moment to share!  Not sure who your ideal clients are - then download my report of "Identify your ideal clients and what your profits grow.'  Tweet

I’m about to state the obvious - the key to success for any business, is your clients, your customers, those people who do business with you. And most people will start working with you, or buy something from you because of a service or product you provide that solves a challenge or problem for them. But it is the experience that they get from working with you that will keep them there, and will turn them into raving fans.

The above statement is something that I believe in, and is something that I tell my mentor clients as well as my business building blocks members whenever I can. It’s something that I want to live up to for my readers of this newsletter as well. Reading the results of the survey has really helped me better understand the needs that you have, the challenges that you are facing, and how I can support you in your business growth.

I’ve been where a lot of you are currently at, a new-start up – struggling to understand how to best market your services to your ideal clients, wondering where the next client was coming from, and thinking about where you could actually find these clients. At the five-year plus stage, when my business was growing, I wasn’t sure what my next step would be. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted or needed to do to take my business to that next level that would allow it to grow and develop into what it is today. But at each stage, I was supported by mentors and colleagues who would listen to my questions and concerns, and provide me with the information I needed to keep moving forward.

To give you a snapshot of what you have been telling me from the survey, the following areas are where you would like to see improvements:

· Knowing how to market your product or services - 73.3%
· Getting new customers or clients – 60%
· Taking your business to the next level – 53.3%
· Professional development programs – 40%
· Pricing of products and services – 33.3%
· Achieving work/life balance – 33.3%

You would like further support, ideas and information on:
· Sales,
· Marketing,
· Networking,
· Building strong referrals,
· Understanding clients/customers better,
· Social media, and
· Staying motivated and being supported, to name but a few.

Many of you stated that you would love to work with me, but don’t have the budget to work with me one on one in my Fast Track Success Program. That is okay. Over the next few weeks, I will be letting you know about a group-mentoring program I will be offering to support those of you hungry to move forward. This program will be open to only five business owners and it will be very cost effective. So if you want to know more, or reserve your spot NOW, email me at deb@debpilgrim.com with ‘group-mentoring’ in the subject line, so that you are the first to hear about it.

I am also pulling together leaders within the areas of sales, social media, networking, personal development, internet marketing, web design, client retention, and client satisfaction, to run content-rich programs for you. Most of these will sit within the mentoring programs, and my Business Building Blocks monthly membership calls, but I will also be running some free webinars to support my Biz Booster readers. These experts are also excited to be sharing their information within the article section of Biz Booster as well.

My commitment is to support you in building the business you desire. Please keep talking to me, and sending your questions through via email and I will continue to support you. There are so many great resources out there that I am committed to bring to you the best of this information. I do hope to hear from you soon.
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