JoAnn Laing's Blog - All About Small Business

All small businesses want to grow profitably.  Many develop excellent growth plans.

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While there are many individuals and businesses that plan, growth only becomes a reality when you execute on the growth plan.

Yes, this seems obvious, but many good plans never get off the ground or fully realized.

Realize no plan goes unchanged; it morphs along the way as time passes plus conditions and assumptions change.

Further, no plan gets executed with the commitment of top management and the resources to effectuate it.

Let’s talk about how to execute an effective growth plan.

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First, beware of common pitfalls, they include:

• Poor communication of strategic objectives
• Lack of employee buy-in
• Ineffective risk management
• Impatience for results

Some keys to successful strategy execution include:

1. A Strategic Plan Requires Total Commitment

All hands including decision-makers and stakeholders should agree on the strategic plan.  Changing the plan requires communicating the critical reasons for the changes.  Ensure you and your colleagues start on the same page in the planning process, then stay aligned through execution.

2. Align Jobs to Strategy

Often, employees’ roles aren’t designed with strategy in mind.  Assess whether business’s jobs are designed for successful strategy execution.

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3. Communicate Clearly to Empower Employees

All aspect of the plan and its execution must be communicated early and often throughout the process, plus listen to responses.  Strategy execution depends on your organization’s daily tasks and decisions as well as company’s broader strategic goals, but how their individual responsibilities make achieving them possible.  When employees are part of the process, they become committed to its success.

4. Performance Monitoring and Measurement

KPIs (key performance indicators) play an important role in strategy execution which relies on continually assessing progress toward goals.  A numeric goal serves as a clear measure of success for you and your team to regularly track and monitor performance, plus assess if any changes need to be made based on that progress.

5. Innovation Balanced By Control

Innovation is a positive tool employed within the growth plan.  Don’t let innovation efforts derail the execution of your strategy.  Consider what pieces of the strategy are non-negotiable.  Answering questions like these upfront can allow for clarity during execution.

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Also, remember that a stagnant organization has no room for growth.  Encourage employees to brainstorm, experiment, and take calculated risks with strategic initiatives in mind.

Please share what has worked in your business when executing a growth strategy.

Whether it is on a desk, work wall, locker, car dashboard, or refrigerator door, almost three out of every four workers have a promotional product at or near their work space.  While many people receive them as promotional items, many are given as a token of employer’s appreciation.

Since their initial appearance in the second half of the 20th century, promotional items have been an important part of American culture (other cultures as well).  As methods evolved that enabled long-lasting impressions, which were printed on more and more materials, so did the promotion industry.  While calendars were a leading promotional item, they were soon overtaken by beer hall trays, glassware, signs, and in the last century pens, pencils, and paper pads, then came technology related items such as connection cords, mouse pads, cellphone holders, light sabers, etc.

A byproduct of promotional materials is the positive impact distribution of these items makes externally and internally.

With customers, vendors and partners who are given promotional gifts, they will remember you as they see and/or use your firm’s logo or gift.  Plus you get free advertising as the recipient uses the product.

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Promotional products improve employee morale, loyalty, and have other benefits.  A recent study of 5,000 employees by Quality Logo Products provided some insight into these aspects of promotional activity.

• Employees who receive promotional products stay at their companies for 1.5 years longer than those who don’t.
• Workers expect gifts from employers during their onboarding process, work anniversaries, and holidays.
• Apparel is the most popular gift, with sweatshirts, jackets, and t-shirts snagging the top 3 spots.
• 73% of workers said getting company promotional products contributes to a sense of belonging/pride within the company.
• People who receive company promotional products feel more positively about their company.

Gift-giving is often a way of showing someone you care about them, and that stands true for promotional gifts from companies as well. Whether someone is just joining a company in an entry-level position or has spent years working there and is now at a senior level, gifts from an employer can go a long way to show appreciation for the people you work with every day.

When it comes to promoting your company, it is imperative you remember your employees as well as customers. Share with us your favorite promotional product.

Whatever stage of your company’s growth, attending trade shows should be included in expansion efforts. 

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If you’re just starting out, trade shows are an excellent path to growth.  At these shows, people are actively attending to find new ideas, products or services. More importantly, they will stop and listen if you have effectively announced your offerings.  The key to this, booth designers believe, is to tell any passersby how your offerings can help them.  Don’t emphasize its originality or uniqueness, but rather how it can save attendees money, time, or labor.  Your booth need not be large, just inviting and tells your story quickly at eye level to passing individuals. 

If your company is in its growth trajectory growth period, trade, industry, or specialty shows offer an excellent path to expand your reach.  At these shows, attendees are, in the main, searching for ways to grow their own enterprises.  As a growing company, you have established that your products can help others.  At these meetings, your aim is to identify yourself to new customers; highlight your offerings, and gather leads.  Your booth should invite people in to learn more and every staff member should be thoroughly conversant with your offerings.  A senior executive should always be present ready to answer any and all questions and to make post-show appointments. 

Whatever stage of your company’s growth, attending trade shows should be included in expansion efforts. If you’re just starting out, trade shows are an excellent path to growth.  At these shows, people are actively attending to find new ideas, products or services. More importantly, they will stop and listen if you have effectively announced your offerings.  The key to this, booth designers believe, is to tell any passersby how your offerings can help them.  Don’t emphasize its originality or uniqueness, but rather how it can save attendees money, time, or labor.  Your booth need not be large, just inviting and tells your story quickly at eye level to passing individuals. 

Image by Freepik

If your company is in its growth trajectory growth period, trade, industry, or specialty shows offer an excellent path to expand your reach.  At these shows, attendees are, in the main, searching for ways to grow their own enterprises.  As a growing company, you have established that your products can help others.  At these meetings, your aim is to identify yourself to new customers; highlight your offerings, and gather leads.  Your booth should invite people in to learn more and every staff member should be thoroughly conversant with your offerings.  A senior executive should always be present ready to answer any and all questions and to make post-show appointments. 

If your company is an industry leader and is well known, shows are an excellent time to meet with current customers and reward them for their business.  Social gatherings, bestowing of awards and rebates, and renewal of contracts should be times of celebrations carefully slotted so they do not interfere with the show program.  Using show participation in this way will magnify your overall marketing effort.  Your clients will act as your sales agents to others as these events unfold. 

Three things to keep in mind about shows, they tend to allow attendees to look at their requirements in differ ways; let them unwind; and give them an opportunity to look at new opportunities.  For marketers and sales people, this is a fertile field to plow, especially for small business leaders who have limited resources. 

We want to add one more suggestion.  The best show floor salesman we ever knew was Tony Piro, who sold seeds as a sales incentive premium.  His secret to get individuals passing his booth during a show was to ask one simple question: “Why are you at this show?” 

This question often started a conversation and eventually a sale. 

When you go to a show, think of the individual walking in the aisle.  He or she is there for a reason.  Find the reason and you may have your next sale. 

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Remember To Follow Up

Last, but very important: you have put considerable time, money and effort into being at the a trade show; it only makes sense to follow-up with everyone you have come in contact with, especially those who have left you their contact information.

Every successful small business leader has regrets.  During two recent focus groups of owners led by Small Business Digest, they were asked if they harbored any regrets from their early years as entrepreneurs.  This question opened a floodgate of responses.  With the passage of time, these feelings had moderated but all participants offered examples in the hope their identification of woes would help others.

Here are the top five regrets offered by these successful small business leaders.

1. Not having an exit plan for themselves.  While some leaders had a plan for the company they hadn’t thought of ways they could profitably leave should that become a priority.  Many found themselves in a situation where by, if they left the company would suffer or worse, there were no provisions for their departure with viable financial compensation.
2. Not spending enough time with the family during the company’s early years.  Often younger entrepreneurs have small children and spouses.  Growing a small company often requires 24/7 commitment from founders.  But this commitment is often at the expense of family (friendships, too).  Many successful leaders report estrangement from their children.  They also report second marriages and another set of children often occur.
3. Not having partnership agreements or specific employee rewards program for early contributors.  No one sues if a company fails.  Many litigate if a company is successful.  Legal issues arise when companies are about to be sold; partners diverge in vision; or employees feel promises were not kept. Get as much as possible in writing but above all recognize early who contributed what to the company’s success.
4. Not identifying financial obstacles early in the company’s history.  Assuming financial needs at the outset is important and having prepared for them is essential.  Equally important is having some way of raising emergency capital.  Every one of the focus group participants said they needed to overcome a financial emergency.  Several said their initial foray into business had ended in disaster because of unavailable funds.
5. Not accepting help when offered.  Perhaps the greatest regret expressed was that of refusing help.  Proffered aid included financial, advisory, inventory, material resources, and operating space.  Many of the participants said they initially operated on the idea they could succeed by themselves.  They failed to recognize how outside help is sometimes critical to success.  Believing you do not need to bring others on board might leave you with 100 percent of nothing.

There were other regrets mentioned in the focus groups but these five stood out as the most far reaching.  Do you have any regrets?

Learn from others to minimize or eliminate your business regrets.