The Life and Business Coach - January 28, 2012

Welcome to the January 28, 2012 edition of the life and business coach.

Be a part of our Facebook community. Share your ideas and find the inspiration change your life

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Theresa Torres presents Should Bloggers Get a Business Credit Card? posted at MoreTricks.com, saying, "Here are 3 ways on how a business credit card can help bloggers get started on their publishing business."


Astra Spider presents Joy in Business: Permission Granted! posted at EMERGE Shamanic Business Coaching.

Jon Rhodes presents How To Manage Life Working From Home posted at Affiliate Help!, saying, "This article shows you how to cope with life living and working from home."

Martha Stewart presents The Essential MBA Library posted at onlinemba.com, saying, "While you’re undoubtedly learning a lot from your MBA courses at college, it never hurts to supplement your education with a little outside reading material."

Rachel C. presents Insuring a Teenage Driver: Mitigating the Cost posted at Auto Insurance Quotes, saying, "Insuring a teen driver is extremely expensive. Depending on the age of the driver, the type of vehicle driven and applicable state restrictions, adding a teen driver can increase insurance rates as much as 100 percent or more. With the cost of insuring young drivers so high, it’s surprising that parents are even willing to license their teens."

Susan Guarneri presents 10 Films That Show the Dark Side of Business posted at Online Degree.net, saying, "While too fresh on America's mind to endure the heartbreak of a Bernie Madoff movie, the ugly side of the business world makes great cinematic fodder."

dzineit presents Advice on Hiring an SEO Consultant posted at Design Article Blog, saying, "A quality search engine optimization (SEO) campaign requires the time and effort that many small businesses can’t commit to in house. "

Hudson Horizons presents The New Facebook Layout? Introducing Facebook Timeline | Hudson Horizons Blogs posted at Hudson Horizons Blogs, saying, "Facebook just announced that timeline would be unveiled to all facebook users within a week, whether you want it or not. I've compiled a few resources to help you understand and embrace the new Facebook layout that you're stuck with. (Until Facebook decides to revamp things once again, that is.)"

Dr. Dean presents You wanna be work-happy? or work sad? posted at Dr. Dean's TheMillionaireNurse.com Blog, saying, "Burnout is the commonly used term for those whose “giver” got up and left. Here are some tips to keep work from getting the best of you."

Charles Chua C K presents 10 Effective Ways to Live With Life posted at All About Living with Life.

Ken Lange presents 3 Writing Tips from Hemingway posted at Kenneth Lange, saying, "A few tips from Ernest Hemingway on writing habits - but relevant to all people with job that requires creative thinking."

Gerry Sandis presents Upgrade Your Resume By Going Back To School ? Just Remember To Bring Along Your Tablet posted at RESUMEMag, saying, "With the launch of the newest app for the iPad, iBooks 2, Apple has set out to reinvent the textbook. Here are five ways that this makes it easier to go back to school and upgrade your resume."

Charles Chua C K presents 5 Effective Ways to Start Monday posted at All About Living with Life.


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Crafting a strong business plan

Ok, you have decided to go into business for yourself.  Or maybe you want to change the way you go to market or expand your existing business.
What are you going to do with your great ideas?

Write, or rewrite, your business plan.

A plan lets you think through the business BEFORE you start so that you can ensure that your idea is sound, you can finance it, it’s something that people will want, and you can price it and make a profit.  The better the plan, the better the chance of success.

A good business plan will help you determine what to increase, decrease, prevent, eliminate, promote or create, The best plans start with clear mission, vision and value statements.

What do you want to do? How do you see yourself getting there? And what are the core values you want to build this business around?

 Once you’ve answered these questions, you can determine how to realize these broad concepts.

Define goals

Let’s start with Key Goals and Objectives.  These are the general categories that you must establish for your business to reach take-off velocity.

When you succeed with your Key Goals you are well on your way to achieving your dreams.  With a Key Goals analysis you will review your strengths and their uniqueness so you can build upon them. 

It is very important at this early stage to be brutally honest.  Why would someone buy what you’re selling?  Are you really different from others that offer the same goods or services? 

What about other companies that do the same thing? Every time I get a great idea that I think no one has thought of I run a Google search and I am humbled. 

This is also the time you should very carefully review any weaknesses that might limit your potential.

Key Goal categories should include:  are you using the right organizational structure (C corp., S corp., LLC); cash flow projections; what products will you bring to market; quality of products and/or services you want to deliver; quality of suppliers; skilled, motivated workers and are they available, affordable and retainable; packaging for different market segments, geographic region; physical or virtual facilities; lowest deliverable costs and significant changes anticipated in the industry. 

Drill down

Key Goals and Objectives are usually pretty general in their nature, so when you’re finished that’s when it is time to drill down to more specific targets, or action steps.

Within each Key Goal category you must identify business planning action steps and results that are more specific.  Effective business planning goals are SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and tractable. It is important to write each goal in a positive way. 

As you create and refine these goals and action steps it is important to involve and communicate with everyone in the organization or the planning process.

If you are planning a new organization then involve any trusted advisors and family members who show interest.  If you are changing an existing business then involve everyone, down to, at least, department heads.

I also encourage including a few people from the front line. No one really understands the strengths and weaknesses of a plan better than the people charged with its execution.

Once you have your Key Goals and Objectives written and the action steps necessary to accomplish them, there are several steps critical to your success. You must:

·         Prioritize your Goals and the Action Steps

·         State who is responsible for their execution

·         Specify what a successful result will look like

·         Set a clear timeline for their completion

Watch it work

When a company I ran had difficulty in expanding to a new sales territory, we found the solution by returning to our business plan.

We wanted to bring the same level of customer service that we provided in our current service areas, but regardless of how many projections we ran the costs of trucks, drivers, gas, upkeep and insurance just made the new territory unprofitable.  We knew strategically we needed to gain a foothold in the new territory and because planning identified the roadblock we were forced to look for another answer.

Right after our last planning session we were approached by one of our senior drivers.   He had been included in these planning sessions and knew of the delivery roadblock.

He proposed starting his own delivery service using us as his primary client. We got the service we wanted and kept the costs down at the same time.

It eventually became so successful that we subcontracted all our deliveries to him and reduced our costs even further.  Without planning we would never have seen the problem, and been forced to look for an answer.

And since we had included the key players in the planning process someone from the front line was able to suggest a solution.  Planning pays.

As your general business plan evolves, you will delve even more deeply into other aspects of planning: Financing, Marketing, Sales, Strategic, and Exit.  Each of these will create an even clearer picture of where you’re going and how you can tell when you have arrived.

    When running a business many things will come up that you will not anticipate.  Starting with a business plan will help you see everything you will need to jumpstart your success. 

Email: social@johnchappelear.com 
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The Life and Business Coach Carnival- January 21, 2012

Welcome to the January 21, 2012 edition of The Life and Business Coach Carnival.

Be a part of our Facebook community. Share your ideas and find the inspiration change your life

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Dr. Dean presents Decisions: How YOU Can Improve! posted at Dr. Dean's TheMillionaireNurse.com Blog, saying, "Do you make good decisions? The decisions we make impact all areas of our life, including our finances. Join me in a review of the process and ways to improve your method. You'll become more productive and powerful."



Jon Rhodes presents How To Get A Money Making Mindset posted at Affiliate Help!, saying, "The article shows you the importance of having the right money making mindset, and gives you tips on how to develop this."



Mike King presents 10 Ways to be Performance Oriented | Learn This posted at Learn This, saying, "Coaching others often requires that we can help others become more performance oriented and to get more self sufficient in the areas we coach them. Here are some tips to get more performance oriented."


Charles Chua C K presents 7 Ways to be Responsible at Work posted at All About Living with Life.

Hudson Horizons presents Pinterest for Your Small Business | Hudson Horizons Blogs posted at Hudson Horizons Blogs, saying, "Pinterest has been surging in popularity amongst consumers. As more and more users are hopping on the band wagon, small businesses should consider taking advantage of what the platform has to offer."


Chelsea Prescotti presents Mortgage Lenders Hunt Home Owners Even After Foreclosure posted at CreditScore.net, saying, "No one ever buys a home with the intention of one day losing it to foreclosure or being forced by circumstance into a short sale. Unfortunately, that is exactly the situation in which many homeowners find themselves. Financial struggles push thousands of homeowners into short sale or foreclosure every year. When the housing market collapsed in 2008-09, many found themselves upside-down in their mortgage and opted to simply walk away, leaving the bank to foreclose on the property and sell it for whatever a buyer would pay."


Ralph Ferro presents Twinkie Bailout! Makers of Twinkie and Wonderbread File for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection posted at Bankruptcy Attorney NJ RSS Feed, saying, "Hostess, the makers of our sugary, childhood snacks like Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Suzy Q's has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Hostess Brand Inc. filed this Wednesday due to severe debt problems which the Wall Street Journal explains as "out-of-control labor structure.""

DeWitt Dudley presents Protecting The Owners and Stock In A Closely Held Corporation | Law Offices of Givner & Kaye posted at Law Offices of Givner & Kaye, saying, "Operating a business in a closely held corporation can be an excellent way to protect the owner from problems with the business. If the business is adequately capitalized, then someone suing the business may not be able to “pierce the corporate veil” and get to the personal assets of the owner."


Rodney Maley presents Keys to a Successful Presentation posted at Life-fficient.


Duston McGroarty presents The Winning Traffic Formula for Your Coaching Blog posted at The Coaching Cave.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
the life and business coach
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Three Phases of a Management Buyout

Management buyouts are very special and sensitive transactions that are becoming more and more popular in exit planning as more business owners realize that outside buyers may not be available to purchase their business as part of their exit.
For your key employees, this management buyout will likely seem like both a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as well as a large burden of assuming ownership.  Since your managers are being invited to assume the role of ownership, it is natural that many questions will arise for all parties involved.  Accordingly, these three (3) phases of a management buyout will assist you in determining the proper steps to take in moving ahead with this type of exit plan.
Phase #1:  Financing & Deal Structuring
The first phase of a management buyout goes to the financial aspects of the transaction.  At the core of the transaction is a sale of a business from owner / investor to another.  The company needs to provide a return on investment to its new owners.  And the exiting owner needs some level of comfort that the business will continue to operate effectively once the sale is completed.  There are a few questions related to the financing and deal structuring that surface immediately.
What is the company worth, and what is the manager (or the management team) able to render in down-payment? 
Will the managers secure any bank financing with their own personal guarantees and the value of the company’s assets.
What is the owner willing to take in a note in order to bridge this rather large gap between the value of the company and the employee’s available capital?
How is the owner’s note going to be secured?
On the point of value, if an owner wants too high a price or too many personal benefits or a salary that continues for too long into the future, the managers will get resentful as they feel that the fruits of their labors are not going to them (particularly since they have just increased the risk in the relationship).  Owners need to remember that despite the fact that these employees worked for you all these years, there needs to be a financial return for


them in order for this transaction to make sense.  Beyond that, the particulars of financing the transaction will need to be detailed as part of the deal structuring.
Unfortunately, financing and deal structuring is the easiest part of this transaction.  Far more delicate is the communications inside and outside of the firm.
Phase #2:  Intra-firm Communications
The second part of a management buyout is internal communications – discussions within the firm about succession of the business.
Too many owners of privately-held businesses feel pressure to engage in a conversation about the future of the business with their managers.  This naturally comes from the desires of managers to want to know about their own futures and their potential for greater income and/or ownership.  When these conversations occur, it is important that clear communication is used so as not to excite the expectations of the managers.
There is a delicate balance in these communications.  On the one hand, in order for your exit to be a success, the managers need to ‘buy in’ to the idea of ownership.  However, in order for their ‘buy in’ to occur, it is necessary that you communicate your intentions to them about the transfer of ownership. 
Beyond the communications between you, the owner, and your managers, there is also the issue of communication with the other employees at your firm.  Which ones will not make the grade and be offered future ownership?  Will they feel alienated?  Slighted?  Threatened?  All of this needs to be communicated in a transparent manner so as not to interrupt the already delicate employer / employee relationships between owners, managers and employees.
How these communications are handled is critical and often can occur over many years as the responsibilities are detailed, defined, and transferred from the owner to the manager and the management team.  Also, over a number of years, managers are able to naturally assume leadership positions within the company.  This is much more favorable than simply anointing a successor. 


In the long-run it all comes down to people respecting other people.  It is not enough for you to believe that your choice for successor(s) is the right one – your other employees must also feel the same way.  Seek inputs from other employees in a casual manner over a number of months or years so that you can confirm whether or not you are making the right choice for successor. 
Once the choice is made, keep communication clear and open as to the future of your company.
Phase #3:  Communicating the Change Outside the Firm
The third phase is that of communications with the outside world.  The customers, the vendors, the bank, and everybody else who comes in contact with your business needs to know about the transition.  Again, it is best if this occurs over a period of time to make it appear as smooth and natural a transition as possible.  In essence, this is a public relations campaign for your firm’s transition.
Nobody likes surprises, particularly when it concerns a valuable business partnership.  Accordingly, you need to realize that all of the customers, vendors, and other people associated with your business need to be apprised of this succession plan.  Once again, a well designed communications strategy with the ‘outside world’ is appropriate and optimal if it is performed over a long period of time.
Conclusion
These three phases together provide for a foundation to begin to design a management buyout for your business.  These are helpful steps in starting a conversation with your team and for you as the business owner, to begin to consider what's involved, how long it will take, and exactly what you're able to get out of the business, net of taxes and net of fees over time in order to meet your post-exit goals.  Therefore, management buyouts can be very helpful to a business owner in a tough economy who is trying to construct and design a customized exit plan from their business utilizing the resources that are available to them, namely, their existing management team.

Email: social@johnchappelear.com 
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The Life and Business Coach Carnival - January 15, 2012

Welcome to the January 15, 2012 edition of the life and business coach.







The Shark Investor presents Small Business Idea: South Indian Street Food posted at Food Business and Purple Salad � Page not found, saying, "A real business idea that requires some dedication"



Beth Montgomery presents History of Credit Cards posted at Credit Cards for Fair Credit, saying, "When credit cards started, in the early 1900s, the cards were issued by individual stores or gas stations.The cards were designed and issued to create brand loyalty and encourage customers to return based on the convenience of having established credit at the merchant."



Amy Gardner presents How to Improve Your Business Credit posted at Small Business Credit Cards, saying, "There are many different factors other than simply paying your bills on time that will cause your credit to fluctuate."



Jill Thompson presents Potential Hazards of Rent-to-Own (Seller) posted at How Does Rent To Own Work?, saying, "There are potentially serious consequences for engaging in one of these arrangements without fulling understanding the law governing them."



MaryLou Walston presents Top 5 Reasons to Stay Out of Foreclosure posted at Mortgage Rates, saying, "A common misconception about foreclosure is that, once the process is done, the former homeowner is off the hook for the remaining balance of the mortgage. Nothing could be further from the truth."



Rachel Cleary presents Where to Retire for Less than $1,500 Per Month posted at Senior Care, saying, "As of the first quarter of 2011, the average retiree benefit from Social Security was under $1,200 per month. For retirees with a modest nest egg saved for retirement, drawing on the 4% withdrawal rule to supplement Social Security still does not bring their annual income over $18,000 per year. Unfortunately, finding a place to retire on less than $1,500 a month is not easy, unless a retiree is willing to move. There are numerous cities throughout the United States, and definitely places abroad, where a small budget can still provide a comfortable lifestyle."



Jonathan Milligan presents How to Motivate Yourself - My Daily Success Routine posted at Simple Life Habits, saying, "Do you know how to motivate yourself? The key for me has been to establish a simple, yet useful daily success routine."



Ben Dockery presents A Penny Unearned is 1.56 Pennies Saved: How to Avoid Financial Suicide posted at BENDOCKERY.COM, saying, "This is my latest article about money and the cost of living a life in music."



Shamelle presents 8 Ways To Use YouTube Videos To Promote Your Products On Your Website posted at Promote Youtube Videos, saying, "If you run an eCommerce website then using video’s can be a great way to promote your own products online, and furthermore increase your online sales. Here are a few ideas on how you can use YouTube Videos to increase profitability."




That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
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The Life and Business Coach Carnival - January 8, 2012

Welcome to the First edition of  The Life and Business Coach Carnival.

We selected two articles for today's edition. we hope you enjoy them

Charles Chua C K presents All About Living With Life: Happiness and a more Satisfying Life - The 7 Ingredients posted at All About Living with Life.

Dr. Dean presents Football and Personal Finance-14 Corollaries! posted at Dr. Dean's TheMillionaireNurse.com Blog, saying, "Financially speaking, it’s been a tough year, but then, every year can be. Need a ‘pat on the butt’ locker room pep talk? Get one here and then be ready to ‘get back in the game’"

That concludes this edition.

The Strategic business planning process

Building and running a business requires strategic planning, hard work, commitment, innovative products and services. It requires you to connect with clients and your workers on a level that is more powerful and knowledgeable than the competition. It takes hard work, being in the right place at the right time and I truly believe it takes a little luck too. But like a marathoner who has gotten off his path and can’t find the route to run an organization is lost without a clear and well-marked path to follow. That’s where Strategic Planning comes into play.
I say to clients all the time and it always gets heads nodding, “most people are too busy doing their jobs to really know if they are doing their jobs well”, and the key to determine that would be strategic planning. In prior columns I have discussed the importance and sequencing of vision and mission statements. So if you have already created them this is the time to dust them off and polish them up. If not create them before you move into the over all Strategic Planning Process. Simply put, the vision is the longest-term guiding statement of purpose used to define the organizations values and priorities. A vision statement will help guide anyone and everyone who reads it of the course you wish to follow. The mission statement is the shorter-term statement of the way in which you plan to achieve the vision. With those two documents in hand we plunge into the strategy, goals and action steps that we call strategic planning.

Anything that provides direction is easier to follow, the clearer it is. So when moving from piece to piece in this process make sure your people can clearly and simply understand what you mean in both letter and spirit. This will eliminate many, many potential problems later on.

Strategic planning doesn't have to be a complicated process. The easiest Strategic Plan to use is a simple four-step process.
1. Visualize and clearly state the future you would like your organization to move toward.
2. Develop a clear understanding of current conditions inside and outside or your organization
3. Determine clear, measurable and trackable goals that must be achieved and the action steps necessary to accomplish the goals.
4. Implement the plan.

Strategic planning involves visualizing and clearly stating the future. That is why you need to know not just what you're doing but why, as well. Think of Martin Luther King’s speech. “I have a dream” is the strategic vision and the rest are the quantifiable goals. The Declaration of Independence is the same, we hold these truths to be self-evident…..is the vision and the rest are the goals. In both you can immediately tell how success will come and what it will look like when it gets here. Can you see that for your business? What does someone on the front line of your business, see and think? What do they see? In a strategic plan we would look at all perspectives and make sure they are all aligned.

Strategic planning requires looking at current conditions in and out of your business to help getting a grip on expectations. What market segments are you addressing, should you widen or narrow your focus. Should you create a major change of focus, in how you connect and interact with your clients? With the newer radical changes in methods and strategies of how to go to market not staying current with this assessment can be fatal, (read: Free or The Long Tail). Are you utilizing your workers in the most efficientand effective way that also takes into consideration that they are not just resources but people too? How about your facilities? These are just some of the current conditions you should review.

The goals and action steps are simply a by-product of the internal and external evaluation of market and organizational conditions. There will be critical and secondary goals and you and your group will need to know which is which. What did you find? How can these issues be improved, resolved or eliminated? Prioritize them and assign them. It is critical at this point to set a realistic timeline of crystal clear expectations and crystal clear accountability for the accomplishment of these goals and action steps, in a timely fashion.

For strategic planning to be effective, you need to make sure you are implementing the plan accurately. This plan like any other shouldn’t be written in a vacuum and dropped on staff. Working together to identify needs and plan the solutions is critical to success. You need to be sure your people buy into this process and this plan every step of the way.

It is important to know that all businesses, regardless of size, need strategic planning. The smaller an organization will mean the shorter and simpler the plans will be but any business running without a clear Strategic path is running blind.


Email: social@johnchappelear.com
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