This final question may really hit hard for some small business owners. But it’s an important one to honestly answer if you ever want to maximize your profits and enjoy the freedom, fulfillment, and lifestyle you want. Here’s question #5:

Is compensation truly “results based” or are we paying people based on “time-in-class”?

If you don’t have a structured system for employee selection, management, and motivation it’s very likely that you’re reinforcing the wrong behaviors with your team. As a busy business owner I know how easy it can be for months to quickly fly by, and all of a sudden one employee or another is due for raise. Or are they?

How can you tell what you’re really basing employee raises on?

If the main criteria for giving an employee a raise is the fact that it’s been six months or a year since their last raise, it’s likely you’re paying them an inappropriate amount. In some cases you might be shortchanging yourself. And in other cases you may be holding back or de motivating a high-performing employee who deserves more.

Without clearly defined expectations, responsibilities, and benchmarks for rewards, the majority of employees will gravitate towards the easiest measuring stick — and that will always be “time-in-class.” With performance expectations and clearly delineated benchmarks for rewards your employees will always know the next step they need to take in order to qualify for increased compensation.

Dealing with team building issues as a busy small business owner

I know it’s difficult for busy small-business owner to keep track of all the ups and downs for each employee when some days feel like a fight for your very survival. But it’s really much easier than it sounds. Many of our business coaching clients who’ve gone through this process of developing a policies, procedures, and rewards manual are surprised at how intuitive it really was.

Yes… it does take some time and dedication up front. But with a little coaching and guidance you can get it done painlessly. And the good news is — once you have a system and review schedule based on a solid policies, procedures, and rewards manual — it takes very little time and effort to stick with it.

Your good employees will rise to the top and thrive in this environment. Your mediocre employees will often be pulled upward by your top performing employees. And any employees who have been trying to “just get by” will weed themselves out in this type of system. What you’re left with is a high-performing small business that gets more done, exceeds the net profit average for companies in your industry, and does it all with fewer people.

John-Paul Micek
The Click-and-Mortar Business Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc. and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Ahhhhh, being a small businesss owner. It’s the life! Working with who you want, when you want, and able to leave your business for three or four weeks while things hum along. It’s great isn’t it?!

Wait — what’s that you say? You don’t have that type of lifestyle. You feel more like you have a job instead of a business. Well then … answering the next question in this seven-part series, and taking action on the answers you get will help to free you from that frustrating situation.

Here’s Question #4:

What’s the “culture of communication” within our company?

I’ll be blunt. If your company is currently being run with a traditional “top down” hierarchy — that’ll have to change. The 21st-century marketplace moves way too fast for any business team to rely on one “top dog” for all the answers. And this is true even if your company has as few as four or five employees.

What the wild Wild West can teach small business owners about leadership

In the days of the Wild West when people still had to hunt and gather food for their meals, there was a hunting practice that was commonly practiced by both cowboys and Indians alike. It had to do with hunting buffalo. It seems that buffalo have a deeply embedded herd mentality. That causes them to focus intently on, and follow without question, one lead buffalo.

Hunters would carefully observe the herd watching for the lead Buffalo to make themselves known. Then they would shoot that Buffalo first. After that, the rest of the herd would just stand around for quite a while, not knowing what to do. In the meantime hunters could pick off as many Buffalo as they wanted, much like shooting fish in a barrel.

A top down hierarchy can yield the same disaster your small business

This analogy can very easily occur in a similar way in your business — IF you’re communicating and managing based on a traditional top-down hierarchy. In that case, you’re the lead Buffalo. When you’re not there (if you’re sick, out of town on business, or on vacation,) the rest of the herd wanders about, not knowing exactly what to do.

The alternative is to create a radial structure to your organization, an organizational structure that creates an open culture of communication. With this approach employees will feel empowered, and they’ll think more proactively. This lightens your management load while at the same time increasing client satisfaction and supercharging your company’s growth.

This approach does take some planning and it does require a systems-based business structure, but it’s not as difficult as some guru’s make it seem. Get to work on the answers to this question today! If I could apply this simple philosophy to a landscape design company to create a communication culture and supporting structure that allowed me to take off a month at a time — you can do the same thing with your business. There’s hope for you no matter what industry you’re in! Go for it!

John-Paul Micek
The Click-and-Mortar Business Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club
http:/www.AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc. and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Question #3. How do we develop the full potential of employees and out source agents so our company can deliver optimal client satisfaction? Could our hiring system be better? How specifically?

Once you’ve identified the natural skill sets and technical capabilities of a person, then it’s time to lay out a detailed overview of the expectations and responsibilities of the position. Only then can you set up a system for improved morale and motivation using regular performance appraisals, bonuses, and active management.

Don’t tune out and think this doesn’t apply to you because you have too few employees. These practices are not just for larger companies. They’re actually even more important for smaller companies.

In survey after survey we hear the same thing from the employees of small businesses. They feel they’re pretty much thrown to the wolves. These employees are frustrated with insufficient formal training, very little structure, and a dramatic imbalance between the “carrot and the stick.”

With a properly designed system for management and development you can effectively coach your team to peak performance without putting added stress on your already busy schedule. With a systemized approach you win with increased profits and higher client retention. And your team wins with a more enjoyable and rewarding work experience.

John-Paul Micek
The Click-and-Mortar Business Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc. and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

When it comes to hiring new employees or putting together a dependable outsource team, the average small business owner often feels like throwing up their hands. I know I’ve done that in my previous businesses, as well as kicked some garbage cans over, shouted in frustration, and … oh — sorry, I digress. Let me get back on track here …

Part of the reason small business owners get so frustrated in this area is because they often know what they want a new hire to do, and they know pretty well what they want to find in a new hire — but they just don’t have the tools that will dig deep enough to get the untainted info they need. Most small business owners are using an outdated system of hiring.

Question two in this series will help you see the light, and in answering it you’ll understand a little more about the solutions you can implement in your small business to hire smart and build more productive in-house and outsource teams.

Question #2. Is our hiring system capable of assessing “soft-skills”? And is it designed to create a win-win relationship between the company and the employees? If not, what do we need to do to make it that way?

When you’re preparing to hire a new member for your small business team, do everything you can to hire a “square peg” for a “square hole.” Fortune 1000 Companies don’t tolerate guessing when it comes to new hires. So if they do everything they can to hire right the first time, and they have the cash-flow and reserves to compensate for “bad hires” — what makes you think you can get away with an unstructured hiring process as a small business owner?

Hiring the proverbial square peg for a square hole just can’t be done using the “old school” two-prong approach to hiring. There’s more to successful employee selection and effective team building than resume’ reviews and interviews. You need to know what a person’s soft skills are — that is their natural gifts, talents, and abilities are.

Yes, I know the labor market is tight as a drum for most industries, but developing the right system for employee selection and development can save you thousands of dollars, and months of irreplaceable time. You can use simple, but extremely accurate assessments to help you get these answers before you even hire a person.

Even if it’s “slim pickins” with the employee pool you’re pulling from, having the valuable insights and measurements included in these assessment reports can show you precisely where to focus your management and training for maximum impact with that new hire.

Learn about the assessment tools available to you as a small business owner, get help integrating them into a solid Team building system, and then stick to it for drastically improved hiring and management. If you’re like the savvy business leaders who are members of the Business Owners Coaching Club — you can begin applying these secret hiring weapons as soon as you join the Club!

If you want to radically transform your small business and serve your clients at an unbelievably high level, here’s the first question you want to ask yourself. The answers you get are your key to becoming the leader in your niche, the one your competitors watch and follow.

Question #1. How can we demolish our reactive business model and operate pro actively to meet the needs of our clients and prospects? And how can we do it before our competitors do?

Successful business owners are always thinking strategically. That means not getting bogged down in the day-to-day muck that can so easily arrest your focus. It does mean keeping your eye on long-term goals and focusing on the incremental steps needed to reach them — even in the midst of chaos.

Successful small business owners are aware of competitor’s activities, but not worried about or focused on them. They’re focused on the marketplace and the ever-changing needs, wants, desires of their prospects and clients.

Entrepreneurs who are going to succeed in the marketplace of the new millennium must employ the proven methods of Socratic Business Innovation™. This strategy is what will have your competitors donning oxygen masks trying to keep up with you.

At it’s core, this means getting your prospects and clients to tell you exactly what benefits they want, how they want it delivered, and what type of service they want. It’s really quite simple once you know the online and off-line methods for gathering this information — even for the busiest of business owners!

John-Paul Micek
The Click-and-Mortar Business Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc. and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Have you ever wondered why some businesses thrive and grow while others struggle to barely stay afloat? Usually it’s the quality of questions asked by the leaders of the company. If you’re looking to get better results in your business and your life — then start asking yourself better questions, especially when it comes to people.

Whenever I have the opportunity to talk with people who I see as successful in business and who live an enviable lifestyle, I’m always curious. I know how important self-questioning is so I’ll ask them what questions they’ve asked themselves to get answers that have transformed their business So far I have a list of over 100 result-generating questions, but there’s one theme that’s been evident in most of the answers I’ve gotten.

Truly successful companies — both large and small — are led by men and women who understood that people were indeed their greatest asset.

They knew if they didn’t take care of their team (both in-house and out source agents) and their clients — they wouldn’t have a successful company at all. My mentors, and many of these successful entrepreneurs emphatically reinforce the fact that no matter how much new technology gets implemented, how systemized the company is, or how much their industry changes — the focus always needs to be on people.

As busy business owners, keeping people as the focus is an important fact to remind ourselves of. All too we get caught up in new technology, service fulfillment, and the day to day “buy-ness” and in the process we lose focus on the people side.

In all the self-talk, self-questioning, and strategic planning feedback I’ve gotten from successful business owners around the world, there have been some questions that stand out and get repeated. They show up in every area of business development, but in this seven part article I’m going to share with you what I’ve seen to be the five most powerful questions related to effective management and Team building.

Each of these questions deserves your dedicated attention. Your well thought out answers will equip you develop business growth strategies that will position you as a leader in your industry or niche. So to help you maximize the impact of each question I’m going to give you each question and some coaching in a separate post.

We’ll look at question number one in part two of this series.

John-Paul Micek
The Click-and-Mortar Business Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc. and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

The Busy Business Owner’s Rhyme

Hickory dickory dock — the busy business owner took a look at the clock. The clock struck eight and she said “this is going to be great!” Hickory dickory dock.

Hickory dickory dock — the busy business owner took a look at the clock. The clock struck noon and she was on the move! Hickory dickory dock.

Hickory dickory dock — the busy business owner took a look at the clock. The clock struck three, four, five and she said “I’ll be lucky to make it out of here alive!”. Hickory dickory dock.

Hickory dickory dock — the busy business owner took a look at the clock. The clock struck seven and she said to herself “another day in heaven!” Hickory dickory dock.

Have you ever found yourself looking for some great big move you can make that’ll create a dramatic shift in your business or life? I know I’ve fallen prey to that thinking in the past. But that’s a dangerous path to follow. Like a deserted back alley in Brooklyn peppered with burnt out cars, you’ll find this path to success is scattered with the wreckage of failed entrepreneurial dreams of those who’ve vainly gone before you.

It’s not the BIG hits that will turn the tide for the average small business owner. It’s the small incremental changes you make on a consistent basis that determine where you’ll be a month, a year, or a decade from now. Almost imperceivably you can radically transform the performance of your business and the quality of your life with tiny decisions and actions made every day.

Instead of waiting and hoping for something BIG to happen, concentrate your efforts and make something dramatic happen one minute at a time. Strive for the future you desire minute by minute and you’ll become the person who’s ready to live the destiny you were created for without even noticing.

This concept is contrary to what society pushes, and if you look at the success level of the average person, you an see how ineffective it really is. It’s not an easy approach to grasp, so to help get you started here are seven principles to get you started.

1. Go beyond the call of duty. Arrive early and stay late. Put in the extra effort on the next project you complete for a client — especially one that you’re not paid for. You’ll not only stand out from the “herd,” you’ll be recognized and rewarded with far more than what you invest.

2. Give people more than they expect. Simply put — “Under-promise and over-deliver.” If you provide more value than what you’re compensated for, then you will be rewarded with more than what you ever expected.

3. Maintain the highest standards. Life will pay you any price you demand. You’re the boss, but prove you deserve the best by demanding peak performance from yourself. Your team will recognize your code of conduct and adapt according to your standards.

4. Do something meaningful for someone each day, something that you won’t get paid for. This will teach your subconscious that you have abundance in your life. Abundance of time, money, talent and emotions. If you never empty your glass, it will never be refilled.

5. Do ordinary things in an extraordinary way and don’t be content with mediocrity. Push yourself just a little more than you think you are capable of. Make it a personal rule that whatever passes through your hands will have your unique fingerprint of excellence on it.

6. When you know there is a better way to do something, do it! Don’t hesitate. If you do hesitate, one of your competitors will step in, take action, and claim the rewards. Take a step in the right direction and change one thing in your business today. Maybe it’s one small action you’ve been intending to take for sometime now. These small incremental actions are what success is made of.

7. Be sure to take a break, and recharge one day a week. It can be any day you like — but do it! My pastor takes off Tuesday’s.The woman who cuts my hair closes her salon on Mondays. My day varies from week to week, and yours can too. THe bottom line is you must take the time to focus on your goals, the big picture, your relationships with family and your creator. Then you’ll enter the new week recharged and ready for growth.

Practice one of these One-Minute Success Habits each day for the next 30-days and prove to yourself that you can achieve BIG business success one minute at a time! If you have questions or would like feedback on ideas you have — be sure to post a comment to this post.

About the Author: John-Paul Micek and his partner Deborah Cole Micek are Business Growth Coaches. They specialize in coaching you to get twice as much done in half as much time while you achieve profit-doubling growth in 12-months or less.

In just 12-months with your membership in the www.BusinessOwnersCoachingClub.com you can bridge the digital divide and transform your small business into a click-and-mortar powerhouse that delivers the profits, personal fulfillment, and free time you want.

© Copyright 1999-2005 by RPM Success Group ®, All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form without the express written consent of RPM Success Group ® is prohibited. You may use this article/post in it’s entirety as an RSS feed without previous permission, so long as it is published in it’s entirety with all copyright notices. Call RPM Success Group toll free at 888-334-8151 for offline reprint permissions, or by email editor@rpmsuccess.com.

As our inaugural podcast of the Effective Entrepreneur Radio Show we have a two part interview with best-selling author Robert Kiyosaki.

This week is part two of the interview, approximately 30-minutes in length.

Robert is a successful business owner and real estate investor, international educator in financial success, and best-selling author of the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” book series including:

- Rich Dad, Poor Dad
- Rich Dad’s Cash Flow Quadrant
- Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing

Each of these three books have been a NY Times best seller, and Robert has been interviewed on numerous top-rated TV shows including Oprah.

Now, as a subscriber to the Business Owner’s Journal (by podcast) — you’re about to benefit from a highly targeted interview where we grilled Robert on the secrets to succeeding and attaining financial freedom as a small business owner.

Here’s Part Two of the interview: Robert Kiyosaki with business coaches John-Paul and Deborah Micek

If you’re listening to this show using your Real Player or Windows Media Player, please be patient while the file loads. It’s a 5.5mb file, and depending on your internet connection, it may take up to 30-seconds before it begins to play. Longer on dial-up.

PLEASE NOTE: this show is available for FREE for the first seven days after each release! If it is more than 7 days since the initial publication, this audio recording has been archived and is available in it’s entirety only to Business Owner’s Coaching Club™ and Effective Entrepreneur™ members.

You can receive every show in its entirety including full un-edited interviews professionally recorded on CD — sign up for an Effective Entrepreneur™ Membership. Listen to your favorite authors/shows on CD over and over again. Listen in the car, on your way to work, while you’re walking on the beach, or during your workout at the gym.

Your Effective Entrepreneur™ Membership includes two professional quality CDs mailed straight to your door with your interviews, coaching, and marketplace updates at your fingertips. It also includes access to monthly MP3 archives of uncut shows. All for only $29/month.

(Single monthly archives are also available on CD for $39 each.)

The Effective Entrepreneur™ Membership starts May 1st. To pre-register and receive one month for FREE, send an email to: EEmembership@rpmsuccess.com.

In our coaching with small business owners around the world, I see it over and over again. Inexplicable refund requests are one of the most frustrating things for well meaning companies. But do you know what single factor is responsible for almost every refund request and nearly every piece of returned merchandise?

Buyer’s Remorse!

Since this is an emotional problem that causes the dissatisfaction, you need a high-power, emotion-based solution.

When does Buyer’s Remorse take place?

The minute the cash has transferred hands, fear enters the heart of your client. Warning sirens sound, and their subconscious starts prodding them, “Did you really make the right decision?”

This happens because most client’s have been burned before, so it’s only natural for them to have thoughts of skepticism and concern. Plus, it’s human nature to look for something negative in a situation. The bottom line is that most people are almost expecting something to go wrong.

Studies have determined that 90% of the problems we worry about never come to pass. Never! Yet, we all fall prey to worry despite of this fact (some more than others.) The question is though — what are you doing to answer all that’s going on in their head?

It’s your job to put your client’s fears and concerns to rest. Why would you let them worry when you know you’re going to take care of them - no matter what? (You’d take care of any problem they had anyway — wouldn’t you?!)

What you can do to minimize or even totally eliminate buyers remorse

One of the best ways small business owners can put their client’s concerns to rest is to offer an iron-clad guarantee. Not just a guarantee to induce prospects to buy your product or service, but using that guarantee to reassure your client immediately after the sale.

For many business owners this seems a little daunting when I first suggest the strategy, but fear and confusion quickly melt away when they see how easy this powerful reassurance tool is to put into use.

When they see the results on their new clients and cash flow — I often have to stop these achievement driven men and women from kicking themselves around their office for not developing a structured guarantee system sooner.

A simple strategy that changes the entire mindset of your clients and prospects

This simple gesture curtails potential fears in the minds of your clients. They are able to tell themselves, “Hey, if something does go wrong, I don’t need to get all worried because all I need to do is come back, and they’ll replace it for free.”

The other thought that goes through their mind, and often seals the deal more easily than you might imagine is, “Well, if they’re going to offer a lifetime guarantee, than this must be an excellent product. They’re willing to stand behind their product/service 100%, and the risk is squarely on their shoulders.”

After a little internal conversation, the next thing they hear their brain say is, “This is a no-brainer decision. I’m buying!”

Business Coaching Corner:

So now it’s time to take action. Here are some serious questions to give you motivation to get rolling right now.

If the majority of people experience buyers remorse, then why don’t the majority of business owners have some type of plan to address this for their own client base?

And if the majority of your competitors are offering some vague, namby-pansy guarantee and you come along with a rock-solid detailed guarantee the inspires confidence — how big will your competitive advantage be?

So … what type of system do you have in place that prevents buyers remorse in your customer?

What are you willing to put into place in the next 30-days?

If you don’t yet have a structured guarantee system in place that protects both your clients and your company, Coach Deb or I would love to help you out. A few private coaching sessions and you’ll be ready to thrill your clients, and leave your competitors heads spinning asking “how can they do that?”

About the Author: Known as “The Cash Flow Coach,” John-Paul Micek works with business owners and entrepreneurs to help them achieve the freedom, fulfillment and financial independence they want. If you’d like to learn how to boost your personal performance, supercharge your communication skills and create a “systems driven business” that delivers the type of net profits you want, John-Paul would love to help you set your own rules so you can win the game of business success. Learn more about working with J.P. one-on-one at http://www.BusinessOwnersCoaching.com. You can reach him directly at “JPM-at-RPMsuccess-dot-com” or toll free at (888) 334-8151.

© Copyright 1999-2005 by RPM Success Group ®, All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form without the express written consent of RPM Success Group ® is prohibited. You may use this article/post in part with an active trackback, or in it’s entirety as an RSS feed without previous permission, so long as it is published with the full authors tag and copyright notices. Call RPM Success Group toll free at 888-334-8151 for offline reprint permissions, or by email editor@rpmsuccess.com.