Tag Archives: transformation

The 6 biggest pitch deck mistakes you may not know you’re making

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The 6 biggest pitch deck mistakes you may not know you’re making

 

Today we are very fortunate to have a TV program to emulate regarding the perfect pitch deck. If you haven’t already watched ABC’s the Shark Tank, make the time to watch and take notes.

 

It gives you a very good illustration of pitching to investors. Even though the ABC’s reality show “Shark Tank” is available for all to learn from, I am always surprised when an entrepreneur shows up unprepared.

If you are interested, I have a list of the most frequently asked Shark Tank questions in a separate article Things we can learn from Shark Tank

 

For now, below is a list of 6 big pitch deck mistakes that you may be making:

 

  1. Not knowing your audience
  2. Not getting to the important stuff quickly
  3. Not including a summary
  4. Not knowing your numbers
  5. Not incorporating the investor’s terminology or experience
  6. Having one pitch deck for everyone

We will cover each mistake separately.

 

1.     Not knowing your audience

Many entrepreneurs are so focused on their own product, their own needs, and their own wants – that they forget the true goal of this presentation. Your goal is to adequately interest the investors such that they will want to do business with you.

People do business with people they know, like and trust. And the quickest way to earn trust is to show the investors that you already know them, what their needs and wants are, and how your product or service can help them reach their goals.

In other words, why should they care about you and your products or services?

Use Stephen Covey’s 5 Habit from his top-selling 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: “Seek first to understand, and then be understood”

Spend time researching your investors. Find out what excites them. Find out how they make their investment money back.

2.     Not getting to the important stuff quickly

 

Your prepared pitch should be no longer than 5-8 minute in length. So you really need to get your investor’s attention quickly. If they are interested, they will ask additional questions and will get to know you better. Your pitch needs to interest them quickly.

Once you have a better understanding of your audience, make sure you get to the important stuff as quickly and succinctly as possible. What is the “important stuff”? The important stuff is the stuff that the investors care about (and not necessarily what you care about).

This is where watching the Shark Tank will help. Here are some of the typical questions you need to cover, and a fuller list is available at: Things we can learn from Shark Tank

  • What problem are you solving?
  • How prevalent is this problem? (size of the market)
  • What you need financially to make that much money?
  • Who are you competing against?
  • How are you going to grow? How are you going to use their money?

 

3.     Not including a summary

A pitch presentation falls into the category of a training presentation: “Tell them what you are going to tell them; tell them; tell them what you have told them”. But many forget the summary or “tell them what you have told them” part. Your summary should end with a CALL TO ACTION.

4.     Not knowing your numbers

Investors are interested in a quick return on their investment; therefore, make sure you understand your numbers. And just knowing the dollar figure isn’t enough. You need to be able to articulate where these numbers are coming from, on what platform, are they driven by promotions, and what sort of partners are you working with? Is the marketing working? What does it cost to produce? What are your expenses?

Know your sales information inside and out.

5.     Not incorporating the investor’s terminology or experience

You won’t have much time; therefore, make the best use of that time. Incorporating the investor’s terminology and experience into your pitch will not only eliminate miscommunication but lead them to feel that you already speak the same language. That you are connected.

6.     One pitch deck for everyone

Don’t fall into the trap of creating 1-perfect-pitch-deck. Consider having a “perfect-pitch-deck template”. By understanding your audience, their terminology, and their unique interest in your products or services, you can tweak and quickly customize your single-perfect-pitch-deck template to win-over each unique investor.

Added Bonus

Now that we’ve discussed mistakes to avoid, below is a quick list of things to think about when preparing your “pitch”.

Things to think about when preparing your “pitch.”

  1. What your business makes or does?
  2. What market you serve?
  3. How will this business make money?
  4. How your business compares to similar businesses?
  5. Why you will succeed?
  6. Your ultimate goals for your business?

Conclusion

At the end of the day, there are various Do’s and Don’ts to keep in mind. The best recommendation is to run your pitch deck past a “mock Shark Tank”. One such “mock Shark Tank” panel are the experts at Crowdsourcia. You can’t go wrong with this set of experts.

 

 

Things we can learn from Shark Tank

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SharkTankThe popular TV reality investor program, “Shark Tank” can teach us much about the perfect sales pitch. The investors on “Shark Tank,” and investors ask several specific questions to get the answers they need. Some are straightforward and some are not, but you would be wise to have excellent answers for the following.

Here are eight questions that every entrepreneur should consider before pitching:

  1. What are your sales?

You really need to understand your numbers. And just knowing the dollar figure isn’t enough. You need to be able to articulate where these numbers are coming from, on what platform, are they driven by promotions, and what sort of partners are you working with? Is the marketing working? What does it cost to produce? What are your expenses?

Know your sales information inside and out. The number better be good and growing. They also want to understand what your plan is to keep it that way. You should have a story about how expanding to new geographies, new product lines, or online has boosted or can potentially boost sales. The investors are profit-focused, and the more a business can scale, the better.

Their primary goal is a return on their investment.

  1. What do you bring to the table?

Investors are not only buying into your business, they’re also investing in you   Highlight your record of success, industry experience, or why you’re dynamic enough to justify taking a gamble on.

People do business with people they know, like and trust. So, what are you doing with your business already that is going to make them want to partner with you? A strong personal story or a great narrative about the business, along with strong presentation skills, goes a long way toward impressing your investor.

Know what you bring to the table, and be confident in that.

  1. Why do you need our money?

Investors want to know what your next steps in growth. Answer the question “What are you going to do with this money?” in such a way to help the company grow and scale rapidly. This could include building manufacturing, hiring, or marketing. Spell out exactly what the plan for the funding is.

  1. Why the big valuation?

One of the first questions the investors often ask is “How did you get to your valuation”. The Sharks are interested in a big equity stake in a promising company for the least amount of money invested. If you are asking a large valuation, you better be able to explain your justification.

  1. Is your product unique? 

Several of the Sharks are interested in patents and licensing. Explain how your product is unique. If it is unique, make sure it’s protected via a patent. More often than not, if your product and service can be duplicated quickly by other competitors, it’s going to be hard to get an investment.

Knowing what sets your business apart, and how it can be protected against competitors is absolutely essential.

  1. How much debt do you have?

This goes back to “know your numbers”. If there’s a large amount of debt, be able to justify it, and know the terms it’s been borrowed under.

  1. How much inventory do you have?

Excess inventory is a sign that you are not moving your product fast enough. This is a clear sign that the market isn’t interested in what you have to offer.

Remember, the investors are interested in a quick return on their investment. Excess inventory is dead weigh because you’ve earned zero return on it.

Being able to produce products in response to demand is a sign of having good data, a good sense of the market, and a good supply chain.

  1. What are your costs?

Investors want to gauge your ability to make high profit margins by keeping costs low or having enough demand to keep prices high, or ideally both. You should be able to explain what it costs you to make each product or service, and the difference between that cost and the unit sales price. You should also prepare to outline overhead costs, such as rent, utility expenses, and insurance.

Less Frequently Asked Questions – but you will do well to be prepared

  1. How much of your own money do you have invested into this business?
  2. How does this business scale?
  3. Are you willing to send production off-shore?
  4. How will your product be distributed?
  5. How do we get this to (or find) your target market?
  6. How many competitors do you have?
  7. How many total owners are there?

Conclusion

If you know the answers to these questions as they pertain to your business, you’ll be in a good position to make your pitch to any potential investor.

 

Is it better to terminate or reassign an employee?

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Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of TimePeace: Making peace with time – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies. I help busy professionals and entrepreneurs create effective systems so that they can comfortably delegate to others, be more profitable and have time to enjoy life even if they don’t have time to learn new technology or train their staff.  I have a knack for taking big ideas and converting them into smart, sound, and actionable ideas.

 

At the end of the day, I transform the way you run your business into a business you love to run.

Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:

Is it better to terminate or reassign an employee that is not working out?

I have spent a lot of time training an employee. She is a great person, but I have to remind her several times to do something. I am not sure if she is just not in the right role or if she will always need too much oversight. I am curious how others have handled something like this.

You are not alone. Many new business owners struggle with this same question.

One thing to keep in mind (at all times) is that you are in the business to make money. You essentially hire staff to help you achieve your business goals.

You are not responsible for your employees’ happiness or success in their roles and responsibilities. You can encourage, support and train them – but you are not ultimately responsible for their success. They are.

Your Responsibilities:

What you are responsible is to provide clear goals and directives. You accomplish this by several methods:

  • Visible Mission, Vision and Purpose goals
    1. Do you have a company mission, vision purpose statements?
    2. Are they strategically visible where all your employees can see them?
  • Regular and frequent one-on-one meetings with your employees
    1. Are you conducting frequent one-on-one meetings with your employees?
    2. Have you validated that they not only understand the company mission but how it translate to their individual roles and responsibilities
  • Clear directives
    1. Do you have your business goals clearly documented in the form of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals
    2. Does each of your employees understand how their tasks and business goals support and accomplish those business goals?
    3. Does each of your employees have a PBC (Personal Business Commitment) plan that documents their SMART goals to achieve the company goals?

Once you have clearly articulated and published your business goals and validated each employee’s roles and responsibilities in achieving those goals, you can start determining whether a specific employee is “right” for your company.

Have you provided proper training?

Before you hire staff, you need to verify that your training and orientation materials are in place. If you don’t want to be spending time reminding your employees about the tasks and procedures, make sure they are documented in such a way that they can easily reference.

 

Some examples are:

  • Provide Checklists and document your procedures
  • Conduct frequent status meetings to review their progress and checklist status
  • Institute the buddy system in which a more senior staff is buddies with a junior staff member.
  • Delegate team leaders such that they oversee team progress and staff reports
  • Automate the more tedious and error-prone items to reduce error and rework
  • Automate and optimize items that are done over and over again
  • Optimize the procedures to only items that are MUST DO to bring in revenue, reduce costs or increase client satisfaction
  • If you cannot associate a Business Reason (example: revenue generating reason) for the task, reconsider the need for that task

 

Once you have streamlined your processes and policies, you can be assured that you have provided your employees with the best possible road-map to success.

Is she right for the job?

Once you have done your homework regarding setting up SMART goals, it is easier to assess each employee’s fit. Since you have established your Success Criteria and how you are going to Measure against your Success Criteria, you can determine if your employees are meeting expectations.

Several things that might help further are:

  • Have you documented all the tasks and expectations in a Personal Business Commitment (PBC) document? In other words, have you outlined for each employee – how their role and responsibilities are achieving your business goals?
  • Have you documented their PBCs in the form of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound)?
  • Do your employees understand the consequences of not meeting those PBC metrics? (for instance: being placed on a Performance Improvement Plan, on probation or fired)?
  • Have your employees signed their PBCs, acknowledging that they understand their commitments and consequences of their performance.

Once you have clearly articulated the expectations for the position in this manner and streamlined the responsibly and procedures, more often than not – it is the employee that will decide if this position is right for them.

For example: A SMART goal would be:

  • If you have to remind her several times to do something – are those
    “things” explicitly documented in a checklist? (Being very specific)
  • Do you have a way to measure or tell if she has accomplished those items, on time and with the quality that you have previously defined? Does she have to report on the status or update a tracking system? (Measurable)
  • Is it reasonable that someone in that position can accomplish that task in the defined time frame? (Achievable) Or would some automation and optimization reduce the error-prone nature of the task?
  • Can you describe the How and Why this task is relevant to bringing in revenue? (Relevant to your business goals)
  • And does this have a time limit. Does she need to do this task every day? once a week? When should it be accomplished? (Time-bound).

If she needs to improve upon her performance – what specific things does she need to accomplish in a certain amount of time.  What are the consequences for not achieving those specific and measurable tasks within the deadline?  (This is what is known as a documented PIP or Performance Improvement Plan)

Conclusion:

If you are “wishy-washy” on your expectations, it’s easy for your employees to give you “wishy-washy” results.  Having your expectations and consequences well documented (and signed by your employee) will make the next steps of performance evaluation much easier.

If you need additional help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

How can I get credit for work I’ve done that someone else took credit for?

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Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:

How can I get credit for work I’ve done that someone else took credit for?

 

There are several versions of this issue. Your employer could have taken credit for your work; your co-worker would have taken credit for your work; and your business competitor could have taken credit for your work. In all three versions, the solutions are very similar. Let’s take a look at each.

 

Your employer could have taken credit for your work

If you are dealing with your employer or company, you need to check your contract with them. Most employers pay you for your work. Therefore, even though you did the work, they own the results. This also includes any patents, published books, etc that you have authored during your regular work hours.

 

  • Check your agreement with them.

If they have paid you for the work, they own the piece. Review the contract or employment agreement. Most times they state the ownership expectations.

 

  • Keep records on authenticity of the work.

If you can demonstrate your authorship in a time sensitive way then that will clarify who came up with the ideas first.

  • Talk to them.

It’s always best to have a heart-to-heart with them about the issue. Often times it’s a miscommunication or misunderstanding. More often than not, the offending party (once realizing their oversight) will do their best to amend.

Once again – it goes back to what you agreed to in your employment agreement.

 

Don’t have an employment agreement? Use that one-on-one (heart-to-heart) to co-create one on the spot.  If you would like to keep your intellectual property rights, include that in your agreement. This will eliminate similar issues in the future.

 

Your co-worker would have taken credit for your work

It’s important to realize that ideas are free. It’s what you do with the ideas and the results of your efforts that matter. Often times many people have the same ideas without “stealing it from others”. They may experience similar situations that lead you to those thoughts. They may have been working in the same field or shared the same background that leads you to those same thoughts. Just because someone ends up with a similar solution doesn’t necessarily mean that they stole your work.

 

In either case, preventive medicine is best. It’s much harder to correct, after the damage has been done.

 

  • Continue to share your work progress with your manager on your regular one-on-one meetings. If you are transparent with your manager, then he knows who did the work on this project.

 

  • Keep good records on your designs.

If you can demonstrate your authorship in a time sensitive way then that will clarify who came up with the ideas first.

 

  • Talk to the co-worker about it.

Perhaps it was just a coincidence and perhaps you can collaborate on the next steps. Also share the fact that you have been sharing your project progress with your manager all along. If your co-worker is knowingly taking credit for your work AND they know that your manager has been involved in your work – it’s likely they will back-off.

What if it’s a business competitor that is taking the credit?

  • Consistently place your copyright or trademark on your work.   This is one way to illustrate authenticity.
  • Keep design records of your concepts, prototypes, etc. This will help if you decide to go through litigation.
  • Talk to them about it. Perhaps some type of affiliation or partnership can be derived by this synchronicity of ideas.

Conclusion:

It’s much harder to correct, after the damage has been done. Therefore, keep good records, copywright your work, and share early prototypes, demos, and specs with trusted individuals.  If you are in business, ask those individuals, you are sharing your ideas with, to sign a NDA or confidentiality agreement.

 

For help on leading a more effective staff meeting, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

 

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

How do you deal with workplace bullying?

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Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:

How do you deal with workplace bullying?

bullyMy friend at work had a computer crash. So he came to me since I know about the environment.
The computer crashed on him, he reset it, but while the program was down, and was costing client’s money. His manager says he does not have time to deal with this. The supervisor says he has to deal with it. This means he would have to pay out his own pocket. How would you deal with this without making a fuss? My advice was to phone the area manager, but there are no rules on what to do here. Do you have better advice for him?

First of all – I am not sure this is an example of “workplace bullying”. Many times “workplace bullying” is in the eye of the beholder. People that do not want to take responsibility for their situations are more comfortable taking the “victim” role than the hero. In this article, we’re going to focus on what you can do as the hero in these types of situation – instead of the victim.

Secondly, “The supervisor says he has to deal with it.” — Doesn’t automatically mean that “he would have to pay out his own pocket”. This is an assumption on your part. What the manager actually said was that the employee needs to use his own best judgment on this issue.

One suggestion is to ask your manager that – since he doesn’t have time to deal with this, would he like you to contact the 2nd line manager (his manager) about this. Or does his manager have someone else you should contact. Asking your manager “point-blank” if you should go to his manager often gets your manager’s attention. Now that you have your manager’s attention – you can work on a solution together.

Take advantage of your one-on-one manager meetings

If you have been following any of my webinars, articles, and blogs, you know how much importance I place on scheduling frequent and regular one-on-one meetings with your manager.   Having these critical meetings actually eliminates or greatly reduces misunderstandings between employers and employees.

The better working relationship you have with your manager, the less likely that your manager will “blow you off” or “bully you”. The one-on-one meetings are just the thing to build a better working relationship with your boss. Take a more active role in building that better working relationship.

I have more tips on how to impress your boss in the webinar: 5 Keys to Impressing Your Boss. If you are interested in more information on that webinar, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info or setup a one-on-one chat using https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

Document the solution

Just because there are “no rules on this” or (no current procedures) doesn’t let you off the hook. Anything that you encounter needs to be properly documented. Once you run into an issue, you need to document the issue and its subsequent solution. Forget that “it’s not my job”- take the initiative and make it part of your regular MO.

Conclusion:

The key to avoiding this situation is to be proactive. Document your work, be transparent with your manager, and talk to the offending parties.   It’s more difficult to get credit for something after the fact, without looking petty. So be proactive on your copyrights/trademarks and “document, document, document.

 

For help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

 

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

How can I structure our employee meetings to keep everyone on task?

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Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:

How can I structure our employee meetings to keep everyone aware and on task of what we’re working towards?

Recently, there has been miscommunication between my team members and management on the best practices for our company and where our resources should be spent. I don’t want to waste any more time and am looking for innovative ways to get my employees focused. Please advise, thank you.

Change YOUR FOCUS FIRST

Communication can be both the problem and the solution to most team and management issues. Your attitude of “I don’t want to waste any more time” – may be part of the problem. Taking additional time properly communicating with your employees will save team and department time. But it may seem to you that it’s taking more of “your time”.  My recommendation is to invest your time in communicating more often – to help your employees stay focused.

Quick tips

Here are some quick tips to turn the problem into the solution:

  • Do you have a published company vision, mission and purpose statement for the company? If not – please create one and make is visible to everyone.
  • Can everyone on your team paraphrase how their roles, responsibilities and tasks support that company vision, mission and purpose statement? If not – please have the managers have regular one-on-one meetings to both emphasize and creatively empower the team to accomplish the company’s goals.
  • Do you conduct regular one-on-one meetings with each individual? Don’t assume that a group staff meeting is enough. In this global and diverse work environment, many people may be working remotely or on different shifts. They may not have been at the meeting OR have misinterpreted the information.
  • Do you use effective Change Management procedures when you do add, modify or delete goals. This means you clearly identify the tasks that are removed or re-prioritized when a new task is added. Most of the time, employees are unfocused because management continue to give additional tasks without understanding the current tasks that the employees are working on. By instituting Change Management procedures – you review the level of effort for the requested change, the effects and consequences of the requested change to the other items AND all the significant stakeholders are aware of the changes and consequences.
  • Do you hold quick daily staff meetings (no longer than 15 minutes) to review the day’s goals, status and issues?
  • Do all your staff meetings have a Purpose/Goal, Agenda list (with time limit) that support that Purpose, and a Summary of the resulting action items and owners?
  • Are your meeting’s minutes properly visible on your internal website or via email – that clearly outlines your tasks and goals?

Conclusion:

Switch your goal from “I don’t want to waste any more time” – to “I want to better communicate with my employees” and you will accomplish both goals.

For help on leading a more effective staff meeting, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

How can I show off my personality more through my work?

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Today’s comment came from a busy entrepreneur:

How can I show off my personality more through my work?

Whether you are a staff member in a corporate environment or a small business owner, you will need to make yourself visible to your employers, employees and potential customers.  One thing that is unique to you is your personality.  Therefore, that is one differential factor that everyone can make use of – but how? We will answer this question for both environments.

How can I show off my personality more through my work in the corporate environment?

In today’s global workplace, more and more of our employers and employees are working remotely. Given the fact that fewer of us are actually working physically side-by-side our co-workers and executives, it is critical to differentiate ourselves from our peers in a positive light. One thing that will continue to build a positive reputation is to take advantage of your unique personality, talents and strengths.  You can make these things more visible by doing the following:

1)Add more of the personal touch.  Pick up the phone instead of emailing or texting.  A personal phone call or visit brings your personality to the forefront.  Effective communication is conveyed by 7% words, 55% body language,  and 38% tone.  By limiting yourself to email and text (just words), you have eliminated 93% of your arsenal.

2) Be proactive in illustrating your strengths, talents and knowledge base.  Speaking engagements are great ways to illustrate your personality, while demonstrating your experience, knowledge, and talent.  You can also more easily interact and affect a larger audience of your peers, supervisors and clients.  You can also get immediate feedback.  Consider giving Lesson Learned presentations, Technical Tip Presentation, and Solution-based Proposals.

3) Promote other experts.  Much like the MC of a television program or interview, the host of the regularly scheduled program is seen every week.  Their intelligence and personality is regularly demonstrated while they intelligently and professionally interact with the expert.   You can do this by hosting presentations and Brown Bag Lunch sessions on high-profile topics in your company’s interest by various experts.  This releases your need to “be the expert on everything”, while at the same time providing your company with the much needed training on the next generation focus.

4) Think globally.  Not everyone that you work and correspond with has met you in person.  Add your professional photo to your email-signature; include your individual career mission and vision statement in your internal email correspondence.  Check with your company’s policy regarding external email signatures.  They may have a specific template that you need to follow. 5)Add video.  Consider adding a video status report from time to time.  This will add a face to your weekly status report, as well as your personality. A final recommendation is to think like the owner.  What would the owner of the company like to see from you?  How would he/she like you to be seen by the customer?

How can I show off my personality more through my work as an entrepreneur?

I am working on launching my own photography business on the side. I want my photos to be known for being fun and natural, and have my customers trust me to capture a great moment. How can I showcase all of this in my work? I know this will come with time as I build brand recognition, but where to start?

You can easily translate the above corporate 5 suggestions for the small business owner.
Some additional suggestions are:

1)Publish.  Having a regular blog about your business area tips, your favorite type of clients, your lessons learned how and why you got into your business, etc. If you start a blog or even a video blog (video yourself talking about these things), is a natural way to bring your personality through your work.

2)Teach.  Setup speaking engagement is a great way to show off your personality, your knowledge and your skill. Getting in front of your clients are good ways to elicit customer feedback.  Make use of inviting or regularly interviewing guest speakers (see above suggestions in the corporate section).

3)Ask Questions.  Ask for your client’s opinions and feedback.  Personal interaction with your clients is the best way to show off your personality.

Conclusion:

Keep the end in mind.  Whether you like it or not, you are on stage most of your professional day.  Make the best use of that time.

For more information or help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

Should I focus on just one niche customer group initially?

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Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of TimePeace: Making peace with time – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies. I help busy professionals and entrepreneurs create effective systems so that they can comfortably delegate to others, be more profitable and have time to enjoy life even if they don’t have time to learn new technology or train their staff.  I have a knack for taking big ideas and converting them into smart, sound, and actionable ideas.

 

At the end of the day, I transform the way you run your business into a business you love to run.

Today’s comment came from a busy entrepreneur:

Should I focus on just one niche customer group initially?

I have been trying to get feedback from my ideal target audience but I am finding the group hard to reach. There is another target audience that could benefit from my service. I am not as passionate about that group but I think they may be easier to get feedback as I build out my business. Should I focus on both or only one?

 

I recommend that you focus on one target audience. But I also want to caution on your method of reaching those people. If your method of reaching “people” is ineffective or flawed – then it doesn’t matter how many target audience you go after. Maybe it’s not that the group is hard to reach. Maybe it’s the way you are going about it. If the ladder is true – then you will have the same difficulties with the second group.
My recommendation would be to study up on the most effective methods to reach your target market. Find other business owners that are successfully marketing to that same target – and find out how they are doing it. Start partnering with complimentary business that shares the same target audience. Business network with those who are already successful in marketing to your target audience. Learn from those that have achieved what you want to achieve.

Periodically re-evaluate your target niche

Be watchful on who is attracted to your products and services. There may be other groups interested in your products or services. For example, Chris owned a Curves Club for women.   She wanted to have her club hours during the day (9am-1:30pm and 3:30pm-7:00pm). This makes it difficult for younger, working women use her club. She didn’t want to extend the hour, so she mostly marketed it toward retired women.

But if Chris takes a second look at her niche, she could expand it to include:

  • Mothers with school-age children
  • Women who owned their own business
  • Women who worked from home

Conclusion:

Keep the end in mind that your products and services will evolve. Therefore, your target clients will also evolve and change. Review your product funnel strategy to see if different product levels will attract different clients.

 

For more information or help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

 

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

Who to make friends with at work

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Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose.  I am a speaker and author. I am an expert in time and project management.

Today’s comment came from a busy professional:

 

Who to make friends with at work

Who are the people who are important to your career? Who are the people who can help you be happy at work? Who are the ones who can help you or be someone you can rely on? We are looking for tips on how to identify these people as well as how to know what level of friendship you should have with your co-workers.

 

Best advice is to clearly know where you want to be, do and have.  If you can clearly articulate your career goals and professional path – then it’s easy to understand “who to make friends with at work”.   Statistics show that we typically hang-out with people in our same social-economical standing.  If we want to advance, get promoted, make more money, be more affluent – we need to start meeting and networking with those people that have already achieved what we want to achieve.  This means that we need to define our own career goals and take full ownership of our own professional growth.  Once you have that clearly defined, you can start networking (making friends) with the right people at work (i.e. the people who can help you achieve your goals).

Have an INS

I have a workbook called the Individual Network System or INS.   This workbook outlines the who, what, where, when and how of corporate and business networking. It helps you identify the right people to meet and how to keep you on their radar. If you would like a complimentary copy of that workbook, please setup an appointment.

The intent of creating a business networking is to build relationships with the right people that will help you find the positions and roles that you really want. If that is what you really want, then take the 20 minutes to chat about it with me.

Find a mentor

 

Consider finding mentors in various areas of your professional development:

1) How to better market yourself within your professions

2) Help you with promoting your ideas and innovations.

3) How to write and publish your articles, presentations, and white papers

4) How to present to the exec

5) How to get other managers from sibling departments recognize your value to your company (If your manager is the only person that knows your value – you are doing yourself a disservice).

 

 

I know your situation is different. Why don’t we schedule an appointment, where I get to know more about your unique situation? And then I will be happy to make recommendations on what your best steps are moving forward. To schedule an appointment, book it HERE.

With enough notice, it would be my honor to guest-speak at no cost to your group organization.

I have a presentation on “3 Keys to saying YES to everything but on your own terms”. To sign up for the complimentary course, go to www.lauraleerose.com/Say-Yes

 

 

Should I have specific segmented brands or one brand that does all at different price levels?

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Today’s question came from a busy entrepreneur about his marketing plan.

Should I have specific segmented brands or one brand that does all at different price levels?

All markets have different performance and cost needs. Should we have multiple product brands – i.e. low cost/low performance and mid/high or have one brand that can stretch across multiple performance levels and price according to options? It makes sense to economize the product manufacturing chain but, what is everyone’s experience when consolidating a full portfolio into a single brand lineup?

Your Brand should solve a specific problem for a specific niche or class of people. If you have multiple visions/missions you should have separate branding and marketing strategies. For example: Sarah has her Health Coach business and she also sells her own brand of peanut butter.   Sarah should have separate branding and marketing strategies for those very different product and businesses.

 

product funnel2Product Funnel Strategy

Within each separate brand – you should have a product funnel strategy that leads your target client up your product/service pricing structure. Normally people start off with free samples – to allow the target client to get to know you (like a first date). In Sarah’s example, she may offer a complimentary discovery health sessions, newsletters, articles, short audios/video for her coaching; and free samples of your peanut butter for her other brand.

 

Then you create some low, mid, high end offers for each separate brand. In Sarah’s example, she can create group workshops, subscriptions based programs, one-on-one coaching programs, and then high-end product bundles with personal trainers, personal chef, image consultant, and a high-end shopping spree when your health goals are met.
If you only want to sell your coaching and peanut butter to High-Profile, Affluent clients (that’s your target client) — then you advertize, market and visit only the places where the High-Profile, Affluent people are. Your price points are selected to match the budgets of your target niche/clients.

 

Do you have an umbrella Brand that covers all your products?

You will have an Umbrella Company that owns the Health Coach and Peanut Butter business. But the branding will be different. For instance, Kraft owns Kool-Aid, Velveeta, Miracle Whip and Maxwell House. But each of these products have their separate branding, target market and product Funnels.

 

I know your situation is different. Why don’t we schedule an appointment, where I get to know more about your unique situation? And then I will be happy to make recommendations on what your best steps are moving forward. To schedule an appointment, book it HERE.