I Resolve to... 10 Resolutions For Growth in the New Year

Beginning a new year offers us a time to reflect on the past and the future of our business - to think about what went well and where we might have fallen short of expectations. It is also a good time to make changes, to resolve to leading your business in a manner that assures steady progressive growth.

Based on 12 years of experience working with privately-held business owners, this will typically mean doing things significantly different than you have in the past.

To be a catalyst to this positive change, I offer my top ten resolutions for growth in 2015.

In 2016, I resolve to:  

1. Have a well vetted, market-based plan that defines our future state in a measurable way (3-years and 1-year from now) - customer mix, sales, operations, etc.. 
2. Share that plan with our employees so they too know what we are striving to achieve and how they can be a part of our success. 
3. Operate to that plan - to get things done and hit milestones when we said we would - and that there will be real repercussions for failing to do so. 
4. Not make a single spontaneous buying decision for professional services or capital equipment - I will let the plan dictate these important cash expenditures. 
5. Know who we are competing against by company name. 
6. Strive to differentiate from our competitors - and if we can’t - to out-market them as one would do if selling a commodity product/service like toothpaste, accounting services, banking, web development, etc.... 
7. Know who are our target customers and that it be narrowly defined - consistent with the size of our marketing and sales force. 
8. Recognize that all marketing activity has ultimately one purpose - to generate qualified leads for our sales force. Thus, I will plan our expenditures and measure its effectiveness accordingly. 
9. Know and rationalize in business terms our social media presence/activity.
10. Make good hiring decisions - which are driven by the plan, and starts with a written job description outlining the necessary experience and performance expectations, pay and benefits.. 

How many of these are you currently following? Need some help bringing these resolutions to life in you metro Atlanta, Georgia business? Let's talk over a cup of coffee. Contact me here.

Wishing you the greatest success in 2016!

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping businesses plan and execute aggressive growth strategies. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is a sales process and growth strategy evangelist, prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. He is also an advisor at Atlanta Tech Village and Four Athens Tech Incubator. www.allegroconsultant.com

8 Shortsighted Reasons Business Owners Don’t Plan

I’ve been consulting with business owners for over 12 years. Clients typically call because sales are slumping or things are seemingly out of control. They feel lost about where things are going and are just along for the ride. When trying to diagnose what might be wrong I will always first ask to see the plan for their business. The common response, “What plan?” or they will point to their head and say, “it’s in here”.

 What has always intrigued me about this is when I ask an audience of private business owners to raise their hands if they are at all surprised to find that Coca Cola has a 3-year plan. Or Boeing. Or Target. No one raises their hands. “Of course they do!”, they would say.

Yet when it comes to their own businesses - no plan at all. Remarkably, 90% of private business owners operate without a plan. The success/fail records support this. So, why don’t they plan?

Here are the 8 most common reasons I have heard for this shortsighted behavior.

(1) "I'd rather DO rather than plan." Clients have said they would rather do anything than plan. Fix a machine, support a sales call, talk to a supplier, or review a new website. In doing these things they get immediate gratification of accomplishing something, of solving an immediate problem for the team. After all, they rationalize this is the role of the President and owner, to solve problems, to be an expert on all matters and keep the business humming along. Right?

 (2) "It’s just not possible to do any long-term planning for MY business, it’s just too dynamic and unpredictable right now." “Mike, you don’t understand. My business is different.” Then they will site all the chaos they are managing through. Employee performance issues, a customer cutting their order in half, an upcoming conference to prepare for, a new competitor emerging, and the list goes on. “In such an environment, how do you expect me to do any long-term planning?

 (3) "Time spent on this is just not worth the effort." Citing reasons (1) and (2) they will rationalize that it just doesn’t make sense to spend precious time on this priority right now. Some will further justify this position by recalling an instance where a plan was produced only to sit on a shelf - never to be referred to again.

(4) "I don’t know how." I have had owners tell me they intended to do this for years. Some even locked themselves away and stopped taking calls for the sole purpose of crafting a strategic plan. They admitted only getting as far as typing ... “2014-2016 Strategic Plan” ...at the top of a blank Word document. They add that despite the fact there are numerous resources on the web for how to do this very important and impactful, cerebral activity “it is hard to have any confidence I am doing this right”. That’s not surprising. Building a quality, viable strategic plan takes experience just like any other discipline required to run a good company.

 (5) "What if it’s not the right plan?" Here is the logic behind this excuse. A plan puts our company on certain path. If the plan is wrong the path is wrong and that could spell disaster. “No plan mean I have the maximum flexibility to adjust in real-time based on the real-time dynamics of the business.” I’d like to see a CEO of any public company give this rationale to their Board of Directors or a startup to their principal investors.

(6) "I don’t want to be hand-cuffed on how I run my company." A written plan means accountability. “Publicizing our plan means committing myself (the owner) to accomplishing certain things in certain timeframes, right?” Yes. “Me failing to meet written milestones may give others a reason to justify not accomplishing the tasks I assigned them.” We can’t have that now can we.

 (7) "I’ve operated this long without a plan and it seems to be working for me." Why change? This is one of my personal favorites because I invariably find abysmal marketing initiatives, costly bad hires, and expensive, ultimately aborted excursions into new markets that would not have otherwise been pursued had they been operating to a plan.

 (8) "I don’t have time." “I know I should but things are just too busy right now for me to do any planning. Maybe later when things slow down.” Hint: they never do.

As this year draws to an end you have an opportunity to reflect on your business and your leadership. What did you learn this year? About your competition? About yourself? About your customer? What did your company do well? Where are the weaknesses that should be addressed? There is no doubt you possess a wealth of quantitative and quantitative data - inside your head. But that jungled mess of important information benefits no one in there. The planning process draws that out and makes it actionable. And much like making a movie, the finished product becomes the actionable script for your business.

Want to build a growth plan for your metro Atlanta business?  Let's talk over a cup of coffee.  Contact me here.

About the author. Mike Gomez is President and CEO of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm in Atlanta, GA. Allegro has been helping Georgia’s private business owners plan and execute aggressive growth strategies for over12 years. Mike is a strategy and sales process evangelist with a tool chest built on direct experience in sales ($10B) and operations. He is a prolific speaker, writer, guest lecturer at UGA and GaTech, Next Top Entrepreneur judge, and start-up mentor at Atlanta Tech Village.

Where is the script for your business? (Reprise)

This was one of my earlier and more popular blogs. I thought it would be appropriate to dust it off and republish it because it is invariably this time of year when business owners begin to reflect on the past year and the new one just around the corner. I hear these quotes most often: "Maybe we should do things differently next year." or "I'd sure like to feel like I am in more control of our growth." or "I am ready to take it to the next level." Maybe this article will add additional motivation to change. Enjoy.

I was speaking to a large gathering of business owners and was asked whether there was an inherent conflict between planning for growth and the more free spirited entrepreneurial-like approach - where you stay agile and react to opportunities as they arise (i.e., operate without a plan). This was a great question as it addresses a big misconception about planning - that it somehow hand-cuffs a business.

To answer the question I asked the audience to imagine themselves accidentally walking onto the set of a movie production. Then imagine grabbing the megaphone and asking everyone on the set to freeze for a moment and to please hold up their script for the day. In this case, none of us would be too surprised to see that the cameraman, the director, the soundman, the actors, and even the caterers will all be able to produce a script for that specific day.  The cameraman will know which cameras he has to have ready and where they should be staged.  Because of the script, the actors will know the lines and the scenes they are expected to be ready for.  And the script will reveal to the caterers how many meals they have to prepare for and where they will be served that day. You see, a movie will never come together without a script.

Now take that same megaphone into your own business and ask your leadership team and employees to produce their script for the day. How will they react to this request? I suspect most will give you that “deer in the headlights” look.

There is not a producer in the world or investor that would pursue a movie production without a well written script. The idea is simply preposterous. Yet most of us will run our businesses without one.

The script for your company is a plan - a simple concise document which aligns your team around a common objective or end-state that is consistent with your vision and market conditions. And, like the script for a movie, there are portions written specifically for specialized roles. Sales, operations, finance, human resources, marketing should each have a script which defines the specific tasks they must complete (and when) to keep your “movie” progressing.

The script governing the day-to-day operations are process documents which describes how a product or service is produced and delivered within your company.

You will find that businesses that grow consistently year after year operate to a well vetted long-term (3 yr.) and short-term (1 yr.) plan. It is the plan they refer to BEFORE making a hiring decision, investing in capital equipment, or spending precious cash on marketing campaigns and website improvements. It is also the plan that will guide them when building and executing a sales strategy.

These same growing companies also recognize that the process by which they produce a product or service can impact competitiveness. By documenting critical processes they eliminate the risk of being dependent on any one person’s memory or contribution. It also gives them a foundation from which to explore innovative changes that will improve efficiency and thus increase profitability.

Now I hope I have convinced you that, like a movie, your business too requires scripting. Can you imagine actors, cameramen, and set designers coming to a specific location and then left to their own to interpret the verbal instructions of the producer’s vision for a movie. It would be chaotic at best with numerous costly ventures down one frustrating dead-end after another. Entrepreneurial or not, is this the atmosphere for a growing thriving business? No.

So, where is the script for your business? It is worthwhile to note that since 1980 over 70% of the winners of the Academy Award for best picture also received the Oscar for best screenplay – the script.

Want help to build your "script"?  Let's talk over coffee about where you want to take your metro Atlanta business. Contact me here.

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping businesses plan and execute aggressive growth strategies. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is a sales process evangelist, prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

8 Growth Tools Every Business Owner Should Know, Have and Use

You need a good nail-gun, a saw and more to be a carpenter. To be a car mechanic you need a wrench, a computer code reader and a good socket-set to name a few of the essential tools. If you are a regular mountain climber then you likely have good rope, and plenty of high quality caribiners in your tool chest.  So, what are some of the important tools required if you are the CEO of your start-up or established business. 

#1 Business Plan (for start-ups): An exercise and accompanying document you complete PRIOR to launching a new business. Properly done it will force you to be clear on what your business is all about, the product or service you deliver, how you plan to deliver it, and supporting evidence for why customers will buy from you over competing alternatives. It will also tell you how much money you need to keep the business operating effectively before you are producing sufficient cash flow to cover operating expenses. Experience says you will find this document will be obsolete in the first six months of operations as real life will be surprisingly different than your assumptions. Regardless, this step is critical to success.

 #2 Strategic Plan (for established businesses): An exercise and accompanying document that combines your future vision of the business and real life market realities to define in a measurable way what your company will look like 2 to 3 years from now. It is the spot on the map you select before getting into your car for a road trip. Customer mix, revenue, market penetration, operations and people are all addressed in this document. A well done strategic plan will leverage you current strengths, acknowledge and address weaknesses, exploit market opportunities, and counter external threats. Everyone in your company should know your strategic plan - this is how you create an “aligned” workforce.

 #3 Tactical Plan: An annual document that defines specific actions (beyond day to day operations) to be taken by specific individuals in a specific time-frame (usually quarterly) that will incrementally move your company one step closer to the Strategic Plan goals. If you were to envision your business as a movie, this would be the “script”. You are the director and your employees, the actors. You are tasked with completing this movie on time and with no overruns.

 #4 Targeted Customer: Exactly who did you design your product/service for? It is not “everyone”. Your target customer is the bullseye of your sales dart board. The better you are able to describe the critical attributes (job, race, gender, age, income, business, hobby, etc...) the better and more efficient your marketing and sales force will be in finding and winning them.

 #5 Sales Strategy: A process where you analyze the depth and breadth of your market opportunities, the intensity of the competition you expect to face, and given resources you possess to devise a sales plan of attack. Similar to war planning you may choose a broad strategy that secures a large number of small victories or concentrate your resources to score a big impactful strategic win. It defines how and where you will deploy your limited resources as well as the weaknesses of you competition you plan to exploit to win new business.

 #6 Marketing Strategy: Marketing is all about generating qualified leads for your sales team to close on. Developing a marketing strategy is a left brain activity as it involves analysis and critical thinking. A well done marketing strategy involves analyzing your customers (who they are and how they buy) then exploring and selecting the most effective tools (web, social media, billboard, collateral, TV commercials, car wrap) within given financial constraints to garner their interest. You compete and hire marketing experts and service providers for their right brain creative skills to implement your strategy.

 #7 Sales Process: A replicable and thus written method for how you take a warm lead and turn him/her into a happy customer. As you might expect this is one of the most important steps in your business processes and should not be relegated to the personal techniques of any given salesperson. In addition to more consistent win rates, a defined sales process will allow you the owner to engage in a conversation with any of your sales team and know exactly who is in the funnel and where they are in the sales cycle.

 #8 Critical Processes: Those unique, replicable steps your company completes to generate leads, win business, deliver a consistent product or service and collect financial compensation. Documenting these steps provides two major benefits, (1) reduces risk by creating a back-up should you be unfortunate to lose a critical employee with all of the corporate memory due to a job change or accident and, (2) it establishes a baseline upon which to develop improvements. Say your company name is XYZ then what makes your product an XYZ product or service performed and delivered the XYZ way?  

Are you a metro Atlanta business who may need to 'borrow' some of these tools to help your business grow? Let's talk over a cup of coffee.  Contact me here.


About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping startups and establish businesses plan and execute aggressive growth strategies. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is a growth strategy and complex sales expert, prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

Getting Your Business Back in Shape (re-released and update)

It is the fourth week in January and the annual migration of the New Year’s resolution crowd is already departing gym’s across the United States; not to be seen again until next year.

At the start of each new year there is an enthusiasm to get back into personal shape. This same phenomena is present in the business world. Each year business owners declare, “This year will be different. We will have a well thought out strategic plan. We will have an actionable yearly tactical plan from which we will judge our progress. We will hold regularly scheduled staff meetings to review our plans, assess the actions of our competitors, and examine our financial health. Yes, 2012 will be different!”  And by the end of January.... they are back into their old routine, with the fire drills of each and every day dictating the rest of the year’s agenda. And like the fitness birds migrating through the gym each year, this cycle will sure to be repeated over again the next year.

I want to share with you a different story; one with exciting results and very much analogous to the business world, in hopes that it will inspire you to stick with your resolution.

At the end of November, a good friend of mine sent the following text message, “I need help.” He wanted to get back into shape and after numerous attempts on his own, he felt the aid of an outside expert was needed. I agreed to be his personal trainer. Before we began I wanted to hear what goals he had in mind in order to assess if it was realistic. He stated two specific objectives; (1) get back down to 175 lbs and (2) have a pool-worthy body for a vacation he planned in late March. We then looked at his current state; 5’11” and 198 lbs. We had a little over four months (18 weeks) interrupted by Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, to lose 23 lbs. and build some muscle. His goals were possible, but would require a very strong commitment to reach them. He agreed to commit to a plan that I would guide him to establish and we began.

Much like the human body, a company without steady work “on” the business versus “in” the business will too become out of shape and lose the market strength, they once enjoyed. So, exactly how do you get back into shape, or get into shape for the first time ever, and what can you expect from the process?

1. Look in the mirror. Are you happy with the current state? Is the performance what you expect? Are sales meeting your expectations? Are you stronger? Are you still as agile and responsive as you once were? How do your customers view you? What will you look like in 3 years?

2. If you don’t like what you see or are not sure what direction you are going do something about it.

3. Set measureable, realistic goals to be completed at a specific time. In the business world this means capturing your vision, and balancing that with a clear unbiased view of how you stand relative to the competition and in the market for which you chose to compete. Steve Covey said it best in his book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Begin with the end in mind”.

4. If you have never done step number three or don’t know how, don’t let your ego prevent you from engaging an outside expert. A business strategist brings two very valuable tools to the table; (1) experience working with a variety of companies in various industries from which you will benefit, and (2) they will stop you from drinking your own bathwater (declaring something is core strength when in reality it is not all that different from your competitors).

5. Craft a written plan and stick to it. This means you review the plan regularly and use it to guide how you and your team utilize your time, invest your resources, and select your people.

6. Accept the fact that change will involve some pain. Operating leaner is hard and demanding. Holding employees and yourself accountable to specific and measurable goals is also tough. Fight through the pain knowing what you are doing is for the long-term health of your company.

7. Beware of excuses used to revert back to old behaviors or not complete an assigned objective on time. It is not physically possible to complete everything in the fourth quarter because you either procrastinated or came up with reasons for why it couldn’t be done earlier in the year as originally agreed.

8. Most likely progress will be quicker for younger companies than older. That’s just nature. Older habits and patterns of behavior are tougher to change. But don’t use this as an excuse not to.

Now for the rest of the fitness story: The first few weeks were quite hard. He was a bit embarrassed being seen lifting the small amount of weights on the bar. He complained of being constantly sore. He would try to throw out an excuse or two for skipping a day; “Bad knees” and “I forgot my brace” were the excuses he used when I first suggested he start a running regiment. However, to his credit, he always showed up for our workouts. I knew we had turned a significant corner when on week eight he suggested going to the gym on one of our off days. That same week he set a goal to run a 5K. He had embraced the change in behavior. I was no longer pulling him along. His own goals and the measurable progress were now providing the motivation.

With eight weeks to go he is down to 182 lbs., having lost 16 of the 23 lbs. we targeted. He could barely run for 20 minutes when we first started, but can now run a full 5K in 30 minutes and is working to improve his time. 12 pushups in a row are now 40. He has doubled the amount of weight he is able to lift and fits into clothing sizes that he has not fit into since college. We’ve recently incorporated swimming into our routine and he is already thinking a triathlon may be a worthy goal for 2013.

Like your body, there is no shortcut to getting your company back into shape. It requires an investment in time and resources and an absolute dedication to follow through. The rewards however can be amazing. Your leaner, stronger company will be better able to compete and adapt effectively in an increasingly demanding, competitive, and ever changing world market. So, get back into the gym!

February 2014 UPDATE: Change means introducing new behavior.  The longer it is practiced the less it becomes 'new' and the more it becomes the norm.  But this requires a certain level of forced discipline over time.  My friend did not engage in this new behavior long enough to make it a habit - the new norm.  First his visits to the gym dropped off.  Then less running.  And yes, he was loaded with excuses for why.  Then the old eating habits returned.  At first these were exceptions, then the violations became
more forgivable.  Then no forgiveness was necessary.  The weight came back. The strength faded.  All progress was lost.

Change is hard for an individual.  It is even harder for a business because of the multitude of individuals (employees) who have to become both believers and practitioners of the new way. As the CEO, you set the tone. Are you sticking to the plan? Are your employees? What are the repercussions for failing to hit goals and milestone? As you can see here, it is easy to revert to the old way.

Need a personal trainer to get your metro Atlanta business back in shape.  Let's talk over a cup of coffee.  Contact me here.

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping turnaround businesses wrestling with stagnant growth. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is also a prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

Tough Decisions are Part of Entrepreneurial Landscape

Whether you are the owner of a start-up or a well established business you are going to be challenged to make tough, agonizing decisions that will have a lasting impact.

Peter Drucker said this about decision making and business, “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”

Decision making is part of the landscape of business.  And in the true spirit of the immortal words "The buck stops here," the toughest decisions are reserved for you the owner.  So how do you make these types of decision.  First and foremost you use your strategic and tactical plan as a guide.  A well vetted, market-based long and short-range plan is a very valuable tool for making tough business decisions. "Is it consistent with the plan?" is one of my favorite questions to ask owners struggling with a tough decision.

But what if both or all the options are consistent with the plan. What then?

There is something to be said about trusting your instinct and making decisions that way.  If you have a lot of relevant experience from which these "instincts" originate then you are likely to make a pretty good decisions. But I am a data guy.  Even with my depth of experience I feel more comfortable and confident when unemotional data is added to the decision process.

Here are the steps I would take to guide me towards making a tough decision:

• What strategic problem am I trying to solve? (Be as specific as possible.)

• What solutions are there to solve my problem? (short-term and long-term)

• What is the approximate cost (financial ($cash)) of each solution? Ballpark it.

• The strategic impact (pros and cons) be of each solution over say a 2-year period? KISS principle

• Rank the solutions by cost.

• Rank the solution by strategic impact.

• After compiling this data step away for a day or two.

• Now put your CEO hat on and look at the data as if a person on your staff is presenting these options to you for the very first time. 

• Make an executive decision.  Document your rationale (On this date, I chose this course of action because.....).

• Proceed - and don't look back.

Getting input from an advisory board for those decisions of strategic significance may also be prudent.  But recognize, you and only you will be held accountable for the decision you ultimately make.  There is a reason for the saying, "It's lonely at the top."

Want some unbiased help exploring options and assessing impact of different strategies?  We can help. Contact us here. The first coffee is on us.

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping turnaround businesses wrestling with stagnant growth. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is also a prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

What Script is Your Business Following?

I was speaking to a large gathering of business owners and was asked whether there was an inherent conflict between planning for growth and the more free spirited entrepreneurial-like approach - where you stay agile and react to opportunities as they arise (i.e., operate without a plan). This was a great question as it addresses a big misconception about planning - that it somehow hand-cuffs a business in any way.

To answer the question I asked the audience to imagine themselves accidentally walking onto the set of a movie production. Then imagine grabbing the megaphone and asking everyone on the set to freeze for a moment and to please hold up their script for the day. In this case, none of us would be too surprised to see that the cameraman, the director, the soundman, the actors, and even the caterers will all be able to produce a script for that specific day.  The cameraman will know which cameras he has to have ready and where they should be staged.  Because of the script, the actors will know the lines and the scenes they are expected to be ready for.  And the script will reveal to the caterers how many meals they have to prepare for and where they will be served that day. You see, a movie will never come together without a script.

Now take that same megaphone into your own business and ask your leadership team and employees to produce their script for the day. How will they react to this request? I suspect most will give you that “deer in the headlights” look.

There is not a producer in the world or investor that would pursue a movie production without a well written script. The idea is simply preposterous. Yet most of us will run our businesses without one.

The script for your company is a plan - a simple concise document which aligns your team around a common objective or end-state that is consistent with your vision and market conditions. And, like the script for a movie, there are portions written specifically for specialized roles. Sales, operations, finance, human resources, marketing should each have a script which defines the specific tasks they must complete (and when) to keep your “movie” progressing.

The script governing the day-to-day operations are process documents which describes how a product or service is produced and delivered within your company.

You will find that businesses that grow consistently year after year operate to a well vetted long-term (3 yr.) and short-term (1 yr.) plan. It is the plan they refer to BEFORE making a hiring decision, investing in capital equipment, or spending precious cash on marketing campaigns and website improvements. It is also the plan that will guide them when building and executing a sales strategy.

These same growing companies also recognize that the process by which they produce a product or service can impact competitiveness. By documenting critical processes they eliminate the risk of being dependent on any one person’s memory or contribution. It also gives them a foundation from which to explore innovative changes that will improve efficiency and thus increase profitability.

Now I hope I have convinced you that, like a movie, your business too requires scripting. Can you imagine actors, cameramen, and set designers coming to a specific location and then left to their own to interpret the verbal instructions of the producer’s vision for a movie. It would be chaotic at best with numerous costly ventures down one frustrating dead-end after another. Entrepreneurial or not, is this the atmosphere for a growing thriving business? No.

So, where is the script for your business? It is worthwhile to note that since 1980 over 70% of the winners of the Academy Award for best picture also received the Oscar for best screenplay – the script.

What Should I Be Doing Now? Advice to Business Owners Who have Survived this Long

What should I being doing now? This is a question I have been fielding a lot lately by the “survivors” - the business owners who had sufficient cash and made the necessary adjustments to their business practices to survive the current recession thus far. Though folks in Washington, DC want you to believe the recession is officially over, it will be some time before a true recovery is felt by business owners and consumers alike. So, what you should be doing now is position your company for that recovery. Here is some of the advice I have been giving my clients:

1. Plan and prepare for the new economy. This recession has rocked both businesses and consumers in a significant way. It will be a long while before they return to old spending habits. The businesses that will thrive in the new economy will have recognized this and adjusted their product offering and business practices accordingly. Strategic planning here is crucial. Identifying your business’s strength and weaknesses, and the external opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis) is an essential element to crafting your plan. As one would never fathom making a movie without a script, transforming your business for this new economy without a plan is equally absurd. I would caution this is not something you do on your own as it requires someone to challenge your assumptions to make certain you are not drinking your own bathwater by building a strategy around a company strength that really isn’t. There are too many examples of companies who have made this mistake and expeditiously and efficiently strategic planned themselves right over a cliff.

2. Continue to be conservative with cash. I recommend labeling all cash expenditures in one of three categories, (a) Value-added, (b) Non-value-added but necessary, (c) Non-value-added - scrutinizing the latter two more closely. Value-added expenses are those that directly contribute to the value and/or quality of the product or service (skilled employee, machining tools, raw material). Your customer would not hesitate to pay this line item if he/she saw it on an invoice. Non-value-added but necessary are expenses required to do business and thus cannot be eliminated (business license, tax preparation fees, business planning). Your customer will acknowledge and recognize these very limited expenditures as the cost of doing business. Non-valued-added are all cash expenditures which do not contribute to the quality or value of the product in the eyes of the customer (office furniture, company cars, copy paper, Blackberry). I am not suggesting you do not spend the cash - regardless of the label, but that you make a conscious decision about each expenditure knowing it burdens the cost of the product and/or the profitability of the company.

3. Resist the temptation to return to old habits and practices. These fundamental changes in spending habits by businesses and consumers are here to stay - at least for the foreseeable future. Personal savings and retirement accounts have been hit hard by this recession. Any extra money that is made as we emerge from this economic downturn will be used to re-supply those accounts not only to the levels they were but with additional padding. Having an actionable plan and holding yourself and employees accountable to that plan is the single biggest deterrent to returning to the less disciplined approach of running your business. The plan - especially when shared with all the employees - will also help set the new tone for the company both in the way of personal expectations and instilling confidence in the future.

About the author: Mike Gomez is the President of Allegro Consulting, an Atlanta-based business growth specialty firm. Allegro provides operating advice to businesses and organizations on a wide range of management issues that effect growth, such as strategic and organizational planning, marketing, sales and business process improvement. www.AllegroConsultant.com

Leadership - Outsourcing Layoffs is a Cop-out!

I was told the other day that large corporations have begun to use outside firms (full of behavior scientist) to decide who specifically will get laid off in a downsizing initiative. This absolutely floored me. Leaders (supervisors, managers, directors, vice presidents) get selected and paid for ONE primary purpose. That is - to lead PEOPLE.

Apparently, the definition of what it exactly means to "lead people" is being further lost in corporate America. Mid-sized business owners be aware. Don't let this happen to your company.

As a refresher, let me share what I believe it means to "lead people".

A leader (1) inspires, and motivates their people to achieve a goal or objective they (2) have communicated. They (3) set expectations and (4) insure that proper resources are there to get the job done. They (5) influence hiring decisions based on written qualifications and performance standards. They (6) use the strength of their position as well as their influencing skills to break down barriers to success. Most importantly, they (7) evaluate their people against job standards and previously set expectations and in doing so (8) reward strong performances and coach when needed. When coaching fails, leaders (9) take action by firing the individual from that position.

To suggest it is better for a company to employ an outside firm for steps 7, 8, and 9 to me is unconscionable. It undermines the very people who are suppose to be looked up to to lead and guide the growth of a company by constantly making these tough decisions. It is also a cop-out - an expensive way of deflecting responsibility to some outside third party. I wonder if corporations who employ these outside firms considered reducing the salary and compensation of the leadership - given that they have just relieved them of one third (3 of 9) of their responsibilities?

Probably not.

More information can be found at my
website: AllegroConsultant.com

Have a great day.

About the author: Mike Gomez is the President of Allegro Consulting, an Atlanta-based business growth specialty firm. Allegro provides operating advice to businesses and organizations on a wide range of management issues that effect growth, such as strategic and organizational planning, marketing, sales and business process improvement. www.AllegroConsultant.com

How to Grow Your Business in a Challenging Economy

I attended a seminar with this title - curious as to what the speaker would say here that is any different than how one advises a business owner on growing a business in a "normal" economy (if there is such a thing). Well, as it turned out the seminar was more of a sales pitch for a couple of company's services, and as such, a complete waste of my time. I should have known this - by the title alone.

The fact of the matter is the economy has no bearing whatsoever on the processes used to consistently grow a company. It may affect the strength of the growth but not "how" growth is achieved. A challenging economy will also magnify the impact of not following fundamental business processes when planning for growth. Incorrectly assessing your company's strengths and weaknesses or the opportunities and threats in a good economy can hurt you - but in a tougher setting can bring you down to your knees. That is why it is always wise to have someone challenge your assumptions and make certain you don't drink your own bathwater when creating your strategy for growth.

Good economy or bad the fundamentals of achieving growth remain the same. It starts with a sound plan.

Does your company have a written strategic plan? My informal poll says the answer is most likely "no". Ugh!

More on this topic later.

More information can be found at my
website: AllegroConsultant.com

Have a great day.