Setting Guidelines for Strategic Business Meeting

I recently facilitated a strategic business meeting where the leaders within the organization were very hostile towards one another. It would be an understatement to say that the tension in the room was thick. Morale was at an all-time low. The people present had some unspoken mistrust and fear.  Furthermore, egos were getting in the way of their decision-making process. They were blinded by their own self-interest versus the best interest of the company. So, I did something completely unorthodox in a business environment. I told everyone that before we get started, we needed to close our eyes, take 3 deep breaths and meditate for 10 minutes on the following:

1. I will bring a servant leadership attitude (inflated egos oftentimes lead to arrogance.)
2. I will be a Solutionary (be a problem solver, not a complainer.)
3. I will not interrupt when someone is speaking.
4. I will not blame, judge, or criticize.
5. I will be professional and civil.
6. I will stay Human.
7. I will bring an open mind (don’t be so attached to your way of thinking.)
8. I believe anything is Possible (allow yourself to imagine the impossible.)

Communicate Clear Expectations Upfront

Setting clear expectations upfront and voicing the desired outcome was critical to a successful meeting. As the meeting continued, the big egos melted away. Open and honest conversations took place, which was so desperately needed. Laughter erupted throughout the day as they worked together during problem-solving sessions. Dialogue flowed freely. It was truly amazing to witness the transformation from the negative energy in the room when I first arrived to the positive exchanges at the end of the day.  How did 10 minutes of silence create an atmosphere of collaboration versus competition? The power of PAUSE is oftentimes underestimated. Being still and quiet allows for people to get grounded and centered. By taking a few minutes to be silent while other humans are in the room, allows for an intimate exchange of breaths. In the  yoga world, we practice what is called Prana, meaning Breath. It is our breathing that reminds us that we are alive and connected to one another. By focusing on our breath, it gives time to reflect on our own humanity as well as others.  I am happy to say that all parties are now working harmoniously together and have a newfound respect for one another. It’s a good thing because that strategic business meeting I facilitated was for my own company, Hware.

Thanks for reading Hware’s blog!  Feel free to leave comments and share your thoughts.

Oftentimes, business planning is about picking a path.

The Give-As-You-Grow Sales Model

My business partner and I just went through an in-depth business planning retreat a few weeks ago, and while the session was grueling at times, it was a process that I am grateful for.  We needed to get clear about the direction of our company. We needed to make some big decisions. So we spent a week putting together financial projections.  We looked at our SWOTs (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.) We acknowledged that we both tend to be perfectionists and overly optimistic at times. The retreat was a huge break-through for us.  We hashed out our differences of opinions and we gained a lot of insight about each other and our business model. However, the biggest “take-away” we came up with was our revenue based charitable-giving model. For most of our adult lives, we have always contributed our time, money and resources to charitable causes that we were passionate about. However, we also felt that we were limited in our capacity to give in that manner.  There is obviously a finite amount of  time, money and resources from two people.  As we continued to discuss our business model, we both agreed on how important it is to us to build into our business model what I call a “GIVE-as-we-GROW” sales model. Here is an example of how our charity-giving model works and why we decided to go down this path.

How Charity-Giving Is A Cost Of Doing Business

For most small businesses, their charity giving usually comes from their profits. The problem with that model is that those numbers can easily be skewed, especially if it is a privately-owned business. For example, the owner of a small business can pay herself a large salary (expense), and still not show a profit on the company profit and loss statement.  On the other hand, a public company has an incentive to show huge profits for their stock holders and their charity giving is great for their public image. There are also hybrid charitable-giving models as well from large companies such as Salesforce. However, we decided to make our charity-giving model a revenue based model. It’s a lot harder to skew sales numbers. For example, let’s say we sell 100 widgets at $10.00 each and we give 1% of revenue to charity. 100 x 10 = 1,000 x 0.01 = $10.00.  Now let’s say we sale 1,000 widgets where we give $100.00 to our favorite charity. As we grow our sales to 10,000 widgets we can now give $1,000 to our favorite charity. Do you see how this charity-giving model is built into the the revenue model versus a profit charity-giving model? I look at it as a cost of doing business. Being a good business citizen is a lot like being a good individual citizen. Individuals make contributions to their communities all the time.  They volunteer, donate, get involved in Little League, PTA, Boy Scouts. However, have you ever thought about how your business is making a contribution to the community just by its mere existence?  The fact that your business exist should have a positive impact on society and your community just like an individual’s existence. Now let’s say we want to increase our charity-giving by increasing the revenue sales percentage from 1% to 3% or 5%.  You can see that as sales continue to increase we may also want to increase the percent amount as well and give even more to our favorite charities!

Doing Good By Doing Business

We are passionate about our VISION for Hware and how we can use our business to make a positive difference in the world and we hope to inspire other small business owners to do the same. We want to encourage you to think about how you can “Do Good By Doing Business.” As small business owners, we can be consumed with our business and not have much time for the charitable causes that we love. Over the years, I have enjoyed how meaningful my life has been from my involvement in causes that I deeply cared about. And, by deciding to go down this path, I feel like I can now make a greater contribution to causes that are near and dear to my heart. If we all participated by giving back in a way that we can feel proud and bring meaning to our lives, I believe we will find additional joy from our businesses…profound joy!  That is why Hware is  launching our “Doing Good By Doing Business” program on our Facebook Fan page. Hware wants to acknowledge small businesses that are making this world a better place.  If you are a small business owner that gives back to your local community, we want to hear from you! You don’t necessarily need to contribute the way we decided to go about it, we just want to encourage other small business owners to give back as you grow your business versus waiting to accumulate your wealth before you do so.  We invite you to post a link to your business on the comments section below and tell us how your business is giving back to your community. We also invite you to join our Facebook Fan Page where a few times a month we will recognize and highlight a small business who is making a difference in their community.

Rural Nevada County in Northern California

Unless They Are Integrated Into the Business Plan

A few days ago I attended a town hall meeting  in my rural community hosted by the local Chamber of Commerce. The purpose was to get feedback from local businesses so that the chamber can formulate a strategic plan. It was a ‘gather-the-information’ type of meeting.  I am not a member of the local chamber and I must confess that I am not involved with our local business community as much as I would like to. Mainly because my own business (Hware) has more of an e-commerce focus and I live/work about 30 minutes from the downtown business area.  However, I happened to be in town before the meeting and the topic was of particular interest to me, so I stopped by and joined the two hour session.  It was a room filled to capacity with many concerned small business owners.

Social Media is One Piece of a Marketing Model

Frankly, I don’t know much about the folks running the chamber or the board of directors, but I do know this. Business as we have come to know it has CHANGED! Technology has always led the way in changing the way we do business. The personal computer revolutionized our business world as did the internet. The current technology revolution is social media. Social media tools are mostly FREE today. There is however, speculation that FREE may no longer be. What is key to the success of the chamber, among many other things, is a social media plan that is cohesively tied to the chamber’s business plan and integrated into their strategic plan. Strategic planning is extremely useful for long-term goals, however the problem with most strategic plans is that once they are done, they tend to get shelved and rarely referenced. That is why it is critical to integrate a strategic plan into a business plan and then show details how the marketing model, revenue model, operations model, etc., supports those plans. Social media falls under the category of marketing. The chamber is the voice of the local business community. It is there to serve the local business community and it should do so with the use of the latest and most cost effective technology tools.

A Basic Social Media Plan For the Chamber Should Include the Following:

• A blog, which is the hub of an online presence
• Put out a blog post a minimum of once  a week
• Presence on major social networking platforms, i.e., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
• Allow for members to comment and post on those platforms
• Create a membership site for forums and discussions
• Have an intermediate level of understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for internet marketing
• Allow for members to post videos about their business on Chamber website and Chamber social networking platforms
• Weekly vlog (video blogging)
• Ongoing education and training for members on how to use the latest technology tools
• Annual Business Technology Conference for small business

Businesses and Organizations Are Much Like Technologies

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been in existence for almost 100 years. It’s hard to adapt when you are used to doing things a certain way for a long time. Change can be scary and yet it can be a good thing. Hosting a town hall meeting is a step in the right direction for the local chamber. Yesterday’s technologies were the PC and the internet. Today it is social media and internet marketing. Tomorrow will most likely be mobile and geo-location technologies. Businesses and organizations are much like technologies. They are dynamic and ever changing. They go through phases. Some survive, some thrive, while others are put to rest. They get birthed, mature, change, merge, or take on the appearance of a dinasour. What is most obvious in today’s economy is that many small business owners are hanging on like a cat on a tin roof. Many resources are needed. Here are a few online sources as well as Nevada County Business sources that I hope you find useful. Feel free to add additional resources in the comments section.

• Sierra Commons (Nevada County Business incubator and co-working community)
• Nevada County Economic Resource Council
• Intuit (The Small Business United Blog)
• Small Biz Survival (A business blog for rural communities)
• Social Media Examiner (A guide to Social Media)
• Hubspot (Free online training for internet marketing)
• Nevada County New Business Network (Facebook Group)
• The Exchange (Facebook Biz Group for Western Nevada County)

Not having a Social Media Plan is like going for a long Hike in the Mountains without any Food and Water.

The point is that you may survive, but it will be a very challenging and frustrating experience that could have otherwise been avoided. In my last post, I wrote about how planning starts with a VISION. In this post, I want to emphasize the importance of PLANNING. When most people think of planning, they yawn, BORING! Who wants to get boggled down with details?! “Let’s just go for it, make it happen and we will adjust along the way. Besides, it’s more fun and adventurous to have some spontaneity in our lives!” I swear, I used to say that and believe that with all my heart, and I still do in some areas of my life, but NOT when it comes to business. Unfortunately, I have had to learn through too many failures to understand why PLANNING is key to a successful business. So let’s dive into some key factors that are fundamental to having a solid social media plan. For the purpose of this blog post, I will be referring to small businesses:

• Know your target audience – Who are you selling to? Who’s attention do you want? Let’s narrow it down further. What  is your buyer persona?  That means, what are your buyers’ preferences, tastes, likes and dislikes. For example, my company, Hware sells software tools that help small businesses. Therefore, I look for entrepreneurs, and Work-at-Home folks to connect with online and try to make myself useful to them. I am laser-focused on the kind of person I want to interact with online. It’s  not that I don’t or won’t engage with anyone other than my ideal client, it’s just that I am very specific and clear about who I need to be talking to online for my business. More importantly, if your target audience is not online, then you are wasting your time being online. You need to be where they are. That’s where market research comes in.
• Spend some time doing some Market Research – It is crucial to find out where your customers hang out. Are they on Twitter or LinkedIn? Are most of them not using social networking sites and still prefer e-mail? The point is that you need to have a clear understanding of where they are so that you can communicate with them.  Occasionally, I enroll my online audience in surveys, which gives me insight into what they need. I then provide them with the results of the polls. By engaging my audience and asking for feedback, I gain tremendous knowledge on who they are, what their challenges are, and how I may better serve them. Here are a few online survey tools: Poll Daddy,  Survey Monkey and Twtpoll (for Twitter). The surveys need to be short, simple and convenient for the participant, otherwise, they will be reluctant fill it out.

• Know your online STAG: I call these your Strengths, Talents, Attributes, and Gifts. You must find and own your STAG and become like the beautiful statuesque male deer I live with here in the foothills of Northern California. They know their own power and beauty.  They grace the land with great ease and confidence. When you know your STAG, you will attract, engage, and be like a magnet to your online Fans, Friends, and Followers. When you are clear about your STAG, it will show in your energy, your presence. We all feed off of each other’s energy and your customers are no different. They will know if you are moving with ease and confidence and when you are putting their best interests first and foremost. (I will write more about STAG in future blog posts.) An example of using your STAG is let’s say that you are better at talking than writing; then perhaps you may want do more vlogging (video blogs) than blogging. The point is that you are playing to your strengths and when you work from a place of strengths, it always much easier.
• Remember that your Social Media Plan - should come under the umbrella of your marketing plan and your marketing plan falls under your business plan and your business plan should be part of your long-term strategic plan, (which I will write about in more detail another time.) So many people get overwhelmed with social media, but it is important to keep things in perspective. Social media is just one aspect of your overall business and as an entrepreneur/self-employed, you wear many different hats – social media is your marketing hat.

On my next blog post, I will delve into more detail about social media planning. I will be writing about some specific automation tools to help systematize and simplify your online presence.

Brenda Horton is Co-owner of Hware, a software company that designs business planning tools for small businesses. She will be hosting a FREE and LIVE Webinar on Social Media STRATEGIES for beginners on September 2nd.

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