Business Up Front - October 2006

Kim Flowers, a Las Vegas resident who is the first African American woman to run a John Robert Powers franchise, shares these tips for running a successful business:

1. Divine Vision: Be very clear about your vision. Without it your team will lack direction.

2. Dream Big: Dreams and passion are the engine. Inspire your team to dream big.

3. Be the Eternal Optimist: Optimists have an unrealistic expectation of success. As a result, they’re willing to try far more things without becoming discouraged.

4. Develop a Business Plan and Let it Drive Your Team’s Activities: Keep it simple to get your point across. Rein in your prose, keep it short, use business charts, and polish the overall look and feel.

5. Trust Your Instincts: Make the best decisions you can with the information you currently possess.

6. Maintain or Upgrade Your Accounting Systems: Lack of financial controls is the No. 1 reason small businesses fail.

7. Hold Regular Meetings with Your Sales Staff: Meet regularly with sales staff to review lead quality, win/loss records and customer relations.

8. Measure Everything You Do: Pursue SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Result-Oriented and Time-Framed).

9. Excite Your Sales Staff About Each Lead: The more information you have about a prospect, the more excited your salespeople will be about the lead.

10. Be Passionate about Self-Improvement: Create and promote an environment that engenders the continuous pursuit of excellence in the individual and in the organization.

11. Celebrate Your Victories, Big and Small: Acknowledge a job well done, give your team well-deserved relief from hard work, and check off milestones towards your organization’s ultimate goal.

"A negative attitude, stirs up trouble, blames others, lacks initiative and is incompetent" – these are all traits of the classic slacker. According to Rich Fredricksen, principal of the consulting firm Paiva-Fredricksen Group, "Strong leaders with a focus on execution will identify – and either engage or eliminate – low performers and the slacker syndrome they permeate."

Slackers alone are bad enough – 23 million "actively disengaged" workers cost the national economy $370 billion a year in lost productivity, according to Gallup – but their effect on good employees is just as damaging. A recent Leadership IQ study showed 93 percent of employees felt that working with low performers decreased their productivity, with 87 percent of those wanting to change jobs.

"If low performers are allowed to dictate a company culture, productivity, quality, and service are certain to deteriorate," said Fredricksens. Keys to combating slacker syndrome include:

• Set the Example – values, attitude and climate of integrity

• Measure – metrics drive performance

• Develop Leaders – support, challenge, trust and teach

• Communicate – listen and select best communications medium

• Simplify – focus on critical issues

• Create Ownership – participation in planning, understanding why

• Provide Clarity – clear vision, instruction and goals

• Reward Success – acknowledge positives

Confidence among small businesses in the United States decreased sharply as the economic cycle moved past the halfway mark for 2006, according to a new study from the Internal Profit Associates Small Business Research Board (IPA SBRB). The IPA Small Business Confidence Index (IPA SBCI), which measures expectations about revenue growth, the general economy and hiring for the next 12 months, currently stands at 39.9, declining nearly 20 percent from 47.3 in April 2006 and from 52 at the beginning of the year. By comparison, the IPA SBCI stood at 55 at the beginning of 2005.

Only 46 percent of small businesses in the current survey believe their revenue will increase during the next year. This compares to 59 percent in April and 67 percent at the beginning of 2006. Confidence in hiring has also declined. Thirty percent of owners plan to increase hiring during the next 12 months, compared with 39 percent in April and 40 percent in January.

Faith in the general economy for the coming 12 months is wavering, with 42 percent of small business owners and managers saying the general economy will be better, compared to 44 percent in April and 49 percent at the beginning of the year.