Most everyone is striving to have a first page listing on Google. Just think of all the business it would bring your company, or will it?

There are numerous companies offering you a first page listing if you pay for their services. What you will discover, is that they may not be that be able to meet your expectations. The truth is, you already have a first page listing on Google.Simply type in your web address on a Google search, you will find yourself on the first page.

So what does it really take?
•    It Takes Time. Google protect their reputation by looking for sites, which are relevant to what people are searching. That means your new 5-page site needs to prove it’s self. It will take a little time for that to happen.
•    The Target Keeps Moving. Google and other search engines are constantly re-defining what’s most important to their audience. So your website needs to be treated like a living and breathing animal. It needs frequent attention. If your site was built two years ago and has not been updated since, it might as well be posted on the moon!
•    You may need professional help. There are good honest techies who will help you for a fee. The good ones will provide you with provable info, not just a sales pitch. They should also be able to offer a volume of info on how the ranking system works. You will be paying for a professional so ask him to PROVE IT!

I’ve done all that, so why isn’t my phone ringing more? The market has shifted from buyers to investigators or lookers. People are taking more time researching prior to purchasing these days. If your website appears professional, you will be in the running, when it comes time to buy. If not it will simply be another bounce to the next site.

Ken Bear Cole
Fishing with Bear LLC

Being a small businessman, you probably wear many hats. You are the Management, Accounting and Marketing Departments of your company. You put in long hours and sometimes find it difficult to separate your personal and business lives. All of that work and stress makes you vulnerable to becoming temporarily or permanently disabled. This can be devastating if you are not financially prepared.

I have seen numerous weekend sportsmen injured off the job and required to live on welfare until they can return to work. If they had disability insurance, things would be much better.

Few small businessmen are financially well off. So it is a good idea to carry disability insurance. Be assured this is not a sales pitch. I do not sell insurance of any kind, but I am disabled. I was like many of you. I was on the 666 plan. I worked from 6 am to 6 pm, six days per week. I was an estimator and project manager for a construction company. I was making decent money, but I lived inside a pressure cooker. That is until I had a mild stroke and could no longer handle much stress. It produced tremendous anxiety. At one point I actually thought I was loosing my mind. A small portion of my brain had died. I also discovered that strokes were on sale that year. I ended up having three minor strokes within the next 14 months. I spent time with neurologists and mental health professionals learning to cope with my new life conditions.

I was fortunate to have had disability insurance, which replaced 70% of my income. Without the insurance, my wife and I would have also faced devastating financial times.

I have become much better, but I still have difficulty with stress. The thought of applying for a position is sometimes overwhelming. So that is why I am a fishing guide. There is very little stress on the boat.

There are many different plans available some wonderful, while others not so good. I recommend choosing a plan, which will provide coverage until you can return to your normal position. Some plans only cover you until you can do ANY WORK. That means if you can be a greater at Wal-Mart or some other low paying job, you are considered no longer disabled. The pay difference does not matter if you own one of these plans.

So protect yourself and your family, while you are pursuing your dreams.

See You At The Dock,

Ken Bear Cole
Fishing with Bear LLC

How should a small business respond when faced with changes in its competitive environment? This subject comes up because of a presentation I heard this week where a businessman was telling us about his company. One of the things he mentioned was the challenges they are facing from significant changes in their regulatory environment that could affect the nature of the competition they face. Here are two things a company is similar circumstances should consider.

The first is to rethink the company’s strategy. Critical changes in a company’s internal or external environment require some strategic thinking in order to determine if the present way of doing business still makes sense.  Managers should ask if there is a better strategy to gaining or maintaining a competitive advantage. In an article called “Why Most New Ventures Fail (And How Others Don’t)”, authors William P. Sommers and Aydin Koc state the principles that, “management must be willing to re-forge its strategic direction” and that it “must be prepared to restructure operations, make fundamental changes in the organization, consolidate functions to gain efficiency, and even downsize some operations” (1987). Both of these principles are critical to survival in the face of change.

The second thing is to think in terms of opportunity. It is easy to focus on the negative aspects of significant change. The better path is to think about what opportunities are created and how to exploit them. An example was a client of mine who runs a retail lawn equipment business, who was faced with a certain big box retailer opening a store in his small town. He assumed his sales would drop because the new competition would undercut the market with lawn mowers that were a lot cheaper than the quality equipment he sells. What he found was that he stayed busy fixing, (and selling replacements for), the cheap equipment sold by his new competitor, and his sales actually increased. The key is to frame the problem in terms of what can be gained rather than what can be lost by significant change.

Since most small businessmen do not react to change until they begin to experience the impact, businesses that proactively plan for the perils and potential of change, in their competitive environment, can seize the greatest opportunity it presents-getting a jump on the competition.

Stephen Ashby CPA

www.billupscpa.com

Over the years I have looked at various Network groups to help with my referral business. All have been a disappointment in one-way or the other. Some had high fees and dues and almost all had rigid requirements that left me uncomfortable.

With the help of a chiropractor friend, we decided to start our own group, without some of the things we didn’t like in other network groups. We call our group Bridges, which stands for (Business-Relationships Involving Development, Growth, Expansion & Support).

The important part for our group is relationships, support, quality of character and less rigidity. There are no dues or fees but one needs to show up on time and regularly attend.

We have over twenty professions currently but our looking for many more in the SE & NE part of Portland. We allow only one profession per person and will be looking to grow to least forty.

We meet at the Monarch Hotel in Clackamas right off 205, Thursday mornings at 7:15 AM and end promptly at 8:30. If you are looking for quality referrals and business support with a great group of quality people give me a call at 503-496-3641 and ask for Dom or E-mail dsitowski@crownmail.net.

You can’t win the game focusing on the scoreboard. Focus on the game of engagement and the traffic will come.

Social networking, by definition, is designed to get you involved AND keep you involved.  Building a large following, in a sense, becomes a game.  In business, it is not about who has the most followers, but are you gaining more customers?

While it is important to build your following; your following is NOT the business building activity, communicate with your network is.  No matter if you are on Twitter, Facebook or you own blogsite, knowing your going for a targeted audience is always the best approach.

Answer the following questions:

1)    Who is your desired audience.

2)    What topics interest your desired audience.

3)    Why are they interested in that topic?

Create a social marketing plan, stick to the plan, feed you audience’s desires.

Ed Bejarana
Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

The tradeshow season is upon us, are you getting ready for a show?  To help with your efforts I will publish short tips for improving your tradeshow return on investment.

Think neatness and visibility when putting your trade show display together.  Hang some of your products at customer eye-level to draw them into your display.  Make sure your display is organized and tidy; customers will be turned off by messiness or by having to do too much searching to find what they want.  Have all your prices clearly marked.

Ed Bejarana
Zenith Exhibits, Inc.
(503) 709-1454

Business plans are usually associated with start-up companies raising capital from investors and lenders, but they can also contribute significantly to the success of established businesses. Here are three ways periodic business planning can help create business success.

Business planning forces the manager to set goals and objectives and it establishes a benchmark for measuring performance. A quote often attributed to W. Edward Deming is, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. A business plan creates the capability to measure business performance and to isolate issues which require management attention to insure objectives are achieved.

Business planning forces the owner to define, or at least think about, the company’s reason for being. A good business plan is driven by a vision, which is a conception of the company’s future. A vision expresses the company’s reason for existence, its core values, and the aspirations of the managers for what the company can become. The plan is an expression of the vision and is built on purpose and aspirations, guided by values.

Finally, business planning forces the manager to formally confront reality. One of the keys of a good business plan is a detailed assessment of the business environment in which a company operates. There are several models to guide this. SWOT analysis is one in which the planner considers the strengths and weaknesses of the company, the opportunities it has available, and threats it faces. Another is Michael Porter’s “Five Competitive Forces” model that considers the characteristics of the company’s market and its relationship with suppliers, customers, and competitors. The goal in these types of analysis is to gain a clear understanding of the situation the company faces enabling an appropriate strategic response that creates a profitable competitive advantage and leads to the fulfillment of the company’s vision.

The concept here is that planning provides a tool for aligning the organization with the vision of the owner or manager by defining an appropriate strategy for success and by providing a means to evaluate and control performance.

Stephen Ashby CPA

The Billups Company CPA’s Inc.

www.billupscpa.com

We live in a world with lots of rules. When the rules are unclear, there is a huge potential for conflict.

A previous employer provided me with a company car. I asked about use after hours and my employer said, “the insurance company doesn’t like it.” I concluded that, he did not care if the car was used after hours. Fortunately for me, nothing happened to the car after hours; but it could have led to a huge conflict.

Poorly written employee manuals have led to thousands of lawsuits, which have led to the loss of millions of dollars of profits. Something a small business can rarely afford. But the courts have sited ambiguity as a reason for levied fines and judgments.

I think this is what is happening at these angry Town Hall meetings. Congressmen are quick to mention that there is more then one healthcare proposal, but only one bill has been made public. http://edlabor.house.gov/blog/2009/07/americas-affordable-health-choices-act.shtml is an official web page for the bill. I have read most of the bill. I have not found any listings of covered or excluded illnesses or conditions. It mainly talks about commissions and positions, which will be formed after the bill is signed. It does state that these agencies and commissions can take up to one and one half years to determine coverage. No sound business would provide a signed blank check, for the payment of services to be determined at a future date. But that is what our elected officials are asking us to do.

Maybe we should require the government to abide by the same level of clearness, required for Employee Handbooks.

I realize I may not have been specific enough in stressing the need for clear business communication. I had thought of writing a seventeen-page disclaimer, which would speak of my lack of responsibility for any actions by the readers of this article. But I would rather spend the time on the water, fishing with clients.

See you at the dock,

Ken Bear Cole
Fishing with Bear LLC

Will your company be paying a bonus this year? Many companies are answering with a resounding NO! But others have been profitable and will be providing bonuses to some of their employees. I believe most bonus policies actually divide and harm companies, but only because they are written with competition in mind. Your company should be competing for market share, but not department against department. Let me illustrate the problem and solution for you.

Company #1:

I was a project manager. My job was to make my assigned projects as profitable as possible. So, I selected team members very carefully and I had no intension of sharing my people with other project managers. It did not matter if another PM needed help. This crew was mine and they made sure I got a nice bonus at the end of each project. The compensation plan required me to compete against other company projects.

Company #2:

I had the same position and responsibilities. We were on annual rather then project bonuses. Our weekly project meetings focused on, who needed help. It was acceptable to admit that things were not going fine. There are times when we actually pulled most or all manpower off one project to help another project meet a deadline. Few General Contractors complained, because they knew we would do the same to meet their production schedule.

This company was more profitable then company #1 and all bonuses were divided evenly from the receptionist to the owners. That policy motivated everyone to work together. The owners realized that everyone was vital to the success of the company and we all prospered. There was a great feeling of belonging at that company. It was common to see the lights on well after “Quitting Time.” If you were on salary, and needed to work late, you did so. No one was looking at the clock or bracing for the 5pm escape.

Company #2 is located in another state, but I understand they are still doing well. It all in the attitude!

Ken Bear Cole
Fishing with Bear LLC