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CEO Radar: A 360 Degree View

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Yes, this is the new home of Business Performance Coaching of sbishere.com Thanks for visiting!

As I mentioned the other day, I registered CEOradar.com. Between preparing for my upcoming Mentoring Program, developing the Small Business Transitions member site I have not had much time to write much in the last week or so. The good news is I am going to give you a sneak peek at my upcoming CEO Radar 360 service.

The 360 Radar Questionnaire

It all starts with the 360 self-scoring questionnaire including work/life balance, leadership, financial management, profit margins, business system, human resources, customer service, sales, and marketing. The image on the right shows a sample of the financial management questions.

Zero In: The Radar Chart

Once the Radar Questionnaire is complete you get a number of reports including the Radar Chart, Financial Ratios, and Report Card.

The Radar Chart provides a visualization of your strengths and areas that need more attention, focus, and investment in your business and personal life.

Back to School: The Report Card

Next up is a 360 Report Card based upon your answers to the 360 Radar Questionnaire using the same methodology used when you went to school. As you can see Read more

Pay-Per-Call: Business Coaching On-Demand

You have found a new place for help with your business. I am here when you need answers to your question(s) when it fits your schedule.

It’s convenient, anonymous, and all coaching is conducted by phone.

I answer questions about business planning, business loans, management, and any area of small business development.

Greg is a Licensed Professional Business Coach, author, and entrepreneur with 17 years experience.

Click the button to pay and you can be connected to me right away.

Pay-Per-Call Business Coaching On-Demand is just $3.00/per minute.

The Remote Control CEO Sustained Coaching Program

This is the only professional coaching program I know of that will help you to make the transition from working daily in your business to operate your business by Remote Control.

Making the transition to operate your business ‘Hands Free’ can vary greatly depending on your current business situation, number of years you have been in business, and Read more

What Are Your Business Goals

Learn to Make Your Business Work For You

Yes, absolutely it’s possible to enjoy the benefits of owning a business that is effortless to run, efficient and effective.

First, you must make the transition from being ‘Hands On’ (at the center of everything) to creating the structure so you can operate the business ‘Hands Free’ - By Remote Control.

Business Performance Coaching Helps You Develop the Strategies, Resources, People, and Systems…

So the business starts to work for you because you have replaced yourself with systems, processes, training, and leadership skills. No longer are you at the center of everything and you are able to operate your business ‘hands free’. Read more

Business Coaching FAQ

What is a small business coach? How do I select a business coach?

I recommended you use a series of questions to screen any business coach you are considering working with; to determine their level of experience and what type of support you can expect. Here are my answers to those same questions.

Question: What resources do you have are available to help me with my business challenges?

Answer: I have been coaching since 1991 and I have numerous tools and experience to draw upon. I have worked with 100�s of business owners in more than 30 different industries (see Case Studies). I have seen all sorts of businesses, personality types, and challenges. I draw upon that depth of experience to coach and support my clients.

I am a Licensed Professional Business Coach and a founding member of the Professional Business Coaches Alliance (www.pbca.biz) and have access to more than 500 different tools, strategies, and tactics from our library.

Personal Coaching: The very first thing that we work on is YOU. Being the owner, you have total control and responsibility for the success of your business. I will learn your strengths, weaknesses, goals and dreams. Because I constantly study the habits, behaviors and techniques of successful people, I have at my fingertips thousands of hours of research to help you become a better business owner. This includes:

• Marketing System development and implementation
• Sales System development and implementation
• Customer Service System development and implementation
• Financial Management planning and consultation
• Development of Action Plans
• Goal setting
• Employee Handbook
• Operations Manual development
• Human Resources training, evaluation, hiring and improvement
• A brainstorming partner

On my blog are more than 400 articles covering a wide range of small business topics. For an overview visit the archives or use the search feature to locate what you are looking for. Read more

How Business Coaching Produces Results

My approach to business coaching is simple provide you with strategies, tools and coaching that mirrors exactly the way a business is structured. If it is not ‘practical’ it’s not ‘tactical’.

I will not waste your time teaching you concepts, ideas that cannot be implemented and used immediately in your business.

This business model (Figure 1) illustrates the 467 strategies and how they fit into the practical reality of running your business. Every client gets access to the same tool set, how we use the tools is what makes the difference because no two businesses are alike.

Step-by-Step

All lasting change is a gradual process. Consistent with the Coaching Program viewpoint, I strongly advise against crisis management within your business - i.e. reacting because you need immediate results. Instead, based upon your goals and objectives, I will recommend a step-by-step process to implement strategies and concepts to achieve the specific results you need.

Three Businesses - Applying the Same Business Model

These examples demonstrate the power of coaching to increase the effectiveness of your business by making adjustments to your business model.

Example 1- The Power of Increasing Effectiveness by 10%

This example shows a business doing about $500,000 per year before coaching. The second column shows how small increases (10%) in leads, conversion rate, gross profit and reducing fixed costs by 10% can have on the net profit of a business.

Increase in Net Income = $68,854 or 91.5%.

Example 2- The Power of Increasing Effectiveness by 10%

This example shows a business doing about $1,000,000 per year before coaching. The second column shows how small increases (10%) in leads, conversion rate, gross profit and reducing fixed costs by 10% can have on the net profit of a business.

Increase in Net Income = $199,618 or 158.a%.

Example 3- The Power of Increasing Effectiveness by 10%

This example shows a business doing a little more than $2,000,000 per year before coaching. The second column shows how small increases (10%) in leads, conversion rate, gross profit and reducing fixed costs by 10% can have on the net profit of a business.

Increase in Net Income = $182,887 or 202.8%.

No matter the size of your company you can benefit from small, consistent changes to increase your profits. The power of is accelerated when changes to the business model are combined they have a huge impact on your bottom line.

History of Business Coaching

The history of business advisers is obviously very long. For the purposes of this article, we will deal in the ‘Modern Era’ of business advisers. Traditional business advisers are broken down into the following groups:

• Family: a recent study by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), the business owner’s number ONE advisor is family - by a large margin. Nearly 70% of business owners who responded listed ‘family!’ Does a family member have the background and experience to be able to competently guide a business owner in planning, decision-making, and implementation?
• Accountants and lawyers: primarily focused on compliance issues, a business owner needs a much wider scope of advice. They need help with marketing, sales, customer service, hiring and training an effective workforce, leadership skills, etc. Accountants simply are not trained in these areas. It is the same with lawyers.
• Bankers, financial experts: while a business owner will have a close relationship with their banker, the advice a banker can offer is limited in scope.
• Business consultants and experts: a consultant can tell you what you ’should’ do whereas a coach can deal with the personal effectiveness side of the equation. Business owners are people too and like others tend to stay within their own comfort zone, habits and experience.

The ‘Coaching’ Side of Business Coaching

• The Mental Health Field: These professionals studied the cause and effect side of disorders. Many principles are also be used to improve the lives of healthy people. Practices such as Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) began to go mainstream by even those outside of the mental health field.
• The ‘Self-Help’ Movement: The founders of this movement, having studied and formulated theories and practices of personal effectiveness referred to above, helped many people understand their emotions and their ability effect changes in their lives through books, seminars, etc. The challenge is that after the seminar it is easy to fall back into the warm and friendly comfort zone. The large majority of people do not finish the books, listen to the tapes, or perform the exercises.
• Coaching: Coaching first arrived as a re-direction of the psychological field. Many practitioners wanted to focus on the future rather than the past coined this great term. The systematic and recurring contact that coaching provided simply helped people more effectively than seminars, books, and tapes could. Since HABITS define the quality of our lives, the change from old habits to new, more effective habits is achieved through a long-term approach. When done properly in a trusting relationship, coaching can and does have a tremendous impact on client’s lives.
• Executive Coaching: Because the coaching model worked so well for personal effectiveness it helped harried executives deal with stress, emotions, co-workers, superiors, subordinates, and leadership development. Since these challenges are personal in nature, and these large companies already have the business resources, it has been, and will continue to be, effective by bringing positive change to both thought and behavioral habits.

Business Coaching

Since personal effectiveness training and coaching worked for people ‘in business’ (see executive coaching), today’s business coach trainers believe that it should also work for today’s business owners.

Many teach that business advice, experience, and knowledge are unnecessary! Why would they say that? Because they feel that business owners are people, and obviously personal effectiveness will help them improve to a certain level.

Unfortunately, most small business owners don’t have VP’s of marketing, sales, customer-service, finance to give them the ‘business’ portion of their growth! Nor do they have the resources to hire them.

Therefore, similar to the consultants who focused on the ‘business’ side and ignored the ‘personal effectiveness’ side of the equation, business coaches today who focus solely on ‘personal effectiveness’ while ignoring the ‘business’ side struggle mightily to deliver real long-term results.

Why Greg Balanko-Dickson is Different

Small business owners face both business and personal issues daily. Effective coaching then MUST address both sides.

I have never met a business owner who did not know their business inside and out. Most often they started the business because they were very good and technically proficient at their profession. Self-employment becomes a choice due to circumstances, events and choice.

As the business matures and grows they are faced with roadblocks which requires that they make decisions without a foundation of business knowledge, experience and skill sets needed for long-term survival.

The pace of their business and personal lives also make it difficult to find the time study and acquire personal effectiveness knowledge and skills.

We work with you to create long-term, lasting change for your business and embrace the proven, effective model of regular contact to change bring about change to the personal and business habits of our clients, and incorporate the ‘best of both worlds.’

A tremendous amount of personal effectiveness philosophy and traditional coaching models has been derived from Steven Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which you have probably read. Addressing beliefs/paradigms, values, principles, etc are cornerstone teachings of our profession. He also addressed early in the book the importance of changing our HABITS, which we all know to be fundamental. He went on to define ‘habits.’ He defines it as the INTERSECTION of Knowledge, Skill, and Desire.

Therefore if you agree with Mr. Covey, it is IMPERATIVE your BUSINESS coach be able to not only focus on the Desire (which is the only element addressed in traditional coach training), but ALSO the Business Knowledge and Skills!

Effective business coaching is the COMBINATION of teaching business fundamentals and strategies, as well as teaching personal effectiveness fundamentals! Business expertise (consulting) works for some, but NEGLECTS the personal effectiveness side NEEDED for effective implementation and long-term growth. Traditional coaching works for some, but neglects the business fundamentals NEEDED for effective implementation and long-term growth!

Duality of Purpose

This is where my approach to coaching business owners is dramatically different - because I coach to increase both personal (business owner) and business effectiveness the impact is significant.

Coaching Case Studies

What People Are Saying

“Thank you so much. I work at the local library and have ordered your book. It will be very helpful in my decision. I am so glad you took the time to write and help me think of a few more things for me to talk to my attorney about.” - Linda

“Greg Balanko-Dickson teaches the domino effect in his essays. Fix one thing and other things will start to fix themselves. Take it step-by-step and stay focused. Most of all, when you do good works in your life, you inspire others to do good works, and you attract a lot of good work to you. It’s really inspirational writing as well as motivational.

He also specializes in what I call ‘kick ass’ inspiration. If you need some kicking to get you off your butt and into action, Greg is the source for good butt kicking.” - Lorelle on Wordpress

Case Studies

These case studies are based upon real world experiences with real clients. I sign confidentiality agreements with every client and have withheld their names to maintain client confidentiality.

If you are thinking of using my coaching services the bottom line is do I have the experience to coach business owners and do I deliver results?

The answer is Yes, and Yes. I have been self-employed since age 25 and have experience in more than 30 industries and have worked with 100’s of business owners and entrepreneurs.

Plus I provide a GUARANTEE - As with ALL of our programs, if you are not delighted, we will refund your money - no questions asked!

Independent Contractor Restructures Debt, Expands

A small independent contractor was experiencing 100% annual growth that created a cash flow problem. All his cash was tied up in equipment that he had purchased. He was always struggling to find money to meet payroll, hire new staff and equipment. His primary customer was demanding more capacity from him The industry was consolidating from 10 general contractors down to three. The opportunity to gain more business from an existing contractor represented a significant growth opportunity but this would require more equipment and staff. To exploit this opportunity he needed to move quickly to obtain a line of credit and a small business equipment loan he could achieve an increase of 400%.

My job was to find a way to quantify and justify these wild financial projections to obtain bank financing. I worked with the business owner to develop a business plan using existing equipment as collateral. The bank was willing to allow the equipment to be appraised at replacement value less depreciation. This worked to his advantage because he had purchased his equipment at less than wholesale and liquidation prices due to industry restructuring.

We used the business plan to show the bank how he had sufficient equity that could be assigned to restructure his current assets into long term assets using a combination of a small business loan and a line of credit.

The bank granted a $175,000 loan and a $100,000 line of credit which allowed my client to continue to leverage the market opportunity and increase his market share.

Financial Planner, Five Fold Increase

Former business manager of soft drink company starts a financial planning business and has been relatively successful but feels he could be doing better. He wanted to increase the dollar amount of his average sale so that he would be able to hire a marketing assistant. This would allow him to spend more time marketing to business owners.

As his business coach, my job was to provide him with an opportunity to ‘download’ and talk about his business challenges and problems and then discuss the best ways to go about solving those problems. My coaching focus adjusts to his needs and that of the business. This included helping him to interview and screen new employees, design marketing programs including logo design, brochures, website, newsletter and seminars.

Over 10 years his business has increased five-fold, he has substantially increased the number of business owners he services and regularly gets referrals to high-net worth individuals. The size of his average sale has increased and he now has 4 employees.

Start Up Custom Home Builder $1.3 Million in First Five Months

A start up custom home builder in Houston spent thousands of dollars on a website without any real results. They wanted to leverage the Internet to find prospects for their Custom Homes. With a web site providing them qualified leads, they could attract home buyers that were looking on the Internet for a custom home builder in the North Houston market.

The website was to become a lead generation vehicle. Meeting with the clients we were able to identify a marketing strategy that would leverage their local presence in an upscale north Houston neighborhood and their warm, friendly style. Working with the client and their web designer we developed a website that provided detailed floor plans, website copy that was both professional, warm and family oriented. Using pictures of their home, family and homes they built we optimized the web site for Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

In the first four months of the website being live they closed $1.3 million in new construction contracts from leads as a direct result of prospects visiting the website from search engines. In their first year they were able to leverage the web site leads and build 20 custom homes.

Trucking Company Gets Bank Financing in Tight Lending Market

Startup trucking company was looking for help with a business plan to obtain financing to buy an existing trucking company. The seller was well established in the oil-field and cross border US/Canada long haul business. They wanted to divest themselves of the US cross border division. My client (an employee of the seller) had an opportunity to get the customer list, equipment and contracts.

The problem was that fuel prices had jumped considerably and banks were not not accepting applications from trucking companies because they already had enough loans from truckers who were missing their payments. Working with the client and his accountant I coached him through the process to prepare a business plan that showed a realistic profit, fuel costs and documented the contracts he had in place that guaranteed a certain level of income.

We were able to find a small town Credit Union whose manager had a lending authority up to $100,000. We adjusted his business plan to reflect how the business would use a $100,000 line of credit and still show a profit despite the increased fuel costs.

We arranged a meeting with the clients’ banker, myself and the company accountant. As a result the manager of the Credit Union approved a line of credit of $100,000 which meant that the loan did not have to go to committee for approval. Even in a very tight lending market by being creative we were able to find the money so the client could buy the business.

Public Bio-Technology Firm Raises R & D Funds

A growing public biotechnology company had a tumor marker technology. They were raising funds to continue and extend their research and start Clinical Trials. They were spending about $60,000 a year producing black and white photocopies of their annual report and marketing materials. Raising money for a company developing a technology that could save lives was a lot harder than a highly speculative stock like a ‘gold mine’.

They had a great story to tell but needed to tell more of their story and improve their image to gain investors attention. My duties were to work with their CEO to develop a new marketing strategy and corporate image so the marketing materials would educate the readers, improve the image of the firm and provide the investment community with the information they needed.

Working with their CEO, Doctors and researchers we completely rebuilt their identity, hired a professional photographer and design firm to convert their current materials to put a face on the opportunity.

We combined their annual report, marketing materials into one full-color publication which saved then $15,000 per year and improved their corporate image. As a result the CEO was able to make private placements with individual and institutional investors that allowed them to fund their Clinical Trials and continue to grow.

Printing Franchise 60% Sales Increase in 3 Months

A growing printing franchise was looking to expand their capacity but needed to increase sales in order to justify the expenditure. They were in a dense downtown market and had good penetration but were seeing increased competition. If they could increase sales by 50% they could justify further investment in additional equipment and staff. This would not only increase their market share but also make it a lot harder for a competitor to enter the market.

In researching the market and surveying their customers we discovered that while they were pleased with the firm’s performance there were times when they needed their print jobs turned around quicker. Looking at the production work flow we identified the roadblock was getting artwork turned around after customer approval.

We worked with the designer to turnaround the artwork from twice per day to four times a day. On the Sales front we arranged for the print salesmen to be responsible for getting the artwork approved and then deliver the orders when complete.

In just three months sales increased by 60% and the company was able to add additional production capacity to continue to extend their reach and market share. Later they moved design completely in-house and enjoyed additional growth.

Home Based Business Goes National

Family owned, home based business serving the Dental, Veterinarian and Optometry industries was doing about $800,000 per year. The founder had passed away a few years earlier. The owners son who was working in the business took over operating the business. The company had an opportunity to increase sales but needed to make the transition for a home-based business that had outgrown it’s capacity to a new facility.

To accomplish this transition the business needed to increase sales, train staff, and improve productivity and effectiveness. I conducted a series of two, blind focus groups with existing customers. Plus created a sales training program for the owner and order desk staff. I also reorganized the production of their direct marketing and catalogue.

As a result of the focus groups we were able to discover the customers impressions of the firm and make adjustments to the structure of the business including the order desk, direct marketing, sales processes. We also moved all pre-press and design of their catalogue and direct marketing materials in-house. We were able to accomplish this for the same amount previously budgeted using an outside supplier.

Restructuring the sales, marketing and design processes positioned them to grow 30% over the next two years. The firm later merged with a competitor in a different part of the country which positioned them to become a national supplier.

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