Flexibility and The Speed of Small Business

The Speed of Small Business

Leveraging your Small Business's Speed and Flexibility

One of the first things you learn about in business school is how businesses are organized and the advantages and disadvantages of each type of set up.  Large corporations have numerous advantages over their small business counterparts including scope and availability of capital.  However, a strong competitive advantage for small business is speed and flexibility.  In today's competitive and changing marketplace allowing your business the space to change and improve your system is critical to the continued success of your small business.

IBM's study on Business Model Flexibility

IBM released a study on the top 100 automobile manufacturing and supply companies and found that the most profitable companies at their core had business model flexibility.  The study named four key aspects to business model flexibility:

• Responsiveness: anticipating and responding to customer needs as well as market and industry changes;
• Differentiation: translating customer needs into innovative products and services that the customer will desire and competitors imitate;
• Efficiency: common, lean processes and operations for producing products and services at a cost that generates profits and supports growth; and
• Impact: determining the magnitude of desired change in products, services and operations.

See the full article here:  http://www.thebusinessedition.com/business-model-flexibility-as-the-key-to-success-in-automotive-industry-481/

What a great time to be studying the auto industry, back in 2006 the gas crisis had not even hit the US economy yet and we can look back now in hindsight and see what some of the best companies did to gain market share and profitability. 

Have Change Become a Core Value for Your Small Business

As you look to the future of your business, one thing you can be certain of is change.  Some of the best businesses and those I hope to emulate with my company do not view change as some hurdle to overcome, but rather as an opportunity for their business to grow and gain advantage.  I encourage you to bring change into your company culture and to allow your business model the space and flexibility to adapt to the fast dynamic state of today's marketplace.

The Speed of Small Business

One of the biggest advantages small business has is the speed that we can implement ideas and new systems into our business.  I encourage all of you reading this blog to take this to heart and push yourself to continuously bring new innovations and profit centers to your business model and watch as you blow past your competition.

Google+ Aims to Change the Social Network Landscape

Google+ Announces Business Profiles to Come Later this Year

Many of you have already heard about the hyperbole surrounding Google+ and the elite "chosen" who received invites to join the beta.  Having read a recent article on what innovations Google has brought to the game with Google+, I was very pleased to hear that Google will have business profiles play such an important role in the companies continued push into the social network landscape later this year.  Also, Google has not fallen short on bringing new innovations to the social networking arena with strong new features such as: easy grouping of contacts & video conferencing.

What to Look for with Google+ for Business

Googles' empire is built on the foundation of their search platform and integrating this value added service into Google+ is a no brainier.  Google recently had live feeds from twitter included in its real time search which offered businesses the opportunity to post content online instantly through twitter.  The possibility of getting real time content online into google search is very compelling to any small business and is definitely something to look forward to with Google+.

Google has the real opportunity to make rich content driven business pages a possibility when they roll out Google+ for business later this year.  We all have seen the Facebook business pages now for businesses and a glaring need for allowing more rich content could drive Google to offer more options with Google+.

Another way Google could leverage the new Google+ social network would be to allow Google Places to tie into Google+ Business Pages.   So, when a customer looks for small business in their area, they could find your business on Google Places.  Then, by allowing Google+ to tie into Google Places your new potential customer could ask you a question about your business instantly connecting you in real time--now that is what I call innovation! 

Google has proven to be the industry leader for small business and the addition of Google+ for business is going to change the social network landscape forever.  Good times are on the horizon.

Relationship Building in Business

Relationship Building

The Power of Simplicity and Business Relationship Building

Small business is made and broken by the people who support the business and the relationships forged by the owners.  As you read my blog, you will see that I love to simplify things and make them easy.  I'm a big believer in the power of simplicity and nothing about the success or failure of your business is more simple then how important relationship building is to your small business.  If your goal is to have a successful business, then the pursuit of strong relationships for your business is not only important but is also going to require a real effort from you to maintain them.

Networking

Being effective at networking is crucial to your small business and is key to building strong relationships.  There is number of possible ways to get plugged in to the networking scene here in the low country including: The Chamber of Commerce, rotary club and local networking leads groups.  These local events are a great way to meet new business contacts and provide you with plenty of opportunity to work on building some strong business relationships for your small business.  You don't always have to be the life of the party to make some great contacts at these events.  As long as you are willing to put yourself out there and keep your focus on other people, engaging with people at these events couldn't be easier.  It is also very important to be yourself, no one likes to talk to fake people.  Business people value authenticity, and being yourself will attract the kind of people you want to be networking with.

Building Trust

If you have been reading my blog, then you already know how important I think building trust is in business.  One of the best ways to build that trust bridge is to never take advantage of people.  Often times in business we have the opportunity to take advantage of people, focus instead on doing the right thing.  Keeping my integrity is a core value for my business and something I never compromise.  Also, get out of the trap of 'what is in it for me mode' we all can fall into and steer your ship instead toward becoming genuinely interested in others.

Keeping Up

If you don't make a real effort to keep up with people then you will see your contacts fall away.  By not spending time maintaining your business relationship, when it comes time for you to reach out to them--they might not be there.  Find some way to check in with them regularly.  Whether by shooting them a quick e-mail or calling them on the phone, it is very important to stay in touch.  A good way to keep on top of this is to schedule a follow up on your calendar or use some kind of task management tool to remind yourself.

Quality vs. Quantity

One of my best business contacts told me a great piece of advice on networking and meeting new people.  'If you get just one or two good contacts at an event, then you were successful'.  Pretty simple advice, so you know I like it!  I would really try and take it to heart and call yourself successful if you have one good contact from events.  You never know who is going to be a good fit for your small business so go out there and meet as many people as you can to help strengthen your business and build better business relationships.