Archive: ‘Business Growth’

World War C™

Robin Williams made us chuckle in the movie when he enthusiastically yelled “Good morning Vietnam!” into the microphone at his Armed Forces radio station spot to grab the attention of the troops stationed in the war zone.

Well, Robin, we need you now to help wake up America! World War C (Cyber) has arrived on our shores, or more accurately to our computer infrastructure. It isn’t the British this time. And it isn’t visible, it’s digital. But it is serious in terms of the risk of economic damage and destruction.

Computers have changed our lives in wonderful ways but our move toward transparency has other consequences – opening the “computer door” to bad guys. The Intelligence Community is reasonably well prepared but make no mistake, despite billions of dollars already spent, vast portions of the U.S. government, State and local government and most of the commercial market are highly vulnerable.

Our key infrastructure industries pose the greatest concern – financial and utilities- as any disruption there can cause severe economic repercussions but every industry, every commercial business faces threats never faced before.

America’s physical infrastructure has suffered for years because, as a culture, we like to spend money on new, sexy things rather than on essentials.

Cyber security  IS sexy – spies, war, secret code, danger….  Got your attention?

There is a wealth of information available on how to protect your business. One good starting place is the National Cyber Security Alliance www.staysafeonline.org where a great deal of free information is available to start your own journey to better security.

Maryland Cyber Investment Partners www.marylandcyber.com is here to help. We can connect you with the very best resources, experts in cyber security, to protect your business.

Good Morning America!

Baking a Big Pi (π)

Profit that is. The reason others purchase from you (to bake their own Pi). The reason your business exists. Your charter is to help others earn a bigger slice so that your Company gets more too.

You want your Company to be valuable?  Then you must generate a stream of consistent earnings growth over a period of years with performance better than most of your competitors.

There are exceptions to this but they are few: you may have assets i.e. intellectual property, products, land/building which are more valuable than your earnings stream or you may be in a hot market where, for a period of time at least, buyers will pay a multiple of sales to absorb your customer base and reputation. But, these are the exceptions. 98% of the time prospective buyers will value your business on expected earnings and they will base this largely on actual results.

So, business chefs, it’s all about Pi.

Here are some key ingredients:

• High retention rate of profitable Customers
• Selling more to existing Customers
• Steady addition of new Customers (efficient/effective marketing and sales)
• Maximize Gross Profit dollars (the right price/quantity balance)
• Minimize expenses (increase high ROI spending, limit low ROI spending)

Fire up the oven, it’s time to bake Pi!

Little BIG man! Using Your Unique Niche Business Strategy

Companies aren’t the only people that use their niche business strategies… check out the example below.

Who is 6’ tall, weighs 175 pounds and frustrates the daylights out of the best basketball players in the world? Jose Barea, that’s who. More »

The Big Plunge: A Free Business Assessment

Considering a MAJOR move that might risk your ranch?

Trying to build up the courage to take some risks in your business? On this page you’ll find free business assessment tools that will help you. They were inspired in part by reading “Shadow Divers” by Robert Kursonwill, which I’d recommend you read.

It will provide you with a compelling illustration of just what extreme risk looks like. A quick business assessment of this venture would have had large red letters marked “danger!” More »

How to Raise Capital for a Small Business

Need to know how to raise capital for a small business?

Raising capital is very difficult but there are best practices that greatly improve your probability of success. Many entrepreneurs are frustrated and disappointed by the process, not understanding the critical success factors that make all the difference.

Here’s a quick primer on how to get what you want… by giving investors what they require.

Use it as a guide to constructively assess where you stand so that you can effectively exploit your capital-raising strengths and to mitigate your weaknesses and become “investment grade.”

I’m happy to provide you with more pointers in my presentation “How to Raise Capital“.

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What’s Your 2010 Business Development Strategy?

Did your 2009 business development strategy work like you hoped? Will you use the same strategies in 2010, or are you going to analyze, learn from your failures (and victories), and adapt?

Learning and adapting is usually a good idea, particularly if your results weren’t as you expected. But what are the best ways to learn from your mistakes, plan, and adapt to a new market condition?

This post explores how some of the smartest small companies in the Baltimore, Maryland, DC, and Northern Virginia markets are planning their 2010 business development strategies.

The tried and true. There are certain business development strategies that just plain work and I’ll go over some of them below. More »

Sample Business Development Plan

A lot of times when I’m sitting with clients, they will ask for a sample business development plan – a template that they can follow for business development success. If that sounds like you, then this post will help you.

The Tough Questions

If you’ve ever asked a “business development guru” for advice on your business plan, it probably started with some really tough questions…

What’s the purpose of your business?

How much money do you want to earn?

When do you want to have this money by?

What products and services will you offer in exchange?

Who is your target market?

The list goes on…

While these are all very important questions, they don’t necessarily hit on the main point. More »

Does Your Business Need A Sales Growth Consultant

Have you ever thought about hiring a sales growth consultant?

• Is your business slowly dropping sales and losing profit?
• Are you looking for a long-term strategic plan that will help your business earn higher profits?
• Are you a young company looking for a stable foundation?
• Or maybe you’re an established business looking to take your business to the next level.

Profit growth and projections are clearly important to the growth of a company. If your business is not “lighting up the boards” – that is, making a bunch of sales, then hiring a sales growth consultant might be one of the best decisions you can make for your business.

Especially in a recession.

But can we afford it?

The bottom line is that any sales consultant worth their salt will not cost you money. They may be an expense in the short-run, but the beauty of sales growth consultants is that they quickly produce returns on the money you invest with them.

Not only will a good sales consultant reinvigorate you and your sales force, but they will give you actionable, proven ways to increase your sales NOW! Not to mention help with training new sales people.

There are many different strategies and techniques a growth consultant could use to help your business, which ones will work for your company?

Choosing the ideal sales consultant

When looking for a sales growth consultant you should consider the background of the specialist and their past credentials.

• Have they helped companies like yours before?
• Do they have references you can talk to?
• What was their career before they started consulting?
• Do they have a good reputation in the area?
• Have their techniques had demonstrated success in improving company revenues and profitability?

Where can I find a consultant like that?

Jacoby is a Business Growth Consulting firm specializing in sales growth that’s located physically near Baltimore, Maryland. But we have clients are from all over the country, from California to Texas to Boston.

In addition to decades of combined experience, the reason that our clients excel is because of our passion for helping clients, and seeing them succeed.

Aside from sales growth consulting, we have the expertise and know-how to solve complex business problems that can help your company prosper.

Call 410-744-3900 or fill in this contact form to get started.

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A Far-Sighted Business Growth Strategy Will Help Your Future In A Recession

During periods of market slow down, the executive leadership of a business  is able to make choices about how they will react to the future, and the position where they would like to be once the economic down turn ease and the market begins to bounce back to what it was before.

By changing their perspective and strategy planning to have a long term perspective instead of realizing only the production of a short term positive uptick to the profit statement, it is possible to grow a business even during tough economic times. A foundation to success in this area, however is that the management in charge are true leaders and are prepared to look beyond the short term  prospects and work toward positive change for the future. It goes without saying that if the company is in a strong position before the downturn begins, combined with good leadership during the period of recession, that venture has a better chance of surviving the challenges with not only streamlined processes, but with a greater market customer base, due mainly to it stepping into the space left by companies who go out of business in the meantime.

The attitude toward a long-term business growth strategy needs to be a part of managerial mindset  in times of plenty as well as times of hardship and needs to result in the implementation of changes which will be advantageous over a period of economic cycles and not only from the short-term stance. The ability to handle recession in this way is the mark of true leadership abilities and the trademark of success.

The use of redundancy is an obvious example of knee-jerk reaction to company failures in a declining market. While it’s immediate effect is to release cash flow into the company which may be sorely needed, the long term result is that once the recession passes, the company then needs to re-establish the knowledge and experience base that it has just discarded. Across-the-board axing of staff positions may seem like the obvious thing to do, however it will be undesirable in the long term vision.

Realise that the wider social implications of major redundancies such as those that we are seeing in the international economy currently, actually makes a recession last longer, as it affects the entire status of a country’s economic infrastructure.

It is far more beneficial to reduce your cash flow by optimising processes than getting rid of people, particularly if you want to grow during or immediately after a recession. This way you retain the human resource necessary to quickly and effectively respond to opportunities in the market.

The techniques  brought in by consultants can usually help you identify quick wins in this area, and the money thus made available can be used to fund growth related activities such as buying your competitors stock or developing new market offerings.

The old proverb of buying when the market is depressed is most applicable in this situation, and businesses should be preparing for this situation when the going is good.

The Next Growth Strategy for IBM

In a March 9, 2009 article entitled “IBM chief upbeat on growth potential”, Kevin White writes about IBM’s optimism that it can parlay its 8 million square feet of data center resources into a virtualized, cloud based computing infrastructure that dynamically manages business services. “In an upbeat letter to shareholders, chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano outlined how the company would develop smart, digitally aware, networked and intelligent systems with pervasive instrumentation and interconnection, as well as build out cloud computing services. ”

IBM’s Willy Chiu, VP for IBM’s Cloud Labs described how the company is working to be able to string them all together through virtualisation and cloud-based provisioning so as to be able to dynamically manage business services. “Ultimately, it’s all about changing the economics of enterprise computing. It’s all about boosting efficiency. And it’s about doing more with less.”

Before Twitter, before Google, before Microsoft there was IBM. The gold standard of corporate excellence was a proud organization and the “men of IBM” wore blue suits with white ties. IBM stood for reliability and innovation. It was the “go to” equipment choice – don’t bother considering the alternatives.

But dominance led to complacency and IBM lost its way. This loss of prestige and power was personified by its inability to understand young Bill Gates who clearly outmaneuvered IBM in Microsoft’s early days. Since then, the proudest of U.S. corporations has been quiet for a long time. Its biggest news was its 2004 $1.75B sale of its PC business to the Lenovo Group. IBM once dominated this business but failed to keep pace with Dell and Hewlett Packard.

Can IBM rise once more and be king? Stay tuned.

–Art Jacoby