Plan for a Successful 2010

Naturally we all plan and it occurs in everyday life. Although business planning is a bit more complex and requires strategies and targets, we all have the capability of doing so and should take advantage of what has been given to us.

Planning should ultimately provide direction. The direction should confirm, what is to be done, when it is done, how it is done and who is to do it.

The summer break is a great time to start thinking about where you want to be over the next year. When you plan you will be potentially be setting goals or targets for short terms or long term periods and therefore you will need to investigate ways and means of making these plans realistic, practical and achievable. Poor plans usually offer no assistance and portray an unclear focus for those involved.

Before the planning process can take shape, you must firstly have a goal or objective in which you want to achieve. This means that there is a target that you are aiming for.

You should also assess your current capabilities and determine if you are in a position to realistically achieve your goals and how you arrived at your current decision.

A time parameter will need to also be determined so that you have a specific time schedule for you to achieve your goal or target.

It maybe necessary for you to generate a fairly comprehensive SWOT analysis to determine your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that may contribute or effect you reaching your aim.

Depending on what level of management you are, you will be involved in different planning projects and planning processes so you will need to apply different techniques and strategies to suit.

Planning will be used for finance, production, personnel, organisational structuring, market conditions, marketing strategies and the list goes on.

Plans will assist you to use your time wisely, adjust your environment to achieve the desired goal or target effectively and apply contingencies to reduce the level of failure.

If you plan right you will ensure that the results are going to be to your expectations or higher.

Below are six steps to help you plan better:

• Establish a realistic goal and target to be achieved within a certain time frame.
• List all the things that will need to happen that will allow you to achieve your goal or target.
• Prioritise the activities from first step to last step. A flow chart may help you.
• Discuss your plan with those who will be involved or affected by it.
• Implement your plan once it has been finalised and you are happy with it
• Monitor and refer back to your plan to ensure you are on track and your aim is in the near distance.

Whether you follow this process or some variation of it, the important thing is to actually take some time out of your usual business day and do it. Often it is the planning process itself that is far more valuable than the physical plan that results. A simple one page plan prepared effectively is far more useful than a 20 page plan prepared robotically, following some fancy template. The process of reviewing where you are at, where your strengths and weaknesses are and getting other staff to but into the process is vital to drive the business forward in a more focused and effective way.

Essential Christmas Reads - Part 2

My last post introduced a range of business books that all business owners should read at some stage, if not already. Once you have knocked them off, here are 5 more that should also add to your knowledge, vision and enthusiasm for business ownership.

I welcome your comments and feedback on whether you have enjoyed these books or not and what other titles you think should be on the list.

Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got
Jay Abraham

This book provides some powerful strategies for boosting your business. The author believes that anyone can advance in life by tapping into hidden assets and developing the right mindset. He writes, "You are surrounded by simple, obvious solutions that can dramatically increase your income, power, influence and success. The problem is, you just don't see them."

Abraham's central theme is that everyone is in sales. In almost any profession, people must be skilled at selling themselves and their ideas, not just their company's product or service.

Business owners with the itch to grow must read this book. The ideas are varied enough to work with kitchen-table businesses, as well as large firms, because they are outstanding and because they are communicated so well.


The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
John C Maxwell

What would happen if a top expert with more than thirty years of leadership experience were willing to distil everything he had learned about leadership into a handful of life-changing principles just for you?

The result is a revealing study of leadership delivered in an easy-to-understand and easier-to-implement style.


The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Steven Covey

True success encompasses a balance of personal and professional effectiveness, so this book is a manual for performing better in both arenas

This awesome book presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centred approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service, and human dignity - principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.
This isn't a quick-tips-start-tomorrow kind of book. The concepts are sometimes intricate, and you'll want to study this book, not skim it. When you finish, you'll probably have Post-it notes or hand-written annotations in every chapter, and you'll feel like you've taken a powerful seminar by Covey.

Raving Fans
Ken Blanchard

Your customers are only satisfied because their expectations are so low and because no one else is doing better. Just having satisfied customers isn't good enough anymore. If you really want a booming business, you have to create Raving Fans

Raving Fans uses a brilliantly simple and charming story to teach how to define a vision, learn what a customer really wants, institute effective systems, and make Raving Fan Service a constant feature in your business.


Loosing My Virginity
Richard Branson

In this autobiography, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson says one of his prime business criteria is "fun." Fun made Branson a billionaire, and few business memoirs are one-billionth as fun as Branson's, nor as niftily written.

Must Reads for Your Christmas Holidays

With Christmas coming up I hope you will have some time to take a bit of a break and spend some quiet time away from the pressures of business ownership. If you are a retailer, this probably won't apply and so I hope you are flat out with queues of customers buying up everything that you have available! Your time for rest will come at a different time if the year. For the rest of us, I recommend spending some of that time off in reading a good business book or two. But with literally thousands of titles out there, where should you start? Over the next couple of posts I will suggest 10 titles that you should consider as must reads that will give you much needed skills in a range of business ownership areas. In no particular order, here are my first five:-


Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill

Here are money-making secrets that can change your life. Inspired by Andrew Carnegie's magic formula for success, this book will teach you the secrets that will bring you a fortune. It will show you not only what to do but how to do it. Once you learn and apply the simple, basic techniques revealedhere, you will have mastered the secret of true and lasting success. And you may have whatever you want in life.


The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber

If you own a small business, or if you want to own a small business, this book was written for you.


The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard

An easily-read story which quickly demonstrates three very practical management techniques - you will understand why these apparently simple methods work so well with so many people.

The book is brief, the language is simple, and best of all...it works.


The Sales Bible by Jeffrey Gitomer

This book is an absolutely essential tool for every serious business owner.
“It should be read, reviewed and referred to every single day."
It can be digested in quick bite-sized lessons and contains 100’s of proven techniques and healthy thinking about building business relationships.


Good To Great by Jill Collins

Making the transition from Good to Great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of the rare and truly great companies is a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organisation would do well to consider.


Why should you spend time reading business books rather than fishing magazines this summer? The answer can be summed up by Edward Demming, the quality expert: "Learning is not compulsory, but neither is survival"

If you have some "must reads" of your own, I would love to know and so would other readers of this blog. Please leave a comment below by clicking on the link.

Making Staff Meetings Better

The staff meeting — or "stiff meeting" as it is sometimes known in many companies — can become a colossal waste of time. No surprise, but the staff meeting is a boring and even a dreaded part of the business world. Many consider staff meetings a practical alternative to work; as a place to jot down their grocery list or to refine their drawing skills. All because there is too little thought invested in the planning or the execution of the meeting.

Put some thought and planning into your staff meetings to fully engage your team and it can help you boost productivity, increase the effectiveness of decision-making, head off emergencies, reduce the number of problems that require your attention, make for happier staff and create a smoother running, more profitable operation. Following are some ideas to breathe new life into your staff meeting:

1. Link the agenda with your company goals. For instance, if one of the overarching goals is to drive increased sales, then list "Sales" as an item on your agenda. Underneath that heading you can cover off one part of the sales process and use the opportunity to hone people’s skills bit by bit. The same agenda should flow from week to week, but focus on a different part of the process to improve.

2. Purpose. Be very clear what the purpose of the meeting is and if it is just because we have to have a meeting each week to have a general catch up, then do you really need it? Meetings can have many purposes. Keep a meeting to one purpose only and invite those who only need to be there to add value to that purpose.

3. Think outside the box. Another overlooked objective of effective staff meetings is training. Properly conducted staff meetings are a forum for continuous improvement. Maybe showing a video aimed at sparking new ideas or improving processes may be the appropriate thing to do once in a while. Variety helps to keep it fresh.

5. Hold meetings regularly. The more frequently meetings are held, the better. In certain situations, daily meetings are appropriate. In others, weekly will do. Let too many days slip by and you risk sending the wrong message to your team. Make them short and have them often. Stand up meetings at the whiteboard can be better than sit down ones at the boardroom table. People who stand will be more focused in what they say and will want to get on with their jobs.

6. Get in and get out. Timeliness is critical to running an effective meeting. Start it on time and end when you say you will. Fine those people who are late, or lock the door at the appointed time and see how people improve their time-keeping. That honors the schedules of other members of the team.

7. Write up the minutes. The minutes provide the foundation for the next meeting's agenda. At the beginning of the meeting, make sure someone is assigned to write up what happened and what you're planning to make happen; in other words, who's going to do what by when. Keep the minutes short and use bullet point lists often. Ensure minutes are out to attendees within an hour of the meeting if possible, or certainly within the day at latest.

8. Rotate leadership. Just as the minute-taker's function should rotate, so too could that of the leader. Try making the person in charge of the minutes one week be in charge of running the next meeting. That provides more accountability and a greater stake in getting the minutes written clearly, concisely and on time.

9. Open the books. Always provide people a good fundamental understanding of where the business is going. Don't just provide a cursory statement like, "Business is good" or "Profits are down." Go into detail, at least setting out revenue and gross profit position. The better informed your staff, the better decisions they'll make.

A bit of planning before meetings and focusing on keeping the meeting short, on topic and with clear, time-bound actions agreed at the end will result in more energized staff and better productivity. Try it and see.

Creativity Is Not Enough

New Zealand is ranked one of the highest countries in the OECD for hatching new ideas, but quite lowly in taking those ideas to the world and turning them into big business.

Why is this and what can be done about it?

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise has recently released a report entitled “Playing to Our Strengths. Creating Value for Kiwi Firms” and in it seeks to identify traits that hold us back in becoming successful business owners and what to do about it. Those traits can be summarised as follows:

Satisficing. We are more driven to have a good lifestyle than kicking on and creating significantly more wealth.

Thinking for our customers. We tend to presume too much and view the world from a distinctly Kiwi perspective. This often results in focussing on short term issues, rather than building long term relationships.

Self reliance. The old Kiwi mentality of “do it myself” which typically results in effort being too thinly spread and performance in critical areas of the business being lower than it needs to be. Reluctance to plan for succession and picture the business beyond the current owner is also typical.

Tall Poppy. This causes us to have a profound reluctance to give and receive feedback and a similar reluctance to use specialists. Along with the fear of failure there is also almost a fear of success and this tends to stymie the willingness to experiment and take risks.

Undervaluing IP. Recognising the need to protect the IP that is created as part of the innovation process is important so that future revenue generation opportunities can be exploited.

The report goes into explaining a range of strategies that owners of entrepreneurial businesses should consider adopting, but as a business advisor I have no hesitation in highlighting the need for owners to engage professional help in their business and “turbo charging” its growth. Rather than relying on trial and error, using a specialist, be it a good accountant, specialist lawyer or business coach, can make a huge difference to the success of a business and also the speed in which that success will be achieved. The ability to step back from the coal face and focus on the longer term vision is essential to take a business to the next level. Sometimes that ability can only come from an independent and objective point of view.

If you would like to discuss your business and how to take it to the next level, contact the author at iconnorthshore@gmail.com

A Short Course in Human Relations

The list below appears in a number of places and I can't seem to find out the original author. Whoever it was, I think they are very clever and perceptive and I thank them for their effort. If anyone knows, please tell me so I can give due credit.

Can you work them into your discussions with colleagues, staff and family over the next week?

The 6 most important words:
"I ADMIT I MADE A MISTAKE."

The 5 most important words:
"YOU DID A GOOD JOB."

The 4 most important words:
"WHAT IS YOUR OPINION?"

The 3 most important words:
"WOULD YOU MIND?."

The 2 most important words:
"THANK YOU."

The 1 most important word:
"WE".

The least important word:
"I".

Discovering the DNA of Profitability for Your Business



Business owners often think that they need to take dramatic steps to improve the profitability of their business. Many believe, for example, that if they want to double their profits they need to double their sales. Still others think that they need to take on more people, bringing with them, many more headaches. This doesn't have to be the case. The difference between the DNA of a chimpanzee and a human is only 2% but what a difference that makes. 2% less and you are spending the rest of your natural life learning how to crack open a nut and 2% more and you can fly a rocket to the moon. You may be surprised to find that the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful business is surprisingly similar.

So what is the DNA of profitability in a business?


Broadly speaking there are five simple areas that we can look at to improve the profitability of a business.



Join us for a 2 hour workshop to find out what these 5 areas of potential improvement in a business are and how they apply this to YOUR business.



By making small changes in each of these areas you can achieve an increase in profits of 61%, or more. Why 61%? Join us and find out how we get to this figure and how to do the math for your business.

The workshop is being held at:



Albany Executive Motor Inn,

15 Corinthian Drive

Albany



Tuesday 1st December

5:45pm for a 6.00pm start



Cost is $49.00+gst per ticket, but for subscribers to my blog it is free!

More Help to Get Exporting

A couple of recent announcements from the government are positive news for those growing their export markets, or those considering how to start.

Well covered in the press was the Free Trade Agreement signed with Hong Kong last week by John Key. This FTA joins a growing list and puts New Zealand exporters in a much better position to be competitive in (mostly Asian) markets and build on our other strengths that we can bring to the table, such as quality, good hygiene standards, design, honesty, etc. Perhaps even more important is the noise that the US is making that they will join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is likely to be a forerunner of an FTA with the US.....we hope.

Another announcement that has received less press coverage is of an increase of $200million in trade guarantee facilities being provided to exporters to help them comply with trade bond and credit guarantee requirements. "The extension of three trade credit guarantee and bond products will help exporters grow their business and keep New Zealanders in jobs as we emerge from the recession," Mr English said.

"This Government has made it clear that one of the best ways to ensure New Zealand grows strongly out of the recession is to increase exports and investment. Ensuring our exporters have the credit flows to maximise the opportunities that flow out of recent trade developments is crucial."

Fair access to markets and security of payment are two areas that need to be considered and strategies built around when planning export marketing. There are lots of other (labeling, overseas legislation, insurance, shipping, distribution, etc, etc) but this should not put you off seriously considering export as a growth strategy for your company.

The country sure needs more people exporting and if you can make it work with the current exchange rate, the chances of significantly improved profits as the NZ dollar eases back, which it will do at some stage, will make the hard yards of developing new markets well worth while.

Get into it!

For help with these elements and all the other things you need to think about when considering a move into exports, contact the author: Andy Burrows at iconnorthshore@gmail.com or phone 09 912 1901

A Study in Systemisation and Planning

I have returned from helping out at my youngest son’s Year 6 camp, totally exhausted but impressed with the organisation and how the kids coped. The tiredness came more from a lower fitness level than I would like and sharing a room with 4 other snoring fathers. A couple of good night’s sleep and I will be more alert. The lack of fitness will take a bit longer to address and is something I will work on over the next few months!

The kids had a ball. Many were challenged beyond their comfort zone......as were many of the adults. All were well fed and watered and kept busy every waking moment. The satisfaction level came in no small part to the planning and systemisation that went into the whole exercise. The school runs the same camp every year, but with new parents coming along and also new teachers from time to time, the success depends on the processes being well documented and improved upon each year with a review of “what can we do better next time”. To have about 100 kids organised from 7am to 10pm to be at the right place at the right time, fed good food in sufficient volume and supervised to ensure safety needs a list of checklists, procedures and forms somewhat akin to Desert Storm.

Could your business operate as smoothly if you or some of your key staff were to change suddenly? Would all that knowledge walk out the door, or do you have your procedures and processes well documented?

Your Operations Manual
To improve the operational security of your business and to increase its market value, I recommend that you put some serious effort into producing a clear operations manual. To create your business manual, think of it as “the book of your business”.
If writing it is likely to take too long use a dictaphone to record “what” (the system) you do and “how” (the procedure) you or your team do a particular thing in your business. Then have someone type that up for your manual. This then becomes your “living document” which can be changed or improved as circumstances dictate.

All areas of the business can be covered. People ask me sometimes, “Where do I start?”. I usually suggest with basic opening and closing procedures for the business and go from there. Other areas you may want to cover can include:-

Business Management

• Reports generated — daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually
• Accounting practices
• Banking procedures
• Payroll procedures
• Regulatory requirements — GST, PAYE, Fringe Benefit etc

Daily Operating Procedure

• Business appearance standards, procedures for achieving standards
• Opening and closing procedures
• Acceptance of credit procedures
• Procedures for cashing out register

Administration

• Employee scheduling — details shifts, how allocated
• Computer operations
• Accounting and payment systems

Emergency procedures

• Cover fire, and medical
• Accident procedures

Kitchen, staff room and toilets

• Daily procedure for keeping clean and tidy
• Cleaning/hygiene standards and procedures
• Procedure for replacing consumables

Sales/Customer Service

• Telephone manner/scripts
• Procedures for meeting, greeting & fare welling customers
• Procedures for interaction with /serving customers
• Procedures for up-selling, cross-selling
• Handling complaints
• Sales targets and recording procedures

Under each procedure you need to cover:
Who, What, Why, When, Where, How for all of the systems and procedures that you include in the manual. Then schedule some time each year to keep the manual up to date, make improvements to procedures and documents and cull out of date stuff. Keep back-up hard copies and soft copies.

A well documented company manual will become a company resource of significant importance and will add substantial value to your business. It will also make it easier to induct new staff and identify weaknesses in the business.

Off to School Camp


This week I am off to my youngest son’s year 6 camp at Camp Adair. I know it will be busy and tiring, there will be objectionable kids that will try my patience, I will miss my red wine at the end of the day, but I am strangely looking forward to it.

I have helped out at my 2 older kid’s year 6 camps, so feel morally obliged to help out for number 3. Business is busy and it would be very easy to say, “I can’t go as my clients need my help and I have a couple of good prospects in the pipeline that I would like to progress”. All of that is true, but I have to remember why I went into business for myself and what is most important in life.

Business should serve your life, not the other way round. It is too easy to become a slave to your business and so a specific goal should be to systemise the business sufficiently that you are able to take a week off and focus totally on the needs of your children (and 90 others) for once. It is a grounding experience to be with them in such an environment and watching them grow emotionally as they challenge themselves in unfamiliar surroundings. Pick an event yourself that will take you away from the business, set a goal to be there for someone else’s benefit and put a plan in place to arrange your business to accommodate it.

Put Documented Systems in Place

It may take a while to develop the systems required to free up some time, but not only will you benefit emotionally from the break, the business will be more valuable due to the systemization process. I can help you with that process.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking, “I MUST be there because the place won’t run without me”. If that is TOTALLY true you don’t really have a business and questions need to be asked if what you are doing is good for your long term future. I have to shuffle around client meetings and ask another advisor to cover some urgent stuff that can’t wait. Explaining to my clients that I am doing this for my child’s benefit and is a moral commitment that I have made typically receives understanding (and even grudging admiration). I think you will find the same.

My next post will be after the camp….if I survive! :)

Export as a growth strategy.

With a domestic market of only four million people, the opportunity for many firms to grow is significantly restricted. This is particularly true for a business that is focusing on a small niche in the market. Once the New Zealand market has been developed to a mature stage, the business needs to either look at adding new products or services into it’s range or find new markets in order to grow.

So why take the risk of venturing offshore and where does one start?

It’s a Big World Out There.
The why is easy. It is all about opportunity and potential for growth. The world is a market measured in billions and there is no reason why more New Zealand companies don’t get out there and join those companies that have gone before them and offer their wares to the world. Once thought of as pretty much a supplier of relatively low value food commodities, New Zealand is now competitive in a surprisingly wide range of goods and services. According to an NZIER report on NZ exports in June of this year, there are over 5,000 products recognised in the international trade classification system. New Zealand exports around 2,000 of these.

Of these 2,000 odd products, NZ had a comparative advantage in 611 product groups and these products came from nearly all tradable sectors of the economy. Although food and agricultural products tended to have a higher comparative advantage, other sectors also scored pretty well. So to say that you don’t produce something off the farm and so no one would be interested in me doesn’t stack up these days.

Getting Started.
As with any sound business plan, the first step is doing your homework. Moving into export should be done on a committed basis and with the longer term vision in mind. The cultures in many markets overseas are much older and different to ours. They work on a longer time frame and expect you to also show a longer term view. A few factors to think about before you plan that first sales trip include:-

Get company-wide commitment. Every employee should be a vital member of the international team, from the owner to customer service through engineering, purchasing, production, and shipping. You are all in it for the long haul.

Define your business plan for accessing global markets. An international business plan is important for defining your company’s present status and internal goals and commitment, but it is also required if you plan to measure results.

Determine how much you can afford to invest in your international expansion efforts. Will it be based on ten percent of your domestic business profits or on a pay-as-you-can-afford basis?

Plan at least a two-year lead time for world market penetration. It takes time and patience to build a consistent export division.

For help with these elements and all the other things you need to think about when considering a move into exports, contact the author: Andy Burrows at iconnorthshore@gmail.com

Are you a good leader?

Are you a leader just because you run a business? Not automatically. But you need to be. Without leadership, the ship that is your business has no captain and no rudder and eventually will founder.

A leader is one who DOES THE RIGHT THINGS. This compares with a manager who DOES THINGS RIGHT. Both are important in a business, but a good leader will take a business and make it grow. Anyone can be a leader, even if the only person they’re leading is themselves.

But you can’t become a leader just by saying you are. Leadership needs to be worked at. There are many virtues to leadership that you can focus on and improve. Here is my top 5 and I invite you to challenge this list and suggest what you think are the most important qualities and skills of a great leader.

Planning and Goal Setting
Especially in the longer term. To map out the big stepping stones that are required to be laid down and passed in order to drive the business forward. But once the plan is in place, get out of the way and let the team get on with it. Don’t try to over-manage the process. If the goal is clear and the right resources are available, progress should be made.

Vision
Where will the company be in 5 years, 10 years, 25 years? What will it look like and in what markets is it likely to be in, or not be in? A leader can also describe the vision in positive and uplifting terms that are clear and unambiguous. A leader keeps an eye on the big picture and looks for opportunities to make big gains in competitive advantage.

Communicate that vision
A leader must be able to paint a clear picture of what his or her vision for the company is to enable fellow staff and other stakeholders to share and believe in that vision and align their plans, goals and actions with the overall vision. People need to “buy in to” the vision and are energized by it, and it is a leaders job to ensure they can do this. This must be done with humility and putting the needs of the company first and not chest beating about me-me-me.

Take action when it counts
When the sh*t hits the fan, you want a leader who will be able to sum up the situation that the company is facing, weigh up the options quickly and make a decision on the best way forward. “Courage under fire” is what it is known as in the army and some of the best leaders are born under this situation, while some wanabes wilt under the pressure. Winston Churchill once said, "Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it all others depend." A lack of courage will make achieving the other leadership virtues hard, if not impossible.

Set high standards and follows them
Leadership is defined through action. You need to “walk the talk and consistently live by the other virtues mentioned above – all the time. Becoming a leader isn’t easy because it takes a conscious commitment and consistent effort to develop one’s leadership skills. But on the positive side, anyone who is willing to make the effort can become a good leader.

And as good leadership is critical to business success, your efforts to improve your leadership skills will be rewarded. By working on these five key virtues of leadership, you can become the leader your business needs.


Questions or comments? Click on “comments” below

Know your enemy

My first post was about the importance of a USP and being different to your competitors. Inherrent in this strategy is the need to understand your competitors, who they are and how you can exploit their weaknesses.

You must constantly compare your business with others who are selling the same or similar products and/or services, at similar prices to the same customers as you. These will be your active competitors. For instance if you have a beauty salon you are likely to compare your business with others that seem to getting more clientele than you and is making a impact on the community.

You should always compare your prices, products or services, and promotions. These are major factors that will help you to determine what can be implemented into your business to make it just as or more successful than your competitors.

When you do a competitor analysis it is important that you remember what it is you need to know. The following will guide you to find the right information on each of your competitors. Put a chart together and then do the same analysis on YOUR business and see how you match up.

• Who are our competitors?
• What are their strategies?
• What are their objectives?
• What are their strengths?
• What are their weaknesses?
• How do they react to competition?

Have a question or comment? Click on the "comments" link below.

Just what is a "USP"?

Your unique selling position (USP) is a sentence or phrase that explains what makes you special. It gives your prospects a reason to do business with you rather than your competitors. A good USP that is properly used makes your marketing a lot more effective. Because it gives you dominance over a market niche.

When developing your USP, it is important that you put yourself in your prospects' position. Look at your product or service from the point of view of someone thinking about buying it. What is important to your potential customer and what would be a compelling reason for that prospect to buy from you instead of your competition?

Your customers' interest is focused on what your product or service does for them - the benefits. How using your product solves a problem or improves an outcome. The key to unlocking the decision to buy is offering benefits that outweigh what the competition offers.

So benefits are all about how your product adds value for your customer. While features relate to what goes into making the product or service and how it is delivered to customers. This is an important distinction. Because customers are really not interested in features. They are only motivated by benefits.

For example, saying that there is a lifetime guarantee on your products is describing a feature. The benefit is that customers don't take any risk by buying your product. A powerful USP is one that is focused on benefits that only you offer.

So, to start with, list all the features of the product or service that your business offers. When you can't think of any more, go through each feature and look at it from the customer's point of view. What is the benefit? List all the benefits next to the corresponding features.

Your USP must be focused on benefits that only you offer. So, eliminate from your list all benefits that your competition is also offering. If you find that you have no benefits left after you do this, you may have to tweak some features so that they result in unique benefits.

You should end up with a few benefits to choose from. When deciding which one is the most suitable as the focus of your USP, ask these questions:
• Which benefits are the most important to your client.
• Which benefits are the most difficult for your competitors to imitate
• Which benefits can be most easily understood by customers
If, like most of us, you are in a competitive market, you can't be all things to all people. In other words, you have to find a niche. A corner of the market that you can take ownership of because of the unique benefits you offer. Remember, focus is the name of the game.

When you have identified the benefits you want to use, you can start writing the USP. Start off with a paragraph that describes the unique benefit or package of benefits. Then eliminate all unnecessary words. Cut it down until you have only one sentence that says it all.

A good USP should be:
• Only one sentence.
• Clearly written so that everyone can understand it.
• Composed of benefits that are unique to your company or product.

The FEDEX USP is a great example of a Unique Selling Proposition that does all of these things and I love it:

"When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight"

When you have a USP, make sure that it is incorporated in all your communications to potential customers. Also ensure that it is well understood by your whole team and consistently delivered on. You will attract a strong following of loyal customers and your business will thrive.

Have a question or comment? Click on the "comments" link below.