Growing your small business can be a difficult and frustrating process. No matter how talented, experienced, or proficient you are as a leader, business development may not be one of your core skills.

So, how do you develop the business leadership skills necessary to grow your business and achieve the success you envisioned when you started the business? You need a growth strategy. Here are a few ideas:

• Leveraging. Every leader should look for ways to leverage everything they do in multiple ways. If you have a satisfied customer, they are one of your best resources for new business. Simply ask them “who else do you think would benefit by using our product?”
• Relationship-building. Relationships are key to growth. Build high-trust, high-integrity relationships with everyone you do business with – clients, vendors, bankers, colleagues, alliances, etc.
• Clarity. A key business leadership skill is clarity. Clarify what your company truly is and what you want to accomplish. Clarify job functions, performance metrics, ethics and more. Defining these and a multitude of other factors that will impact performance and growth.
• Infrastructure. Many small business leaders overlook this critically important aspect of doing business. They manage by the checkbook method, thinking, “if there is money on the checkbook, I must be doing ok.” But if you don’t plan your growth, and measure against your goals, how will you know where you are headed? Your infrastructure must include goals, budgets and planning at a minimum. Measure everything that you can so you can notice improvements as your small business grows. To help, hire the best people you can afford in key measurement areas such as accounting, finance, sales leadership, manufacturing and all front line personnel
• Business Development. Everyone is responsible for business development. Everyone is a salesperson… regardless of their job title. If you know the challenges that keep your clients up at night, all that remains is to provide your clients with solutions that will work for them. That is, after all, what a growth strategy is. Identify the problem; provide the solution that will meet or exceed your client’s expectations and your business will grow.

Ask for expert advice

As a small business owner, you have vast resources available to you to assist in developing and growing your business:

The Small Business Administration (SBA) website has a section that provides proven Strategies for Growth. They also have a vast library of resources for you as a small business owner to learn from and utilize. Let them help you.

You small business lender is also a great resource for you as you develop and grow your small business. They have probably seen it all and can give you great ideas on how to expand and grow with the right financing products for your business.

Always keep in mind your small business lender has a vested interest in your success. There is no need to fear the client/lender relationship as they can be of great help to you and an ally in you realizing your dream.

To your success.

This article was written by Praxis Strategy Group and  originally appeared in Small Business Connect, an online resource for small business from Alerus Financial.  For more information, go to Alerus Small Business Connect.

Praxis Strategy Group is a partner with the Flint Group

Dr. Delore Zimmerman

The Center for the Study of Government and the Individual will be co-sponsoring the Annual School of Public Affairs Leadership Conference at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs on Thursday, April 8, 2010.  The Center will be bringing in David Osborne and Delore Zimmerman.

David Osborne is the author of the best seller “Reinventing Government” and co-author of “The Price of Government: Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis.”  He also served as senior advisor to Vice President Gore.

Delore Zimmerman, Ph.D., President of Praxis Strategy Group, is a strategy consultant with twenty-five years of domestic and international experience working with local and regional economic development groups, businesses and universities.  He is the publisher of http://www.newgeography.com/, a website devoted to analyzing and discussing the places where we live and work.  As a researcher he has been awarded eight Small Business Innovation Research awards to develop leading-edge practices and tools for use by development professionals and community leaders to work more effectively with entrepreneurs and to build competitive, innovation based economies in the global, networked economy.

The conference will be held on Thursday, April 8, 2010, 8:00am to 5:00pm.

To reserve a spot in the conference, please contact Jane Muller, jmuller@uccs.edu or 719.255.4093.

Praxis Strategy Group is a partner with the Flint Group

Why is this important? Well, if you read the news at all, you are well aware the state is facing challenging times and balancing the budget means many cuts and compromises between legislators. As citizens, showing up to the Capitol to discuss projects that are important to invigorating Duluth’s economy brings a breath of fresh air to legislators who are used to seeing professional lobbyists on a regular basis. It also shows them that we care; we care about their decisions, we care about our state, and we care about our community.

As a local business, this is a great opportunity to show our support for clients, friends and the community. Do you think the business community in Duluth is as involved in efforts like this as they should be? In what other ways should they offer support?

Photo by FaceMePLS

Bill speaking at the Chamber's "Lunch Time Learning"

As companies voluntarily join or are unwittingly dragged into social media, their brand is being exposed to greater pressure than ever before. Brand Vulnerability is at an all time high as consumers have adapted to new digital tools faster than companies. At a recent “Lunch Time Learning” held at the St. Cloud Chamber, Bill Hatling spoke about the reach of social media and offers practical steps for businesses to confidently enter the social media environment.

For slides from the presentation, click here.

Social media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook) gives companies the chance to more directly reach their customers and engage them with timely offers and relevant information.

Businesses should be on the lookout for these social media opportunities and understand how they might play a role, along with traditional media.

For example, the University of Minnesota Duluth men’s hockey team will be ushering in a new generation of hockey in Duluth on December 30, 2010. The state-of-the-art Duluth Entertainment Convention Center will be completed and the University of North Dakota will be coming to town for the US Hockey Hall of Fame game against the Bulldogs.

This facility will allow for an additional 1,500 seats, 15 luxury boxes, an NHL regulation sheet of ice, and a four-panel video board to showcase game highlights. This means a plethora of new ways for advertisers to step out of the traditional norms of advertising.

Businesses can go beyond the traditional program ad and interact with Bulldog fans right on their mobile devices, driving traffic to their stores and generating buzz for their business. Well beyond hanging a banner in the arena, businesses can take advantage of the UMD Athletics’ Facebook and Twitter channels to interact with fans online and direct traffic to their websites.

Opportunities like these are growing exponentially. Take time to learn about them and how they could fit with your business.

The beautiful showcase kitchen at Meredith Corporation

Last week, we were thrilled to be invited to the fabulous showcase kitchen at Meredith Corporation in Des Moines, IA.

The Meredith National Media Group features 23 subscription magazines – including Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Ladies’ Home Journal, MORE, Parents, Fitness, and American Baby – and approximately 150 special interest publications. Why were we there? To put a WoodMaster pellet grill to the test. The event included a presentation and demo of the grill, with lunch prepared on the grill for 25 editors and Meredith employees.

WoodMaster Pellet Grill performs masterfully

Meredith Chef, Steve, checks out the new WoodMaster pellet grill

Chuck Gagner, President of Northwest Manufacturing, an extremely intelligent and humble guy, introduced and demoed the grill. As he spoke, the magnificent aroma of cherry-wood grill pellets filled the air. A welcome and unusual smell on such a cold day. Des Moines was incredibly cold while we were there (and this is no exaggeration from a North Dakota girl), but the grill performed beautifully out on the patio.

Before we knew it, delicious bratwurst (specially made for the event by B&E Meats in Crookston, MN), were hot off the grill, along with shrimp skewers (yum), hamburger sliders and chicken breasts.

The chef at Meredith couldn’t get over how easy the grill was to use and how well it performed. He was very impressed by the number of brats on the grill at one time with no flare ups. Actually, he was impressed by the overall performance of the grill so we brought him out to do a little endorsement to the editors.

How did it taste? In a word, fantastic. Juicy, flavorful, and kissed with a gentle flavor of real cherry-wood smoke. The grill did us proud. Check out the WoodMaster pellet grills for yourself. With real hardwood flavor; easy, fast cooking; a three-year warranty and performance that stands up to a frigid February day in Des Moines, you can’t go wrong. They are going fast, so get your order in early.

Interest in WoodMaster Flex Fuel heats up

To get the most out of our Meredith visit, we also scheduled some additional meetings with editors about the latest and greatest furnace options from WoodMaster. We had a great time talking with Meredith editors about the new flex-fuel heating technology from WoodMaster. Living the Country Life posted an article about the WoodMaster Flex Fuel Furnace before the night ended!

SunButter takes the stage

Last but not least, we had an editorial session introducing one of our new clients, SunButter. SunButter is a spread made from roasted sunflower seeds – a tasty, allergy-free alternative to peanut butter. Although the product has been around for more than 10 years, it was new to most everyone in the group at Meredith Corporation. We will be working with some Meredith publications on different options for recipes and recipe contests, as well as providing information appealing to the growing number of peanut-allergy suffers.

If you haven’t tried SunButter yet, look for it on the peanut butter shelf or natural foods section of your grocery store, or order SunButter online. It is so good!

A big thank you goes out to the Meredith folks who made our visit so pleasant and worthwhile. They are an extraordinary company with a remarkable story. And to our clients, Chuck Gagner, Todd Strem and Kelsey Gagner, who remind us everyday why we love our jobs.

Well, I’m not sure how to remedy the butterflies (if you do, clue me in). However, it certainly helps to prepare. Here are five important things to consider as you prepare your presentation:

1. Think of your audience, not yourself.
   They don’t care about you or how much of an expert you are. They have one question: what am I getting out of this? Get to the point quickly and relate your topic to your audience as much as possible
2. Don’t make the PowerPoint your script.
   Avoid bullet points at all costs. People read faster than you talk. So, if your slides are full of bullet points, your audience will always be a step ahead of you… and bored! If there is no visual to demonstrate or support one of your points, let them simply look at you.
3. Have passion and show it.
   Passion is contagious. If you want your audience to believe in what you’re saying, YOU need to believe it. If you don’t have passion for what you’re talking about, find someone else to give the presentation.
4. Ask rhetorical questions.
   Engaging people in a conversation will increase their retention. With lecture presentations, people retain only 5%. Adding audio or visuals brings retention up to 20%. To go a step further, you need to engage in discussion. Since you can’t always open the floor to discussion, ask thought-provoking rhetorical questions throughout your presentation to give your concepts staying power.
5. End well. – The last thing you say is often the most remembered. Remind them why they are there. Explain the action you want them to take. Make yourself accessible. Ask for the sale. Thank them.

Can you think of examples where a presenter didn’t follow this advice? How did it affect you as a member of the audience?

What is a communications audit?
A communications audit is a method of research, where we focus on the process of communications. We look at the exchange of information between you and your audience (think internal or external, customers or members, potential customers, those who influence your audience, volunteers, employees and more) and examine how well you are achieving your communications goals in reaching each critical audience. We define the audit scope based on the audit objectives; some have included interviews with key audiences or review of media coverage, others focus solely on advertising and communications materials.

The hardest part is getting started
Actually, the most painful part of the audit is the process of pulling together representative samples and lists of all audience touch points, both internal and external. Once you strip away the different silos, department ownership or rationalization that can surround communication and advertising, and review all your communication collectively, you’ll discover consistency or inconsistency, strengths and weaknesses, gaps and opportunities.

This process also helps you analyze how effectively you’re telling “your story” and most importantly, can serve as both a benchmark and a roadmap for your future. Just yesterday, I read a client’s 2010 communication plan that was developed from our 2009 audit findings.

What about your company or organization? Do you cringe at the thought, or are you ready for a communications audit?

Sure, PR involves writing news releases and pitching stories to media. It also involves planning press conferences that are newsworthy enough for media to show up and report on. But there’s a whole lot more to it.

I like the textbook definition from Cutlip & Center’s Effective Public Relations.

“Public relations is the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whom its success or failure depends.”

Whereas marketing is about selling and focused on potential customers, public relations is about developing mutually beneficial relationships with all of the audiences your organization depends on to be successful. Sure, customers are one of these audiences, but others include your employees, legislators, regulators, and the list goes on.

Developing a public relations plan is a great place to start. It allows you to get on paper your overall goals for public relations, your key audiences, objectives for those audiences (which should be measurable, time specific and attainable), the strategies for achieving those objectives, and then the tactics you’ll need to implement.

A well-done PR plan that’s properly implemented can bring incredible results to your business. If you’ve successfully implemented a PR plan, we’d love to hear about it! If you want to learn more about public relations planning, please contact me.