Straight Edge Solutions Archives - I Take The Lead

Make Time Off a Priority by Abigail Dougherty

Becky T — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:40:07 +0000

I always look forward to reading Abigail’s latest “words of wisdom.” Please scroll all the way down, if you find that taking vacations seems to be a ‘foreign concept’ in your world. Abigail can help you create the kind of business that will allow you to take time off! She is fantastic!A generation or two ago, most people worked hard for 40 hours each week and had time each evening for dinner, visiting with neighbors, supervising their children’s homework, and bath time. For the past two decades, not taking vacation time has become a desperate attempt to keep our jobs, despite no proof to support the practice. Today, Americans work more days per year and more hours per day than workers in any other industrialized nation. We have no national vacation policy, unlike other industrialized nations. Only 10% of employed Americans take two weeks off at a time for vacation.What’s Preventing Time Off?We all have 24 hours in a day. How we allocate them is completely individual. When clients tell me they cannot take time off, their reasons fall into very predictable buckets.1. Money – If you are paid hourly, then time not working is less dollars in your pay package. The majority of my clients own their own business so that’s a lame argument. When they have a net income goal that they are not meeting, we need to look at their marketing, their conversion rate from lead to client, their follow up to retain existing/prior clients, and their expenses.2. Fear – These days many salaried people are terrified of taking time off in case they lose their job. There are thousands of people who made this decision and lost their jobs anyway. If you believe your boss “won’t like it” when you take time off, think about who will be around to enjoy when you are 65. It probably won’t be your current boss. 3. Poor Planning – For business owners, if their business is set up so it cannot function without them on hand, it’s definitely time to look at their systems, policies, and protocols so they are set up to allow a month-long cruise with no worries about the business continuing to prosper. Or, help them make their annual revenue in 11 months of the year so they have the twelfth month free. A clockmaker friend of mine spends the month of February in Hawaii, because he generates his desired annual revenue March through January.4. Avoidance of Other Things – This is more common that most of us want to admit. If there are problems in the marriage, it’s easier to work longer hours. When you have a teenager with attitude, it’s less stressful to go to the office on the weekend. After you welcome the new puppy in the family, it’s definitely better to avoid being the first one home to clean up any accidents and take the puppy for a walk. We don’t like to admit that we are working longer hours to avoid other things, but it’s a very probable cause.Just because we can – does not mean we shouldTechnology allows us to be connected 24/7 around the world. We’ve become so infatuated with our “toys” that they now dictate our lives. They come with OFF buttons! Learn to use them! I promise there is no law, rule, or commandment that says we must be connected every hour of every day. Even God, in the middle of creation, managed a day of rest. If it’s good enough for the Big Guy, it’s good enough for us mere mortals.Protect What is Most ValuableYour technology tools can be lost, stolen, or destroyed. If you’ve followed basic levels of security and back-up protocols, you can easily replace the tool, recover your information, and be functional in a matter of hours.Human beings, you, your family, friends, and co-workers are not replaceable with downloaded memory. As I have pointed out frequently, if you do not take extremely good care of yourself, no one else can or will do it for you. Only you can control how your physical, mental, and emotional well-being is cared for. Many of us take better care of equipment than of ourselves.Take The Long ViewAre you nicer, calmer, more creative, and helpful to your clients when you are rested and refreshed, or when you are half sick and exhausted? Will your clients be happier finding a new supplier for your goods or products when you have burned out to the point you need to close down your business?Make yourself and your own well-being a priority. Take time off to relax, refresh, and recharge. Your body, your business, and your relationships will all benefit.I keep this question posted to my bulletin board as a reminder. “How thin can you spread yourself before you are no longer “there?” © 2010 Straight Edge News All Rights Reserved.Abigail Dougherty, PCC, is the founder of Straight Edge Solutions, a Professional Certified Coach, Business Process Expert and Motivational Speaker. To read more articles by Abigail and learn more about her work, please visit her website, StraightEdgeSolutions.com or contact Abigail at Abigail@StraightEdgeSolutions.com.For those of you who prefer to vacation off-season, now is an excellent time to confirm that your business will run smoothly without your attention for a week or two. Send Abigail an email so you can set up a time to talk about how to prepare for your gift of time off.Abigail DoughertyStraight Edge SolutionsAbigail@StraightEdgeSolutions.com

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What’s Your Formula

Becky T — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 00:43:27 +0000

If you are networking, chances are you own a business. You will want to read the following article by Abigail Dougherty. BeckyAs I’ve admitted before, my definition of a “business” book is broader than most publishers’. Because I read over 200 nonfiction books a year, it means I’ve read several on leadership, sales, marketing, management, etc. The more I read, the clearer it becomes that there is no single precise formula for success in business. Most of the books agree on six key attributes needed to be successful. They might name them differently, but the fundamentals are the same.SkillThis is usually the easiest one. Sane people do not start a business unless they have a certain level of qualification in that field, either by experience, education or certification. If you are a carpenter, travel agent, coach, lawyer or dog groomer, somewhere along the way you’ve picked up the necessary abilities to do that work.VisionGoing into business for yourself requires a vision of what you want from life that is greater than the relative security of working for a paycheck. The vision could be about freedom, about creativity, about flexibility of where and when you work, and who you work with. It could be as simple as the change you want to bring to the world. Without vision we cannot run our business; it will always run us. PersonalityOf all the attributes for business success, this, to me, is the most controversial. Sometimes charisma is mistaken for the ability to lead. Sadly, leadership isn’t always combined with integrity and competence. When it is, it’s a fabulous combination for success. Too often, key qualities are missing and we see the business fail in a headline-blazing fashion.CreativityThis is the ability to find, engage, and listen to our customers so we can understand what they WANT to solve problems or save themselves pain. Creativity includes being able to keep that dialogue going as tastes or the problems they face change. Being a buggy whip maker in the age of automobiles could limit your business success, unless you are Jedediah’s Buggy Whip Maker, who has carved out a unique niche in what most believe is a dead industry. Creativity helps you get through any barrier to your success. That might mean going over, under, around or through the obstacles that pop up. This is where Master Mind groups are invaluable. Often we are too close to the problem to see the solution that is obvious to someone in a different industry.DeterminationI was listening to an interview of a well-known speaker who, early in his career, was asked to work with an inner-city youth group to help them develop self-esteem. He was wise enough to help them acknowledge that they faced challenges, that people have faced similar challenges in the past, and that similar challenges will continue in the future. This speaker’s message to these youths was, “Now you know the challenges, succeed anyway!” We can all produce a litany of excuses for not being successful. We’re human: as long as we are alive we will have challenges. We can use them as our excuse to not succeed or we can use determination and creativity to succeed anyway.ActionIt’s probably not surprising that action is often the hardest step for business owners. Purposeful action to attract clients, to book business, to earn revenue, and to ensure the clients become your fan club is significantly different from activities. Business owners too often believe that it’s their job to do everything in the business. Successful business owners figure out where they add the most value to the business and find ways to delegate the rest to a third party, an employee or a virtual assistant. Remember, delegation retains your control. Abdication means you’ve abandoned part of your business to someone else’s priorities.What’s Your Formula?Skill, vision, personality, creativity, determination, and action are all essential building blocks of business success. How much of each that is required for your success is completely individual to your business and your market. No matter how your formula reads, ACTION is the essential ingredient to ALL success.

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”

Leonardo DaVinci

© 2010 Straight Edge NewsWANT TO SEE MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE? Check our website: Straight Edge Solutions.WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEBSITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Abigail Dougherty, PCC, is the founder of Straight Edge Solutions, a Professional Certified Coach, Business Process Expert and Motivational Speaker. To read more articles by Abigail and learn more about her work, please visit her website, StraightEdgeSolutions.com or contact Abigail at Abigail@StraightEdgeSolutions.com.

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Success is a Package Deal – Part 2

Becky T — Thu, 27 May 2010 04:13:56 +0000

Success is a Package Deal – Part 2

Thanks, Abigail…I’ve been waiting for Park 2!Untapped Golden GeeseMany business owners make the mistake of making a sale or providing a service for a client, and then let the client fall by the wayside while they seek new business opportunities. I’ve spent a decade trying, unsuccessfully, to find a business that could never repeat a sale or service to the same client, or their family and friends. Starting now, keep a list of everyone who touches your business. Collect names, email addresses, physical mailing addresses, and phone numbers. If you can still find prior customers, ask them for the same information. This information is essential for keeping in touch with your clients. Today, letting your clients know you are still in business is important. Also, this list is vital to let your clients know how you can help them resolve new business or personal challenges. Supplier or SupporterIt’s human nature to want the very best value, every time we make a purchase. Many businesses measure cost strictly by the initial price tag on the “widget.” Toyota, right or wrong, has become a textbook case for the perils of focusing only on cost.Too often, business owners or their staff believe they are the best experts to create their product or service. They specify what they want in a “widget” that is needed to make their product, and then put that spec out to bid. That does not mean it’s really the optimal widget for your application or that it incorporates the latest technological innovation.Generally, your suppliers will be the experts on their products or services. Take the time to meet with your suppliers. This relationship requires your personal focus, rather than leaving it strictly in the hands of your design or purchasing teams. Help your suppliers understand your business vision.For example: For a moving company, is your vision simply to transport goods from point A to point B? Maybe your vision is to provide the owners of those goods with a worry-free relocation, on schedule, of their carefully packaged products. The clarity of your vision makes a tremendous difference in how your supplier can support your business.Ideally, the supplier who “gets” your vision will seek out creative solutions to enable you to meet your goals. They can also become some of your best referral partners when they understand your commitment to your customers. Pragmatic ManagementThe March Vanity Fair magazine had an article that would have been the norm several decades ago. It was about Goldman Sachs and their 21^st-century expectations for the “company spouse,” including accepting that the father would be away on business when his children were born. That belief in “everything for the company” was much more common until recent years. With the definition of “family” becoming so broad and diverse in the past few decades, employers have learned to focus only on the warm body sitting across the interview table. Experienced employers know that problems outside the office definitely impact productivity and morale in the office. Absenteeism, poor focus, illness, and disengaged employees can all result from problems outside the office. Many external issues can be supported by programs that are of little-to-no cost to the employer, yet will yield huge rewards with happy, healthy, and focused employees.Many employers can neither afford nor wish to pay for more than the most minimal benefits. It is still possible, and highly practical, to offer optional programs the employees pay for with payroll deductions to provide them cash in a medical emergency, to help protect them from identity theft and restoring their good name when it does occur, or provide basic mental health counseling. All these offers support your staff and can be enormously valuable to keep your business running smoothly.Ask your network for ideas on how to help your employees at minimal cost to the business. The help is out there; it’s your job as a business owner to find it.© 2010 Straight Edge News All Rights Reserved.Abigail Dougherty, PCC, is the founder of Straight Edge Solutions, a Professional Certified Coach, Business Process expert, and Motivational Speaker. To read additional articles by Abigail and learn more about her work, please visit her website, StraightEdgeSolutions.com or contact Abigail at Abigail@StraightEdgeSolutions.com

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Success is a Package Deal – Part I

Becky T — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 21:05:55 +0000

I always look forward to Abigail Dougherty’s newsletters! As you are networking, I encourage you to keep Abigail’s following article in mind. (Abigail is the owner of Straigth Edge Solutions)I also recommend that you check out her website: www. straightedgesolutions.comOne of the most crucial lessons an entrepreneur can learn is that in order to succeed, you need to have the support, ideas, and work of other people. The second most crucial lesson to learn is to be careful about who you invite along on your success journey.Individuals MatterToo often as business owners we focus on the WHAT of our business and consider the WHO involved in the business to be secondary. Frequently we fail to see the person behind the role. If you were asked about your vendor’s weekend hobby, would you have an answer? Did the business down the street ever need to find new clients? How did they go about it? Does your CPA understand what your business is? Can your next-door neighbor explain to his brother-in-law what you do?Wisdom and experience make working with people we know, like, and trust far more important than what someone puts on their resume. Trust your gut and do your research when you are inviting people on your success journey. It’s worth investing the time to really get to know the people you are interested in inviting along. A few months spent upfront can generate decades-long business relationships and lifetime friendships.Pool Your ResourcesBeing a business owner does not mean we have all the answers. As a client of mine put it – “We don’t even have all the questions.” Get input from other people, from books, seminars, tapes, and magazines. Keep a notebook with you to capture ideas from every source. Having lunch with a few friends might give you insights on a new meeting location for your next seminar. An article on recycling might spark an idea for saving money with your own office recycling practices, which could also be worth sharing with your success partners and your past, present, and potential clients. Mastermind or Never Mind“None of us is as smart as all of us.”Vince LombardiThe more minds focused on making a business successful, the higher the probability that will be the result. Masterminds can be a fabulous tool to help you move forward quickly. Napoleon Hill, in Think and Grow Rich, compared minds to batteries that alone could light a lamp, but collectively could light a city. The more successful the members of your Mastermind, the more successful you will become. I have clients who will only belong to a Mastermind with business owners who earn over $1M annually. A highly effective Mastermind usually requires an up-front investment to help weed out the “hobbyists” and will have a facilitator who keeps the agenda moving and everyone in the group moving forward. I’ve been involved with different Masterminds over the years. Some were more effective than others. Strong Mastermind groups are challenging to find and are difficult to gain acceptance. Again, it’s worth the investment in time and resources to locate the best ones you can find and petition for acceptance as a member.Share the JoyAs you succeed, remember to share the joy with all the people who helped make it possible. Two movie passes with a note saying, “Thank you for helping us be successful,” probably isn’t going to break the bank and will generate a huge wave of continued support.One business I’ve worked with for two decades takes their entire staff and their families someplace special for five days each spring break. They combine it with 20 hours of continuing education requirements for the employees, so it’s not a free-for-all. This getaway thanks the families for their sacrifices they make all year to accommodate the parent’s work schedule. For the last 25 years, this firm has less than 5% turnover annually, compared to 38% in their industry.In a future article I’ll talk more about how family, clients, employees, vendors, and support staff all can be instrumental in making your business a success. Their ability to help or hinder is often directly in relation to how we, as business owners, work with them. © 2010 Straight Edge News All Rights Reserved.

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Profiting Between the Lines

Becky T — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 03:57:11 +0000

As you are busy networking – trying to build your business – keep the following article, by Abigail Dougherty, in mind.

The Bottom Line

Every business owner I know has a keen sense of their business bottom line. Is the business profitable, or not? If not, most owners have ideas to improve the business’s bottom line in the future.

As you are busy networking – trying to build your business – keep the following article, by Abigail Dougherty in mind.

The Front Line

The front line is seldom as keenly managed. Most businesses define “front line” too narrowly as the first point of human contact. Front line actually includes every contact point a customer has with the business; from the moment the phones are answered, live or mechanically, all the way through the transaction, including service long after the original transaction is completed.

We recently dealt with two front line employees in a local store with markedly different results. One took the stance that our issue was outside the policy. He could not help us and we could take our business (and 13 years of customer loyalty) elsewhere. The second person explained why we were told “no,” then took the time to negotiate a win-win solution. The second person generated a huge sale and kept loyal customers happy. Sadly, the first person was the store manager. The helpful employee was a subordinate who took the initiative to seek a solution outside the policy to resolve the issue.

Tools for the Front Line

The best way to lose customers is to have rigid customer support policies that allow no initiative from your employees. Unless you have a truly unique product or service, it’s imperative that your customers believe they are being treated as individuals and someone is ready to listen and help them.

New hires do not belong in a front line role. They need to be shown, as well as trained, on the broad view and the details of who, what, why, how, and when of your products, services, your ideal clients, and your competition.

Experienced employees need to be armed with options and examples of prior customer solutions. It’s worth the time to send regular “win” messages to your entire team spotlighting challenging customer issues and the creative solutions to resolve them.

Make it a team effort. Use your collective resources, solicit, and then reward contributions for customer satisfaction from your entire team. You will probably be surprised how creative your staff is, when given the opportunity to contribute.

The Front Line Drives the Bottom Line

More than 70% of all buying decisions are driven by referral marketing, or word of mouth. Happy customers are your best sales staff. Happy employees who understand, believe, and can share success stories about your business are essential to creating happy customers.

Years ago I was the “right-hand assistant” for a funeral director/mortician. My job definition was one line: Help him do his work. One of my regular tasks was to write up, proof, and print the memorial cards for each visitation and funeral. It was better to have extras left over than to run out. I soon learned that most people have a circle of about 250 others who know and or care about them. We printed 250 memorial cards for most services and usually had only a few left over. This was pre-social media; today 6,000 appears to be the accepted reach for our circle of influence.

It’s human nature to share bad news more readily than good news. A happy customer will tell several friends, especially soon after they’ve done business with you. An unhappy customer tells everyone they speak to about their experience and will remember the story for years to come when your business name comes up, or even when the discussion turns to the same industry. Unhappy customers never forget and seldom forgive.

We are blessed with two eyes. As business people that means we keep one on the front line and the other on the bottom line.

Abigail DoughertyStraight Edge Solutions

www.StraightEdgeSolutions.com

Abigail@StraightEdgeSolutions.com

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The Power of Community

Becky T — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:21:33 +0000

Thanks, Abigail!Excellent and Plentiful CompanyThe latest Census Bureau statistics reported 20M businesses in America have one employee – the owner. An additional 6M businesses have fewer than 10 employees, counting the owner. To put those numbers into perspective: 26M businesses are more than the combined population of the 10 largest cities in the USA.* For these small businesses, the good news is they have the ultimate flexibility to change and adapt to their clients’ needs and competition. The flip side is they are probably managing their business in isolation. Reasons for Community Share KnowledgeThere is no reason to repeat the same mistakes another new business made. Other owners, even in different kinds of businesses, have a wealth of experience that will balance both scare tactics and rosy promises of an advertising salesperson, as an example. Realistic Benchmarks for SuccessBusiness owners tend to be optimists; it’s a prerequisite for daring to control our own destiny. Sometimes having advisors to push us when we are being too conservative, as well as to add a voice of sanity when we are about to bankrupt ourselves with a poorly analyzed action, can make all the difference to the success of our business. Realistic Analysis of ErrorsWe are often our own worst critics! Sometimes it’s difficult to have a clear postmortem of what happened, why, and how to avoid a repeat in the future. It’s even more difficult when we are standing amid the fallout to see the next step to salvage our business. Safety NetPeople with close ties to a network of friends and family live longer, are happier, and enjoy better health than people who are isolated. Many business owners cannot discuss their challenges with the family without causing alarm. It’s not sensible to discuss your challenges with a competitor or your own clients. Who can you talk to? Develop Your Community NetworkI wish network training was mandatory at age 13, with a refresher course each decade afterward. It would make school, the work world, and our communities much easier to navigate. Collecting business cards is not networking. Making and maintaining a true heart-to-heart connection is networking at its best. Research the commercial networking organizations in your community. The newspaper, craigslist, and Meetup all list these resources. It takes time to become known and for people to feel comfortable about referring you. Give any group you join at least six months before you decide you need to move on. MastermindMasterminds are a small group of people, usually with non-competitive businesses, that get together on a regular basis to support each other’s growth by challenging the members to stretch into new goals and holding each other accountable for meeting their commitments. Commercial masterminds are usually more successful than voluntary ones, as they have enough structure and financial cost to encourage commitment. Ideally, find and negotiate to join a mastermind of the most successful people you can locate. Mastermind members are often scattered across the country and rely on the phone for some meetings, as well as weekend working retreats in various locations throughout the year. CoachCoaches are like a personalized Mastermind. They keep you accountable, will stretch you into new goals, and provide third party insights you might not have considered. People can work with different coaches, for different purposes, simultaneously. It’s also possible to work for several years with the same coach. As long as they are helping you grow personally and/or professionally, they are worth the investment. Conference/SeminarsThis is an expensive and often inconvenient way to build a network of like-minded people. Once the event is over, a rare individual follows up with the people they met at the conference. It’s difficult to absorb all the content provided and remember to make connections during the breaks or before and after the sessions. I encourage everyone to still network at these events, though it’s usually the hardest way to develop your network. Your DecisionRegardless of how you build your community, it’s important to remember that other people and their opinions have no power in defining your destiny. We can listen to their ideas, but at the end of the day, it’s our business and we make the final decisions. © 2009 Straight Edge News All Rights Reserved.

Contributed by Abigail Dougherty

Straight Edge Solutions

www.straightedgesolutions.com

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3 Critical Points of Successful Networking

Becky T — Sat, 02 May 2009 22:13:00 +0000

Abigail Dougherty http://www.straightedgesolutions.biz/ is a member of i Take The Lead’s Tanasbourne B2B group in Oregon. http://www.itakethelead.com/ Members absolutely love her. She understands that networking is about relationships. Thank you, Abgail, for your words of wisdom:

Networking is very misunderstood. Three common misconceptions about networking are:
1.Networking is synonymous with selling. I call this “see you – sell you”.
This is seldom successful and hurts your future opportunity with the recipient of that behavior.

2. Networking means collecting business cards. This misconception believes success is the number of cards collected at an event. At least until someone asks for details about the people and businesses represented by the cards.

3. etworking means finding people who can help me. Anyone who cannot help me, is not worth my time to network. Job seekers are the most likely to make this mistake

Successful networking is based on informal relationships that have the potential to be mutually beneficial. Three critical points are: INFORMAL, POTENTIAL and MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL.

Excellent networkers keep track of everyone they meet and they invest the time to get to know the other person well enough to understand what they do, who they really are – beyond the title on a business card and how they interact with the rest of the world. They develop a relationship with the other person. Only then can we understand how to send business to them, and when to contact them for help with a challenge of their own. We all know certain personality styles we would not recommend to our next-door neighbor or our best friend, no matter how good they are at their business. We also know neighbors and acquaintances we would not inflict on a business person we admire.

Networking requires genuine interest in the other person and a system to keep track of the people you meet so you can meet them repeatedly over time to build the relationship.

Networking has been a powerful technique for centuries. Otto Von Bismarck struggled to unify Germany under one ruler during the Franco Prussian Wars. Then he discovered that removing the leaders (usually the elder men) of each principality destroyed their network and stopped them from re-taking their region as soon as the main army moved on. This action is the genesis of the modern retirement laws in corporations today. Contributed by Abigail Dougherty

To sign up for Abigail’s Newsletter, click on: http://www.straightedgesolutions.biz/

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Bait Your Hook

Becky T — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:44:00 +0000

This week in Battle Ground, WA, i Take The Lead (http://www.itakethelead.com/) will have the privilege of promoting one of our most popular Special Guest Speakers!!! Abigail Dougherty, CEO and owner of Straight Edge Solutions, a business management consulting and coaching practice based in Portland, will be presenting some useful…and fun….information for business owners. http://straightedgecoaching.com/Abigail Dougherty discovered, early in her career, two essential components for success; effective business processes to accomplish the work and excellent communication skills to explain the outcome.Those two components directed her career path as an Auditor, Engineer, and Business Communicator. Today, as a business management consultant, national speaker, trainer, coach, and writer Abigail is passionate about working with her clients to build effective systems to support their people, process, and profit needs. On April 10th, Abigail will be speaking at our Battle Ground i Take The Lead meeting at 7:30 AM. This is open to the public. We’d love to have you there! Bait Your Hook: Abigail will be providing some tips how kick starting your business!!

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