Business Coaching

Customer polling done by Sam’s Club revealed that nearly 15% had been turned down for business loans recently. Since the bulk of Sam’s Club’s clientele are small businesses looking to save money, Sam’s Club knew that it could be just a matter of time until they saw their profits dwindling.

How could they change the downward trending? WalMart Inc., Sam’s Club’s parent company, decided that the best way to deal with this problem was to come to a common solution, one that could help both Sam’s Club and its customers, while creating a new level of customer loyalty. That solution is loaning capital to customers.

Sam’s Club will focus its loans on small businesses owned primarily by women, minorities and veterans. They will make loans of anywhere from $5000 to $25,000 to those small businesses. The term of the loans will be 10 years and there will be no penalty for early payment. The loans will be made through an outside lender and Sam’s Club will actually make $50 per loan.

Aside from the small stipend made on each loan, the benefits to Sam’s Club could be enormous. Creating renewed loyalty throughout its customer base while also improving its own bottom line are just two benefits for them, but your small business could benefit as well.

For businesses in need of capital or struggling to close the cash gap this could be a huge advance because of the dearth of traditional lending these days. If you already have a Sam’s Club account, you will probably be much more likely to be able to get a loan in their system because they already know you and your business.

For many years small businesses have struggled to compete against big business.  Today thanks to a more enlightened view of business, major corporations are looking for ways to help small businesses.

Sam’s Club has come up with a vision that they hope will ensure their customers today become customers for life. Think this strategy will work?

SEO rankings can be finicky, unless you are consistent with what you do.

If you have been reading this blog, you know that search engine optimization (SEO) is a key part of business marketing these days. Every business wants to be sure that they can be found when someone uses a search engine to find them.

But sometimes, your SEO ranking can drop because of factors you may not have considered. Among those factors are age of the site, your site’s content, the keyword density of your articles and the links that connect your site to other sites. There are solutions for these problems that can take your SEO back to the top of the search.

If your company’s site is old, that’s a good thing because it should be easy to find and stable. The problem can be if the content on your site is old and static, or never updated. The easiest way to ensure you’ll always have fresh content is by blogging: just write a regular blog an post it on your site.

Another revelation as to why your SEO ranking might be low is a lack of content. Many search engines won’t even list a site unless it has at least 10 pages on it. Keyword density also plays a big role in SEO ranking. Be sure to pepper the key words you believe people will search when looking for your business in articles or blogs throughout your site. The most places you use key words the better. Finally, you always want to have reciprocal links on your site with other businesses so people that view their sites will naturally navigate to yours.

So what can you do to ensure your SEO ranking stays high? First off, if you aren’t computer savvy, hire someone who is. Second, use multiple websites for your business. The more places you can be found on the Internet, the better your chances that customers will be able to find you. Finally, be sure to constantly update your site to be sure you have fresh content and enough pages to be properly searched.

Hsieh wrote the book "Delivering Happiness" about Zappos' culture.

Throughout the ’80s and ’90s, Las Vegas was a boomtown. Jobs were plentiful, rent was cheap, taxes were low and thousands of people were moving to Sin City every month. Recently, few places in America have been hit harder by the global recession than Las Vegas. With an unemployment rate hovering around 15%, there haven’t been many business success stories over the last few years but one Las Vegas Company that has found success has been Zappos, which was recently sold to Amazon last year.

Zappos sells shoes on-line and has flourished in recent years. Since the dot-com crash in 2003, Zappos has become one of its industry’s leaders by changing the way they do business. Before the crash, almost 25% of Zappos’ revenues were made through Drop Shipping, the concept of acting as a middle-man between the customer and the manufacturer, while not actually handling any merchandise itself.

Zappos founder Tony Hsieh decided that he needed to change his business model and focus on the customer service aspect of his business. He understood that while Drop Shipping seems like a terrific business model, it makes customer service virtually impossible because the distributer does not control his own inventory. Now, with control over merchandise and a business concept that makes sense, Zappos is one of the few businesses that have weathered the storm in Las Vegas and is actually flourishing.

So what does Zappos do so differently? It begins and ends with their company culture. While they sell shoes, Zappos is first and foremost a customer service company. Their employees understand that dealing with the customer and making them happy is their first priority. Zappos also knows that a happy employee will improve customer service, enjoy their job and do all they can to be productive.

Among other out of the box concepts, Zappos actually encourage weirdness in their employees, not the worst thing in a town like Las Vegas. But there is a method to the madness as employees are encouraged to think and contribute rather than simply going through the motions. This helps to ensure that employees are not only having fun but are also more engaged at their job.

In his book, Delivering Happiness, Hsieh details his story, while also providing insights that helped make him so successful. Hsieh is a poker player and he has taken some of the lessons he’s learned in the casino and applied them to his business. Among the most important are table selection and bankroll management, concepts easily extrapolated to the business world.

Las Vegas is the very definition of post-modern and has served as a prime example of new, and out of the box thinking in many fields, from business to burlesque, from entertainment to apparel. In this environment, businesses such as Zappos, have expanded on the very notion of Vegas, changing the way business is done and building a strong bottom line at the same time. What do you think of the Zappos concept?

Coaching played a big factor in last night's game.

In the world of coaching, both in business and sports, understanding one’s strengths and weaknesses can be the difference between success and failure. As we reach the end of another basketball season we have one of the best NBA Finals matchups in recent memory. Both teams are led by outstanding head coaches who have followed different paths to get back to the Finals, accentuating their strengths along the way.

The Lakers have a man leading them who is considered one of the greatest coaches in the history of professional sports in Phil Jackson, while the Celtics are led by Glenn “Doc” Rivers, a solid NBA player for years who suffered through a number of poor seasons on the bench before finding the right combination, both on and off the court.

Jackson is unique when it comes to the world of professional sports. His nickname, “The Zen Master” says it all. Jackson is not a hands-on game coach. When other coaches might call a timeout, Jackson will let his team work through problems. He seldom rises from his courtside seat and even his assistant coaches seem to be calmer than most. He does the heavy lifting during practice and treats his players as individuals, going so far as to provide reading materials that have nothing to do with basketball to players as they prepare for the season.

On the other end of the spectrum is the Celtics’ coach. Rivers is an excitable sort and no stranger to running down the court to call a timeout or to get a player’s attention in a particularly stressful moment. He’s open to trying new rotations, sets, and substitution patterns until he finds the right combination. When he was an inexperienced coach he looked lost and the team followed suit but with a group of mature assistant coaches as well as veteran players, Rivers has grown exponentially.

The two fine head coaches in this series epitomize different styles of management but also share traits that have helped make them successful. Their games styles are different and they treat their players differently. But both coaches also share a respect for their players and the game that is their most important quality and use the strengths of their personalities as a means to an end.

BP CEO Tony Hayward is in hot water.

The BP oil spill has dominated the news for quite some time. The disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico had devastating effects, and in these next few weeks and months, all eyes are on BP to see how they’ll handle their massive…well, spill.

So far, proclaiming that you want your life back, like BP CEO Tony Hayward said in a statement last Wednesday, is not a good way to start to save face. He has since apologized for that comment, however.

BP definitely faces an uncertain future due to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. But BP also has two additional challenges to face: before the spill even happened, the company had a reputation for not-so-safe safety practices, and more than any other oil company, BP still wants to operate in the Gulf of Mexico.

Since the ’90s, BP has mainly been invested in deepwater oil strategies that, while risky, amassed some 500 leases in the gulf through US government auctions — more than any other oil company.

How badly will the oil spill effect BP’s already tarnished reputation? If governments in the US stop giving BP leases, the company’s leading position in oil and gas is at risk. And as Bloomberg Businessweek pointed out, what politician wants to be responsible for giving BP a lease?

Business coaches: this is a tricky situation, but would you have any ideas on where to start with BP if they were your client? How can they rebuild their reputation?

Starbucks is maximizing its sales by selling Seattle's Best.

This fall, Seattle’s Best Coffee—a former competitor Starbucks acquired seven years ago—will be sold in about 30,000 fast-food outlets, supermarkets and coffee houses, the company said. Currently, Seattle’s Best coffee and coffee beans are sold in Seattle’s Best’s own shops inside nearly 500 Borders bookstores, in about 2,500 supermarkets, and Burger King, Subway and AMC movie theaters sell the coffee brand, too.

Starbucks is also eventually looking to sell the Seattle’s Best brand in convenience stores, vending machines, mobile trucks, coffee carts and drive-through kiosks.

Why the big push for Seattle’s Best everywhere instead of Starbucks? This move is made to take out McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts, who have specialty coffees and espresso-based drinks for lower prices than Starbucks. Especially during the recession, Starbucks suffered a decline in sales.

Can this tactic work for other companies in other industries? In business coaching, thinking outside the box is key, and coming up with fresh ways to market your product or maximize profits is necessary. Can business coaches use this Starbucks/Seattle’s Best example to help other companies?

Brad Sugars gave 1,600 books to the Read 'n Recover program.

Something that seems small, like a few books, can have a great effect on people. For example, Brad Sugars donated 250 bikes for local radio station KLUC’s bike drive last Christmas. Sugars’ donation brought the number just past the 1,400 bike mark, inching the station closer to its goal of 1,500 bikes.

Sugars also donated books to hospitals all across Australia for sick children as part of the Read ‘n Recover program. But he didn’t just donate a few books — he donated 1,600 books.

During Christmas last year, he posted on his Facebook page that he wanted to grant Christmas wishes .  He asked his friends to post on his wall what they wanted for Christmas, and he’d pick a few wishes to make come true.

Jenny White saw that post. White’s son had just been released from the hospital where he was being treated for bouts of pneumonia. Books kept him going through the many nights in hospital, and White found that many hospitals had very “used” books or no books at all.

White asked if Sugars might consider donating 100 books to 10 hospitals in Sydney. He not only granted that wish, but took it a step further…he donated 1,600 books for 100 hospitals all across Australia.

Check out WhiteNow.com for more information about the Read ‘n Recover initiative.

Can MySpace make a comeback?

MySpace has been considered dead for a while now among the social media-savvy. But could MySpace make a comeback?

Five years ago, News Corp. acquired MySpace for $580 million…and then the losses came. Although MySpace Music is listed as the number one music site from comScore, it’s had a steady decrease in popularity since News Corp. has owned the site.

News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said, “We’ve got to admit that during the last two or three years, I think we made some big mistakes. But we’ve got fine new management now; they’ve started to introducing new features. There’ll be a lot of changes coming through the summer. The early indications—and they’re only early indications—are we’re getting more visitors and they’re staying longer. When that gets more substantial, we’ll get more advertising.”

News Corp. has also called MySpace a “work in progress,” as it plays with its number one music platform ranking to try to get back on top of the social media scene, and plans to roll out a number of enhancements to the site in the next few sites.

What do you think? Can MySpace regain its status in the social media site scene?

Well, if only it could be that easy. But Brad Sugars can teach you how to learn, think and act rich…which will help you one day be rich.

Sugars is the founder and chairman of ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business coaching company. He’s also a successful author and entrepreneur, and became financially retired at the age of 26. With a track record of that kind of success, it’s probably a good indicator that his advice about how to become rich is, well, good advice.

Want to know how he did it? Sign up for his Entrepreneur’s MasterClass and find out. The MasterClass is a three-day intensive course held in Las Vegas taught by Sugars himself. Attendees learn secrets for financial freedom and business success straight from his mouth.

Interested? Who isn’t interested in making their business more successful, or inching closer to financial freedom? Watch the above promo for the class to see more, or click here to register.

By now you may have seen the headlines: “Did Porn Cause the Financial Crisis?” And if you’ve read any articles about it, you’ll know that no, it’s not a joke. It seems that when senior staffers at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were supposed to be managing the financial system, they were downloading tons of porn, which played a part in the downfall of the U.S. economy.

Come on, guys. Really?

Read the full article here.

Just goes to show that when you think you’re on top of your game and can slack off, you really might not be…business coaching keeps everyone accountable!