Business Coaching

Shama Kabani started her own company.

College grads or young people with jobs have been the first let go in this economy in most cases, and those who are on the hunt for a job are out of luck even with service industry jobs.

But the positive spin – some young people did something about their rejection and tough job markets.

They simply started their own business.

Shama Kabani is just one person who, when she wasn’t hired at big consulting firms like McKinsey and Bain & Co., decided to venture out on her own.

While completing her master’s degree in organizational communication at the University of Texas at Austin, Kabani wrote her thesis on Twitter and other social networking sites and their benefit.

She became convinced businesses could use the tools to market their products and services. But when she applied for jobs and gave interviewers that pitch, she was rejected.

Nobody really cared for social media at that point in time.

But Kabani believed she was on to something, and founded her own full-service online marketing firm in March 2008, called Click To Client.

It provided several Web and social media services to clients, like building Web sites, managing SEO, and creating and managing social media campaigns.

The six-employee business now takes on about 25 one-off projects a month and acts as an online marketing department for six regular clients on a retainer basis.

Kabani said Click To Client had about $120,000 in revenue in 2008, and she expects $280,000 for 2009, and is shooting for $1 million in 2010.

If she can do it, why can’t you? Why can’t anyone? Especially with the help of an ActionCOACH Business Coach.

ActionCOACH Business Coach David Drewelow knows what he’s talking about when it comes to the recession. He’s managed to coach Marion Mixers’ president, Doug Grunder, through the recession, and instead of downsizing the company, Grunder managed to stay afloat without having to lay off any employees. Instead, Drewelow managed to help Grunder turn the recession into an advantage for his company.

Marion Mixers manufactures horizontal mixing and blending equipment, supplying equipment in the food, plastic, chemicals, minerals and recycling industries.

Grunder bought into Marion Mixers in 1995 with several other investors. About a year ago, those investor agreed the best long-term strategy in the down economy was to reinvest any revenue back into the company. But after attending Drewelow’s ProfitCLUB, Grunder decided to work one-on-one with a business coach to get the information he needed specific to his business.

Drewelow broke that one-year plan into 90-day increments for Grunder, and in addition to dealing with day-to-day issues, together they work out what needs to be done on the plan over the next two weeks and what tools Grunder may need to assist him.

Curious as to how Marion Mixers made it through the recession with Drewelow’s help? Read the full article in Edge Business Magazine here.

Is your business healthy enough to survive, recession or no recession? Take our Business Health Check to find out. Or, if you want to give coaching businesses a try, see if you qualify here.

There are lots of correlations that usually don’t mean anything, but several economists swear they really can correlate trends with the financial market just by following trends of one thing: women’s skirt hemlines.

Yes…by checking out the type of skirts that are the big trends – minis, ankle-length or knee – apparently, this is a predictor of how the economy is at the moment and where it’s headed.

And most people in business and finance think fashion isn’t useful! Tsk, tsk.

Think about it: the stock market’s crash of 1929 was a defining moment for the economy and skirt heights; both  plummeted, with hemlines below mid-calf.

A decade later, on the eve of the World War II, the U.S. economy entered an 80-month expansion which lasted through February 1945, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. During this time, knee-length skirts became ubiquitous, though the trend had more to do with conserving fabric for the war effort than with the economy. But by the ’60s, miniskirts were in full swing…and so was the economy.

Remember what women were wearing right before the housing market crash from fall 2007 to about 2009? Floor-length maxi dresses were the huge trend in dresses. Seriously…this market-predicting trend is uncanny.

Do you have any “superstitious” correlations you use when it comes to business or the economy? Even ActionCOACH founder and chairman Brad Sugars has one: when Warren Buffet starts selling, watch out! The economy is on its way down. When Buffet starts buying, “spring” is around the corner.

China has seen economic results from putting money in state-owned businesses.

China’s leaders during the financial crisis have reaffirmed their faith in their own more statist approach to economic management, in which private capitalism plays only a supporting role.

The New York Times reports that the Chinese government has grown richer — and more worried about sustaining its high-octane growth — and therefore, it has pumped public money into companies that it expects to upgrade the industrial base and employ more people. The beneficiaries are state-owned interests that many analysts had assumed would gradually wither away in the face of private-sector competition.

The distinction may matter more today than it once did. China surpassed Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy this year, and its state-directed development model is appealing to poor countries.

Would this strategy work with the US? Investing in state-owned companies, to see the economy skyrocket, just like China?

Wal-Mart might be raising the low prices it's known for.

When people think of Wal-Mart, they think a lot of things, not all of them good. But one of the first associations people have with Wal-Mart is low prices.

Since its inception, Wal-Mart has been the ultimate discount business. They’ve leveraged their huge size and corporate power into low prices that they’ve passed on to customers, often at the expense of local businesses.

But it seems that Wal-Mart’s model is quietly, but quickly, changing. This summer, over just the last six weeks, Wal-Mart has raised its prices an average of 6%. Some of that can be attributed to the increase in the price of raw materials and oil, but the increase in prices seems to go farther than overhead costs.

Inflation may play a factor as the items that Wal-Mart is best known for, food and low-priced goods may be in an inflationary pocket, while bigger ticket items like electronics and furniture are in a deflationary mode.

Again, this may have led to the price increase to a certain extent, but a bigger factor may be a shift in Wal-Mart’s leadership. Over the last few months some in leadership positions, including the Chief Merchant for Wal-Mart’s U.S. Division, have stepped down.

Since the new guard has taken over, prices have gone up, while prices at virtually all of Wal-Mart’s competitors have stayed the same or, in some cases, even gone down.

Despite the price shift, Wal-Mart is still far more cost-effective than most supermarkets for consumers. But that advantage is fading. In June Wal-Mart was about 16% cheaper than the average supermarket, while today Wal-Mart is just over 10% cheaper.

This should be good news for small businesses that compete with Wal-Mart for customers. Like with any discount business, once Wal-Mart’s prices are no longer cheaper, they’ve lost their advantage.

Why do people shop at Wal-Mart? It isn’t convenience or customer service, it’s the price.

What can your business do to alleviate that price advantage and win customers back from Wal-Mart?

This past year has been rough on small businesses.

Recently, it seemed like economically, things might be looking up for small business…but we may have spoken too soon.

It’s no secret that times are tough for small businesses but the semi- annual mid-year economic report from the National Small Business Association released at the end of July show just how difficult this year has been.

The report, which surveyed 400 small business owners in varying fields found that only 11% have hired workers in the past year, 25% have cut jobs and 41% say they are unable to secure adequate financing.

These numbers are obviously not very promising for our economy when it comes to job creation. It takes a 5% increase in GDP to create enough jobs to lower unemployment by just one percentage point.

“Given the direct correlation between access to capital and job growth, unless small-business owners are able to secure financing, we will continue to see high unemployment,” Todd McCracken, President of the NSBA said.

Other numbers were equally bleak. Almost three quarters of respondents said economic uncertainty was their top concern, up from 64% in December. Almost half, 44% don’t expect any growth opportunities in the coming year and 45% believe the economy is worse now than it was a year ago. Just 59% of those who responded felt confident about the future of their business, down from 61% in December.

But all was not bad — only 25% predicted decreases in revenue for the next 12 months, down from 31% in December. There were also more businesses reporting higher revenue since the last survey in December, 26% this month, compared with 22% at the end of last year.

To view the National Small Business Association survey, click here: http://nsba.biz/

Do you see these numbers reflected in your business? Are things turning for the better or are we headed for a double-dip recession? Tell us what you think.

The economy could nurture small business to success, believe it or not.

Has anyone else noticed that the recession has tilted the playing field in favor of small businesses?

We now live in an era where heavyweights like JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Wal-Mart, and the New York Times still dominate, but can be eclipsed in certain ways by small operations and wind up the follower rather than the leader.

Significant parts of the economy are vulnerable to an ever-growing flock of so-called little guys with more influence than ever before, thanks to a transforming technological and economic landscape that is leveling the playing field.

Small business boutique firms like Evercore, Rothschild, and Perella Weinberg ranked alongside JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs in mergers and acquisitions. In banking, the FDIC  is looking at more small banks versus large ones. These changes reflect a changing economic landscape that increasingly favors the little guy.

This new “little guy” economy is a world where value trumps revenue, and where business owners really have to figure out what the customer wants. Businesses need to be more flexible, and small businesses usually have more leeway to do so because they’re not answering to several higher-ups within a corporation.

This is a great time to figure out where small businesses need to strengthen and what strategies they should use going forward. The easiest way to figure this out in the short-term? A free business coaching session. This way, a business coach can give you strategies to improve not only in the short-term, but also in the long-term.

Think this new “little guy” economy could last for a while? What are your thoughts about this “new” economy and its effects on small businesses?

If you think franchising can only leverage and optimize revenue and profit for you, think again. It can also help boost jobs in the U.S., according to an article by Jane Applegate, the president and CEO of The Applegate Group.

Applegate tells the story of Jeff Haas, who bought a CertaPro painting franchise last year. The former Chrysler exec who resigned instead of waiting to be downsized, bought the franchise by tapping into his retirement savings at a time when the stock market was hammering his portfolio.

Rather than go it alone, he agreed to let the former owner stay on to work as an outside sales rep. It was a good move for both of them: the former owner now focuses on bringing in new business, while Haas manages the day-to-day operations and supervises the painting crews. Haas has 30 employees, including his wife, Gwen, handles customer service, sets up appointments and offers interior decorating and color consultations.

All in all, buying a franchise turned out to be a good thing for the Haases, and while it does take dedication, a successful franchise can ultimately help the economy, because it’s creating new jobs.

People who buy franchises are among those creating new American jobs—about 36,000 this year, according to the International Franchise Association. The trade association, which represents about 1,250 franchise companies and 10,000 individual franchises, recently reported that new job growth this year contrasts with the loss of 400,000 franchise jobs in 2009.

Read the full article here. Do you agree that franchising might be a good way to increase job growth in a still-shaky economy?

John Voigtmann went from record exec to hotel owner and renovator.

The global economic crisis that the Western World has experienced over the last few years has forced entrepreneurs and business owners to take advantage of opportunities and challenges that they might not have considered in better times. In an increasingly shrinking world, the challenges one might experience from nation to nation can differ based on cultural mores, but more and more, business tends to be a universal language, easily translatable if one is willing to take the time to learn.

A great example of this is in the latest Bloomberg Business Week. It’s the story of John Voigtmann, a former VP of International Marketing at Sony Records, who left his position to begin a fulfilling career as the owner of boutique hotel in Tuscany. The eight-bedroom hotel opened in May 2007 following years of legal wrangling with local authorities over topics such as whether a pool would be allowed and whether the pig house could be repurposed. Happily for Voigtmann, both issues were solved and a stay in the “Pig Sty Suite” can cost more than $500 a night. While his experiences in international marketing for Sony certainly helped, Voigtmann also showed a respect for the culture around him as well as a willingness to adapt.

The key for Voigtmann was, in general, not to sweat the small stuff. “There are millions of laws in Italy. You can’t follow all of them,” he told BusinessWeek, “So separate the ones you actually go to jail for and follow those.”

While this may seem obvious, it also offers some insight for business owners who might be attempting a new venture or a move to a different environment. If one understands the landscape around them and how to navigate it, success may certainly follow.

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?