Escaping the owners trap

The Owner’s Trap

The challenge: Most business owners are not free at all. They are trapped by their business because…

• The owner has the most industry knowledge;

• Customers want to talk to the owner;

• The owner wants to please customers, so says “yes” to too many customer requests;

• The owner’s employees do not have the same level of industry experience as the owner, so cannot deliver what the owner promises customers;

• The owner gets involved in delivering what the customer has asked for;

• The customer is happy and buys more from the owner to repeat the cycle.

Signs You’re in The Owner’s Trap

This phenomenon is called “The Owner’s Trap.” The signs that you’ve fallen into this common trap are:

• Business slows when you take a vacation;

• Customers come to you with problems;

• Your growth has reached a plateau.

Businesses stuck in the owner’s trap are stressful to run, but that’s not the only problem. They’re also worthless because nobody is going to buy a company that is dependent on its owner

Free yourself from The Owner’s Trap by building a sellable business

Freeing yourself from The Owner’s Trap means building a sellable company; not necessarily because you want to sell, but because creating a sellable company gives you choice and freedom:

• A sellable company can be scaled up beyond you…

• You can choose to promote yourself to the chairman’s seat and let your employees run the company day to day…

• You can pass it on to your kids or young managers with confidence…

• You can sell it, giving you the ultimate in financial freedom.  

Think of a sellable company as the ultimate poker hand that gives you the very best choices.

So If Sellability = Freedom Wouldn't you like to know just how sellable your business is?

The Sellability Score is a free online assessment that measures the Sellability of your company. Once you have answered the questionnaire, you will immediately get your Sellability Score out of 100 in real time – while you’re on our website. It’s free and the results are confidential.    Get your score here

Download PDF here

THE ESSENTIAL WEBSITE CHECKLIST

Your website is the foundation of your digital marketing strategy.  It’s the first thing you need to set up when you embark on marketing your business on the internet.

 Our checklist will help you ensure that your website is not just about pretty pictures but also about functionality that you need to put in place in order to use your website to grow your business.

Blog Post Content by: Cantaloupe Digital

1. Newsletter signup along with a plan to send regular newsletters
2. A blog to which you contribute meaningful and relevant articles to at regular intervals
3. Social Media share functionality make it as easy as possible for people to share your content
4. Your contact details. It should be as convenient as possible to contact your company
5. Decent content which you keep updated as your company grows / changes
6. Links to your Social Media pages, yes unless you’re an undertaker or someone else with a brand that is not really social (though you are welcome to prove me wrong!), you most probably do need a  social media page.  This is also a good strategy to dominate the first page of Google search results for your brand
7. If you can measure it you can manage it! Put Google Analytics tracking on your website and check these reports regularly. Even better use the Goal Conversion tracking in Analytics.  Together this will give you a good indication of your marketing efforts working to drive traffic to your website and if prospective clients convert to an enquiry once they are on your website.  Also make use of the Google Webmaster tools and be sure to submit a sitemap in here.
8. Do Basic SEO on your website (Title, Description, and Keywords, use the Header tag functionality.  This is similar to the functionality you get in Microsoft Word to format a document)
9. Ensure it works on mobile devices – browsing from mobile devices is growing on a daily basis.  Give your site visitors the best experience possible from desktop and mobile devices.  One strategy is to have separate websites for desktop and for mobile (mobi site) but this means you have to maintain two websites (and do SEO for both).  Consider a responsive website for your website. This is a website that works optimally on both desktop and mobile devices.
10. It needs to be fast - people are impatient and they wont wait around for your website to open.  If they wait more than 3 seconds they’ll leave.
11. Do regular backups – check that your website hosting company backs up your website on a regular (daily) basis and have a backup plan of your own in case their’s fails.
12. Put internal links on the pages on your website to better assist Google index all the pages on your website and assist site visitors to navigate your site

Want to learn more? attend our Free Digital Marketing Seminar

Register now for our Free Digital Marketing Webinar

Blog Post Content by: Cantaloupe Digital

FOUR WAYS YOU CAN USE EVERYDAY EMAIL TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS

We can all agree that email is the most prolific business tool of our time.  Here are a few good reasons why you should consider everyday email to be a marketing channel:

85% of all business correspondence occurs via email. Let’s expand on this….

• In an average company 13200 emails are sent per person per year. This is time spent communicating with clients, prospects, consumers, suppliers, etc.
• 500 hours per year are spent by staff sending and receiving email. This is time spent communicating not marketing.
• In addition the open rate on everyday email is 99% – the highest of all marketing channels.  This is because people place higher priority on direct email communications, ensuring superior deliverability of your marketing message.

Transform your everyday email into a marketing tool by branding every mail that you and the staff in your company send out.

Want to learn more? attend our Free Digital Marketing Seminar
Register now for Free Webinar

Blog Post Content by: Cantaloupe Digital

Email branding refers to banners specifically designed to be used at the top of all your emails. It also applies to your email signature and any banners in the footer area of your email.

This article shows four ways you can use email branding as a marketing tool in your business. You are able to insert banners and email signatures into your emails by using your email programme’s built-in stationery or signature functionality. See our related blog post – Practical guidelines for email signatures.
It also introduces how a brand management system offers extra features and benefits over inserting the branding manually ultimately giving you the edge.

 1. EMAIL BRANDING AS A TRAFFIC DRIVER

Aside from the obvious choice of linking the banner to your homepage, it can also link to specific product or service landing pages on your website drawing attention, creating awareness, and driving traffic by click-throughs.

2. EMAIL BRANDING TO BOOST SALES

Email banners can be part of your new product or service launch. Display special offers that link through to landing pages.

3. EMAIL BRANDING TO SOURCE NEW TALENT

Link to your careers page on your website, more specifically you can link to job categories. Announce that you will advertise jobs on your social pages and that people should follow you to see as soon as a new job becomes available.

4. EMAIL BRANDING HELPS EXPAND YOUR SOCIAL NETWORKS

Put links to your social pages in your email branding. Explain why people should follow you on these social platforms.

These are four ideas for branding your email that you can do manually if you have a few design and html skills.  There are many more ideas such as creating a banner that links to surveys such as a Customer Satisfaction Index; product research polls and so on.

To really give you the edge though here are few reasons to use an email branding tool:

• Setting stationery and signatures up manually is ok if you have a small number of staff but as you grow it is better to control your branding and signature details from a branding tool.  This will make it easier to launch new campaigns as the banners and signatures can be changed from a central place instead of manually at each user’s computer.
• Receive click notifications each time someone clicks on a banner.
• Benefit from one of the major benefits of digital marketing – the ability to measure all your activities.  With a branding system you will get reports which give feedback and enable more intelligent decision making around future marketing campaigns.

Blog Post Content by: Cantaloupe Digitall

Want to learn more? attend our Free Digital Marketing Seminar

Register now for Free Webinar

Freedom Manifesto - It is time to take up the battle!

The Freedom Manifesto

You started your business for the freedom to do what you want when you want. The freedom to live anywhere, indulge your passions and wear flip-flops to work if you feel like it—all the while making as much money as you deserve without artificial pay grades holding you back. 

The problem is, somehow, running your company is starting to feel gruelling. Your vacations are sparse and too short because customers expect you to be there. Dealing with employee hassles and busywork sucks up most of your day. You feel guilty for not being at work and even guiltier for being at work when you should be home. The fun is gone. It now feels like work…Read More

It’s time to get your life back.

Remember my purpose with this series is to provide you with strategies, techniques, warnings and advice on how to turn your company into a more valuable asset, one you could sell – when you’re ready. The following parts are designed to help you increase your companies Value!

• Part 1: Picking your Number
• Part 2: Creating a business that runs while you sleep
• Part 3: Getting your people to care as much as you do

Sell when you are ready

Remember the aim here is to create a business that gives you the freedom to sell when you are ready. Part 1–3 focused on building the value and making your business more “sellable”. Parts 4-6 will ensure that you get the best price. download here

 Part 4: Creating a bidding war

 Part 5: Negotiating a price

 Part 6: Avoiding deal killer mistakes

Conclusion

It is time to take up the battle.

“Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” - Winston Churchill

Now that you have the basics covered the next step would be to either update or create your 2015 plan aimed at improving your business value by more than 70%. I have combined Parts 1-6 to help you review and build your plan that you can download here

To assist you in doing so I have summarised the 8 factors that form the foundation for building a more valuable business that includes a link to our scalability survey that performs a free analysis and valuation of your business. Read my blog post named;

Want to Improve your Business Value in 2015? Start Now!

Join the fight for freedom. Keep in touch and let me know how you’re doing!

Freedom Manifesto - Part 3: Getting your people to care as much as you do

The Freedom Manifesto

You started your business for the freedom to do what you want when you want. The freedom to live anywhere, indulge your passions and wear flip-flops to work if you feel like it—all the while making as much money as you deserve without artificial pay grades holding you back. 

The problem is, somehow, running your company is starting to feel gruelling. Your vacations are sparse and too short because customers expect you to be there. Dealing with employee hassles and busywork sucks up most of your day. You feel guilty for not being at work and even guiltier for being at work when you should be home. The fun is gone. It now feels like work…Read More

It’s time to get your life back.

Remember my purpose with this series is to provide you with strategies, techniques, warnings and advice on how to turn your company into a more valuable asset, one you could sell – when you’re ready. The following parts are designed to help you increase your companies Value!

 Part 1; picking your Number

In the absence of an objective measurement for “remarkable” or “independence,” your number can act as a goal to let you know when you've crossed whatever finish line you’re striving for.

Look at your number and ask yourself a series of questions:

• Where do you stand right now? Is my business more valuable than it was last quarter? Last year?
• What do you have to do in the next 90 days to make your business more valuable? This question will help you prioritize important but not necessarily urgent initiatives (thank you, Stephen Covey).

It all starts with a number…Read More

Part 2; Creating a business that runs while you sleep

Stop selling your product; start selling your company. Productize your business. Be predictable but not boring!
Productize your business

Whether selling something tangible or just selling time, most small businesses are service companies at their core. To make your service business sellable, you need to “productize” your business

Be predictable but not boring

There are five ways to make sure your company doesn't become boring on the journey to becoming valuable…Read More

Part 3; Getting your people to care as much as you do

Bulletproof your culture

Is your company’s culture at the core of what makes your business valuable? There are three steps for creating a durable company culture… Read More

Then, don't forget to reserve your FREE seat for The Freedom Seminar on the 13th January '15, an interactive, sleeves-rolled-up session, dedicated to getting your life back and gaining the freedom you deserve as a business owner.

Freedom Seminar

Source: John Warrillow the creator of The Value Builder System™. He is also the author of The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry and Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You. Full bio

Freedom Manifesto - Part 2: Creating a business than runs while you sleep

It’s time to get your life back.

Remember my purpose with this series is to provide you with strategies, techniques, warnings and advice on how to turn your company into a more valuable asset, one you could sell – when you’re ready. As discussed in The Freedom Manifesto and then the subsequent objective for Part 1; Picking your Number

So let’s just quickly recap and ensure we all took the same message from part 1: Picking your number.

In part 1 you wrote down your number. Your number is the price you would accept if someone walked into your company tomorrow wanting to buy it. Most of us start businesses because we want to achieve something remarkable or out of a deeply rooted need for independence.

In the absence of an objective measurement for “remarkable” or “independence,” your number can act as a goal to let you know when you've crossed whatever finish line you’re striving for.

Look at your number and ask yourself a series of questions:

1.       Where do you stand right now? Is my business more valuable than it was last quarter? Last year?

2.       What do you have to do in the next 90 days to make your business more valuable? This question will help you prioritize important but not necessarily urgent initiatives (thank you, Stephen Covey).

It all starts with a number. Have you written yours down yet? Great, now let’s get to part 2!

Part 2: Creating a business than runs while you sleep!

Stop selling your product; start selling your company. Productize your business. Be predictable but not boring!

…He then explained that entrepreneurs add the most value when they design and start their business; the return on their time invested starts to go down rapidly as the business gets going. The entrepreneurs who earn the best return on their investment of money, time and energy are the ones who Read more

Don't forget to reserve your FREE seat for The Freedom Seminar on the 13th January '15, an interactive, sleeves-rolled-up session, dedicated to getting your life back and gaining the freedom you deserve as a business owner.

Freedom Seminar Information 

Source: John Warrillow is the founder of The Sellability Score, a cloud-based assessment tool business owners use to assess the "sellability" of their company.

Freedom Manifesto

The fun is gone. It now feels like work.

You started your business for the freedom to do what you want when you want. The freedom to live anywhere, indulge your passions and wear flip-flops to work if you feel like it—all the while making as much money as you deserve without artificial pay grades holding you back. 

The problem is, somehow, running your company is starting to feel gruelling. Your vacations are sparse and too short because customers expect you to be there. Dealing with employee hassles and busywork sucks up most of your day. You feel guilty for not being at work and even guiltier for being at work when you should be home. The fun is gone. It now feels like work.

It’s time to get your life back.

My purpose here is to provide you with strategies, techniques, warnings and advice on how to turn your company into a more valuable asset, one you could sell – when you’re ready.

If you build it right, you can run your company knowing you’re sitting on a valuable asset, cherry-pick the projects you get involved in, take great vacations and, when the time comes, sell it for a premium.

Over the next two weeks I will share valuable information you can use to make your business more valuable and gain more freedom in the process.

Over the next 7 mails, I’m going to show you a step-by-step process for turning your business into a sellable company and ultimately, if ready, how to sell it for more. These insights are based on hundreds of interviews with business owners that increased their nosiness value.

What you won’t get

I won’t spend a lot of time talking about how to start a business. There are plenty of good resources already out there for newbies and wannabes. I assume you have a business, customers, receivables, rent and all the other unglamorous stuff that goes along with having created a real business. If you’d like to turn your existing business into a valuable company, you’re in the right spot.

So, are you ready to build a more valuable business? 

Below is the link to the first part:

Part 1: Pick a Number

Don't forget to reserve your FREE seat for The Freedom Seminar on the 13th January '15, an interactive, sleeves-rolled-up session, dedicated to getting your life back and gaining the freedom you deserve as a business owner.

Freedom Seminar Information 

Source: John Warrillow is the founder of The Sellability Score, a cloud-based assessment tool business owners use to assess the "sellability" of their company.