Planning for success

“People commit to what they help create”

This back to school time of year also marks a fresh start for many of us in business. It’s a time of planning and focusing on the future

As someone from the non-profit sector, and even within my business, I have tended to use a SWOT analysis to determine future plans.  SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.  This strategic planning exercise is one commonly used by organizations and has its place in the planning of your business, organization and even your life.

However, at a recent conference I learned more about another strategic planning tool that excited me.  It’s acronym is SOAR – strengths, opportunities, aspirations and results.

What appealed to me is the focus on the positive.  While yes you do need to look at what could hold you back from achieving your goals, with SOAR the focus is on the future, while SWOT can leave you stuck, particularly if the weaknesses and threats seem overwhelming.

The presenter also advised that while SWOT tended to be a top-down approach, the SOAR process was inclusive, involving everyone, including members and clients.  As he shared, people commit to what they help create.  The advantages of SOAR is it draws on the energy and creativity of the participants, and fosters ownership in the outcome.

“You are starting from a different mindset.” he observed, and went on to suggest several questions to ask when going through this particular process:

• ·      What are the root causes of our success?
• ·      What key achievements are we most proud of?
• ·      What positive aspects of service have others commented on?
• ·      What are we known for?
• ·      What makes us unique?
• ·      What key resources and areas of expertise give us an advantage?

As you will see they are all forward-thinking, positive questions, helping you to look to the future and to build on your strengths.

While the presentation was aimed at non-profit organizations, I see great merit in using these questions to help you determine what you want to achieve moving forward in your business.  The terminology is just different, for example we’d talk more about brand recognition and unique value proposition, but bottom line whether you are running a charity or a business, we all want our endeavours to be financially successful and meet the needs of our clients.

So as you plan where you want to take your business next, consider using this technique – you may even want to involve key customers and members of your team in the process.

Getting to know you...

Recently I had the amazing experience of taking part in an environmental photo shoot.  Now I just thought I was getting head shots done for an article being written about me, but no.  I had the pleasure of spending over two hours with the photographer and his team.

So what’s an environmental shoot, you may ask?   I had to look it up,  I confess.  Basically the photographer spends time seeing you in action, getting a sense of what you do, and through all that, what you are like.

I had to pretend I was presenting to a small group of women who were gathered together as my “props”  then converse with just two women and finally, what I had been expecting, the head shots.  

As I reflect on this process it strikes me that as small business owners, it works best when we do an “environmental shoot” too.   What do I mean?  When we spend time getting to know our prospective client, visiting them in their office or plant, we get to see them in action on their home turf.  It gives us a better perspective on who they are, what they will want and more to the point, how they like to be pitched.

All of which makes it much easier for us to present and close the sale.  Yes, it is an investment in time.  So was my photo shoot, but I bet you those photos will rock because after two hours, he has likely captured my essence.   And you can do the same with your customers.

Take time to celebrate

With our 10^th birthday coming up at Company of Women  my focus of late has been on parties and celebrations!

It therefore seemed appropriate to me that we talk about celebrations at our recent breakfast meeting. So as a way to get the meeting off to a positive start,  I had the women each share something they had to celebrate as they introduced themselves.

It was fascinating. 

The celebrations ranged from personal successes like surviving heart surgery, a new grandchild or getting married, to those of a more business nature – like finishing school, finding direction and physically opening a business after four years of persistently trying to make it happen. 

Each success was important in the life of the person and each marked a transition, a life changing moment.

As I sat and listened, it caused me to marvel at our resilience and determination to make life work for us.  For some it is hard work, digging through the dirt and baggage from the past, and yet they do it. In fact, not only do they do it, but they do it well, arising from the ashes as someone with wisdom to share to help others.

I applaud the courage and fortitude it takes to poke around at stuff we would rather keep a lid on, yet intuitively we know that we can’t move forward until the can is open, and the contents dissected.

How often do we reflect on what we have in our lives to celebrate?  Not enough.  This conversation got our meeting off to such a deeper, more meaningful start and we left seeing each other from a different perspective.  In fact, we’ve decided as a group to continue the dialogue.

I remember one year at our conference we had a discussion about celebrations, and the facilitator chuckled as she shared with me that one young woman, a lawyer from Bay Street, looked absolutely puzzled and horrified at the thought of celebrations in the office.  It was a completely foreign concept for her. How sad.

Life can pass us by so quickly and if we don’t take the moment to “count our blessings” to say thank you, to share our successes with one another, we’ve lost that opportunity to be grateful for what we have, who we are or how far we have come.   All too often we focus on the negative, and as they say, like attracts like, so you really don’t want to go there.

Let me ask you, what do you have to celebrate?  Tell someone.  You might be surprised at how that changes the conversation.

Collaboration vs. Competition

When I worked as a community developer, much of my job was to bring agencies and organizations together to look at combined efforts to resolve community issues.

Much of the time it worked, because while there were sometimes funding or territorial issues, most non-profit organizations shared the same values and tended to look at what was best for the client, rather than getting into who “owned” the client.  Our focus was to take a holistic approach to the family and their problems.

It isn’t quite that simple in the private sector as business owners are always looking at the bottom line and there is an element of WIFM (what is in it for me).  Certainly it needs to be a win-win situation for all the parties involved, but when you take an abundance approach and try to work together, the end result is far-reaching.

I’ve always believed in the value of collaboration because when you pool efforts and talents, you can both be successful, and more to the point, the client benefits.

But it is not always that easy, and sometimes I have leapt into partnerships that have backfired down the road because we hadn’t clarified our end goals or how we would achieve them.  Much of the time, in hindsight, we also didn’t share the same values which is crucial to any business relationship.

That’s why I am so excited about Company of Women’s new partnership with Women in Biz Network.  Not only do Leigh Mitchell, Founder of Women in Biz Network and I share the same values, but we are both driven to helping our members succeed.  And while Leigh and I could get a tad carried away in our altruistic efforts, her partner Fay Chappele keeps us grounded and focused on the bottom line. 

By combining our efforts, we will provide even more services and benefits to our now 400+ members but there is also an opportunity for young entrepreneurs to network and meet up with more seasoned business owners.  We can all learn from each other.   

We also bring different skill sets to the partnership, meaning that between the three of us, we can reach further and potentially achieve success much faster, than if we slogged away on our own.  The key is we respect each other and recognize the expertise that each brings to the table.

Now admittedly we are in the “honeymoon” stage but I have a good vibe about this one and with all the lessons I have learned (the hard way) in the past, I am confident it is going to work, and if it works for us, it most definitely will benefit and work for you.

And talking of you, who could you partner up with?  Is there someone in your sector with whom you could cross-promote? Is there the potential of working together?  Perhaps there is a joint project you could work on as you build trust and become comfortable with each other. When you are both targeting the same client group, it can be more fruitful to combine your efforts.

As Helen Keller said “Alone we can do so little, but together we can do so much.”

Kudos to Mompreneurs

I have often compared starting a business with motherhood.  In both instances, you can do all the homework before hand – the classes, the books, talking to others – but nothing really prepares you for the reality.

Truth is when I was pregnant with my first child, I was so focused on getting through childbirth that I didn’t give much thought to life after birth. So having had a busy career, the isolation of being home with a baby had not even crossed my mind.  Likewise when you work from home, you can miss the camaraderie of your peers.

It was that sense of isolation that led me to help start our local family resource centre, and later when I had my consulting practice, launch Company of Women. Bringing women together helps you realize you are not alone and that others feel the same way too – if they are honest and choose to remove the masks of perfection.

And as for the emotional rollercoaster, it is pretty similar too, as you can switch in seconds from excitement and joy to total fear and tears because you believe that you are not up to the job in hand – be it parenting or running a business.

So to throw motherhood and business together and run a business while you are home with your children takes an even greater leap of faith and courage. I am in awe at the organization, energy and determination it must take to juggle both roles – mother and business owner -  successfully.

As I witnessed at the recent blogging session put on by Women in Biz Network, more and more young mothers are doing this. The energy in the room was electric as the women chatted to one another, comparing notes on business and family life.

Take heart, you are the new pioneers, showing that women do have a head for business, and role modeling for your children, especially your daughters, that with determination and persistence, you can carve out a life for yourself and follow your dreams.

I didn’t start my business until I was 50, so I applaud you.  You go girl.

Speaking Out Loud

While I am getting much more comfortable with public speaking, my interview at the Toronto Women’s Bookstore made me more nervous.  Mostly because I didn’t know the questions and therefore couldn’t rehearse my answers.  I’ve never been someone who felt confident speaking off the top of my head.  And then there was the reading out loud – I had to read two or three sections from my book. 

First, which ones do I choose?  And second, and probably more important, I suck at reading out loud. I always went to great lengths to avoid this at school, where there was the expectation that the students in leadership roles (I was one)  would frequently read to the whole assembly.

Well you know what… it was OK.  Actually it was more than OK, it was pretty good.  What I had forgotten is that when you know your topic (which was me and my book), you know the answers.  On reflection there were a couple of things I probably shouldn’t have said – being critical of a well-known entrepreneur – but hey, take a number,  there are many who take pot shots at him.

My thanks to friends who came in to be supportive, especially those who drove in from Oakville.  It was lovely to see some familiar faces and it made the whole event seem like a friendly conversation between friends. Annemarie Shrouder was a charming host who made you feel comfortable and at ease and she seemed to have genuinely liked my book, which helps.

So my advice to those of you facing a demon or taking a risk – just do it.  It is usually worse in your head than in reality.

Learn From My Mistakes

I have been in business for myself for ten years now so you’d think I would learn and not repeat mistakes from the past.

Maybe it is menopause and my short term memory is shot, but yet again, I find myself feeling ripped off and while I am loath to admit it, I am partly to blame.

It actually all boils down to communication, or the lack of it.  Just like with teenagers, you have to ask the right questions and when you don’t, you forge ahead with misinformation and make assumptions - a dangerous way to go.  When you don’t have the full picture of what is involved, you proceed unaware that trouble lurks around the corner.

So what have I learned this time?

1.        When you don’t know, what you don’t know – ask the silly questions, do your homework and have the other person explain in full what is involved in the project and for how much.

2.        Get it in writing, spelling out exactly what will be done and what each component will cost and how the person will be reimbursed, with a payment schedule.

3.        Be specific on what you want, why you want it and how the end product will be used.

4.        Don’t expect other people to resolve problems in the way you would and then you won’t be disappointed.

I guess I am just a lifelong learner.

Time Strapped? Revisit How You Spend Your Time

Like many women there are times when I feel time-strapped to fit everything in.  So I was interested to read an article on how to get an extra hour out of my day.   

There are several culprits that eat away at our time – too many face-to-face meetings when a decision could just be made without the meeting. For the perfectionist, procrastination was another time guzzler, as the strive to make something perfect stopped us starting in the first place. The article also touched on our inability to value and use free time without feeling guilty.  When you own a business, the day is never done and if you work from home, it is even harder to close that door and leave the work behind.  

Certainly in terms of meetings, I get a lot of requests for face-to-face meetings and much as I love to meet with people, I am finding it harder to do and have become stricter about with whom I meet.

One screening tool I have introduced of late is asking people to send me information in writing, so I can determine if it is worth our time getting together or whether we can just talk over the phone. I often then hear nothing and the request fades away.  That’s when I know it is not a win-win situation, but someone trying to sell me something or hook me into something I don’t want to do.

Another point that the article raises is that it is not just the meeting that eats into your schedule, but the time prior to the meeting when you don’t start anything important because you know you will have to leave it unfinished. And then there’s the time afterwards when you have to change gears and switch back to the work on hand. 

I remember years ago being on several committees with one woman who started to evaluate the use of her time.  We nicknamed her “The Terminator” as she would ask questions at the meeting like – Why are we meeting? Do we still need this committee?

And she was right.  Often we get locked into meeting or serving on a committee, because we’ve always done it, not because there is a need.  When the purpose of the meeting/committee has been achieved, maybe it is time to say “Congratulations, we’ve achieved what we set out to do.” and end it there. 

What’s the answer?  The article suggests we take an audit of our time and how we use it. By examining it more closely, we likely will find areas that we can change and curtail and more importantly, they say, reframe how we look at quality time and the value of taking a break.