Is Fear Of Success Holding You Back?

Guest post by Social Wordsmith, Robbi Hess

When I work with clients on their writing projects I find that many of them are held back as much by procrastination as they are by the fear of success. What if they finish that book and have to promote it and themselves? Are they afraid of the "shameless self promotion" that comes with having written a book and having to be the focal point of attention. 

If you find that fears are holding you back from completing a project whether it's writing a book, picking up the phone to make a cold call or taking the steps necessary to propel your business toward

greater growth, here are my tips to help combat those fears:

1. Share your expertise and become a trusted resource in your industry. You can do this by blogging, sharing relevant content on social media and by speaking to industry groups. When you become the go-to person for your expertise, you will easily step out of your comfort zone. 
2. Your conversations shouldn't always resolve around, “what can I sell you today?” You should think about, "who can I serve today.”  This takes the fear of the sale out of your mind because if you believe in what you do and sell it should be easy to think about how your goods or services will help a potential client address a pain point. 
3. Spend time every day to count your blessings. Consider how many clients you have. Count up the contacts you've made. Reach out to current clients and say, "Thank you." Send a follow up thank you note to a prospect and thank them for having given you some of their precious time -- which all business owners know is a precious commodity. A heartfelt thank you can go a long way in helping you, and your business, grow.  

Don't let your fears hold you back from your successes. What are you afraid of? Share your comment below. 

How To Improve Staff Accountability

If you're like many business owners you work with a virtual team. Let's face it, having your staff work from their home offices has been shown to improve productivity and you also save on having to rent office space and potentially increase your utility bills because of the need for more internet bandwidth among other on-site costs. 

Do you have accountability metrics in place for your staff? Prior to bringing on your first employee -

- or even contractor -- you will want to have policies and procedures in place as a way to measure success, hold employees accountable and make certain that client tasks are getting completed. Also, if your staff or contractors aren't clear on your standards how will they know if they’re not meeting them (or if they’re exceeding them!)?

How can you improve -- or set -- standards for accountability? First remember that all behavior starts at the top so you need to set the example you want your staff to follow. Here are other things you can do to hold staff accountable: 

The Power Of One More Item

Guest Post by Robbi Hess, Written Marketing Specialist at All Words Matter 

Some days when you look at your to-do list you might be stricken with analysis paralysis -- the "what should I do first when I have so many things to do?" What happens in many of those instances is that you do... nothing and your list continues to grow. That feeling may also strike when you want to grow your

business or your clientele but aren't sure where to start first.

How can you ward off analysis paralysis? What I tell my clients is that they can invoke the power of one. What that means is:

• Suggest an add on service to a current client -- just one. If they already like product or service A, why not talk to them about investing in product or service B or C. It's one way to enhance your sales path. 

Set 2015 Business Goals

Can you believe that the new year is almost two weeks old already? Wow! 

Before it moves forward any further, take time to evaluate your business and your business plan. Look at 2015 as a way to get an "out with the old, in with the new" mindset. 

Don't toss what worked last year, but do look at what didn't work with a critical eye. In fact, you may want to work with a business or manufacturing consultant -- someone who can look at your processes

with a fresh perspective and help you make 2015 the best year ever.

Before week three of the new year arrives, take time to look at the ways you're monitoring success: 

• Are your goals clearly defined? 
• Are your goals measurable and trackable, ie have you set performance indicators to your goals? 
• Are you using the correct tools and metrics to measure your goals? 
• Are you setting aside time to check in with the goals you've set and make sure you're on track? It's easier to correct course early in the process than to wait until the end of the year and realize that what you were doing wasn't working

If you need help with a course correct, give our office a call!

David Senkfor has 20-plus years of experience as an owner of a gear manufacturing facility in Northeastern Ohio. That experience gave him the opportunity to examine trends and practices that affect the gear industry in specific and the  manufacturing industry in general and allowed him to develop a clear business focus. He uses this manufacturing consultant focus to help companies seek new opportunities for business development, quality improvement and in crafting aggressive strategies to achieve competitive advantage.  No issue is too small to examine for improvement and optimization.

Make Email Communications Effective

Can you remember the last time you picked up the telephone and called a client or a colleague? If you're like most business owners, your communication is done via email or text. 

If you've ever received an email or a text and wondered if there was a "hidden meaning" because, let's face it, it is easy to have a misunderstanding via electronic means because you don't have voice inflection or tone or body language to help you decipher the conversation. 

How can you make certain your emails are delivering the message you want? Here

are my top tips: 
  

1. Be clear. If your email requires a response or an action, make certain that is stated either in the subject line (“Response required” or “Action needed”) or at the end of the message itself (“Awaiting your response.”)
2. "Say" what you mean. Make sure the subject conveys what the message is about. Let the recipient know whether it’s work related (“Information needed on the Jones account”) or personal (“Dinner party at my house Thursday). This makes it easily to search for when the need arises.

Hone Your Collaboration Skills

Post by Robbi Hess, All Words Matter 

How can you help your workforce to become more effective? By becoming an effective collaborator. Just as you likely don't run your business by yourself -- unless you're a solopreneur, but even in that case you may still work with a business coach or contract out some of the tasks at which you are not

an expert.

I believe that collaboration can help you grow your business. Why? Because you're drawing in information and expertise from others and putting them all toward the company's greater overall goal. Here are some of my collaboration tips:

How Healthy Is Your #Manufacturing Workforce?

If you're a business owner, you want to have the "best workforce money can buy."

Whenever I talk to business owners about their operations, we invariably wind up talking about HR issues. The two most common are; 1) how to manage the employees I have and 2) how do I hire good people? It turns out these two apparently diverse concerns are closely related.

How you say? Well, if you hire good people, you don’t have as many HR issues day-to-day." But

David, how do we hire the “right” people that “fit” our company?"

Well, as with most things, it takes a bit of planning. You must take the time to put down on paper the skill set you are looking for along with a very introspective look at your company culture. Do you have a diverse workforce or not? Will it be affected by bringing in a trained individual at a higher wage or will a promotion from within be more accepted? These kinds of questions along with a good job description will give you a good base of check-off items that any candidate will have to meet.

Stress Management Tips For Entrepreneurs

Post by Robbi Hess #WrittenMarketingExpert

As an entrepreneur, stress may be a part of your daily life and business activities. While it may be more stressful to be the captain of your own ship, for many people the rewards are well worth the cost of admission.

If, however, you find the stressors of the day becoming unwieldy here are some tips for managing it:

Is Your #Manufacturing Company A Job Shop?

If you were to ask manufacturers if they are a “job shop," I’d guess a great percentage would say “Yes.” They’d say they work on “jobs” and of course a “shop” is just another name for a facility or factory.

In my mind, a true job shop is one that makes discrete quantities of parts on a purchase order and ships them all to a customer in one shipment. No long-term delivery or commitment requirements. On the other hand, a shop that does have longer term purchase orders with multiple releases and/or formal purchase agreements or contracts is not what I would describe as a job shop.

Let’s go through some of the pros and cons of each so you can clearly see what type of business mix you have and whether it works best for you.
                                   

“Job Shop” (as described above)
         
Pros:

• Lower volume- lower investment in outside processes
• Shorter time to payment as total process/invoice cycle is short
• Lower or no WIP (Work In Process) and finished inventory.

Making The Most Of Conference Attendance

Guest post by Robbi Hess

Is there a conference attendance in your future? If it's local, chances are you have only paid the price of admission. If, however, you have to travel to attend a conference you will likely be paying for airfare and the price of the hotel in addition to the conference attendance fee.

You need to reap the rewards of your time there and here are some tips for doing just that:

• Spend time with the conference brochure before you attend. Get to "know" the speakers and understand the topics they will be presenting at their sessions. Map out which sessions you will attend and what you hope to learn. You might even want to write down some questions to ask the speaker to gain a more thorough understanding of the topic. 
• If there are pre-conference events or post-conference get togethers, make time in your schedule to attend those. Don't hide away in your hotel room before or after the conference sessions. Mingling during the pre- and post- events is the best way to potentially forge a relationship with a speaker or a fellow conference attendee. 
• When you get home from the conference you should blog about your attendance. Share the information learned on your social media pages. Most importantly, you should follow up with those individuals you met -- strike while the iron is hot. 

What are your best conference attendance tips? 

Robbi Hess is The Written Marketing Expert at All Words Matter. She works with clients to take their words, put it into their message and distribute it in places that make sense! If you're struggling with your written marketing content, contact her at robbi@allwordsmatter.com 

Do You Want To Buy My #Manufacturing Company? Valuation Information

From our newsletter archives:

Do you want to buy my company? This is a question, that when I hear it from a business owner what I truly suspect they want to know is... how much will you pay me for my company. The problem is that many owners have only a vague idea of how much their company is worth and will actually get quite upset if you run a number by them that isn’t what they had in mind.

What these owners don’t know is that there are very simple but detailed methods to determine the value of a company. The other fact is that the buyer will most likely be going to a bank for money and they also will be using these methods to value the business. It doesn’t matter that you clean the shop every week or that you just painted the walls. Great job but in the financial world they only look at the books for the initial value. Only after the offer is accepted and the due diligence starts will any weight be given to aesthetics and other subjective matters.

So what are buyers and banks looking for?

Do Something In Your #Manufacturing Business NOW!

In a recent newsletter I wrote about how many business owners are... too busy running their businesses to take time to manage it. The management of your business is critical to its long term

success. You need to know what's going on back at the plant as well as what's going on with your competition. 

Just taking the time to think about what you want from the business is vital if you are to succeed. As they say, "Failure to plan, is planning to fail."

If you find yourself spending so much time running your business that the management of it has fallen by the wayside, give me a call to discuss how we can get you back on track and get your manufacturing operation back to being a smooth, well-oiled machine. 

3 Steps To Achieve Your Business Goals

Guest post by Marketing Writing Expert Robbi Hess

What are your business goals? If someone asked you that, would you be able to give a quick, definitive answer? If your answer is "no" you should take some time right now, today, to sit down and write down your goals. I am a firm believer in the adage, "write it down, make it happen."

Whether you believe that business "success" means you have a healthy balance sheet or if you measure business success by your work/life balance or whatever metric you use, having goals and objectives can help

you achieve success -- whatever that looks like to you.

Can You Grow Your Business Globally?

Guest post by Social Media Manager Robbi Hess

In today's internet-based world. you don't have to do business with people right in your backyard any longer. If, however you want to grow your business, how can you network effectively and efficiently?

Here are my tips on how to make the most of networking opportunities:

1. Attend face-to-face events, but don't shake a few hands, hand out business cards and then hope for
   
   the best. Make a connection. Make an appointment to get together at a later time. Even if you and the connection can't work together, you may both become valuable resource partners. 
2. Network online. The beauty of the internet and its plethora of social networking sites is that you can "meet" people from across the country and across the globe from the comfort of your home. You can make a connection on Facebook or LinkedIn and then have a "face-to-face" via Skype or a Google Hangout. Sometimes it is nice to put a face to a name. 
3. Volunteer. Again, volunteer opportunities can be in person or via the internet. There are many groups that may benefit from your skills and expertise in an online way. 

What can you do to grow your network both locally and globally?

About Robbi: I am a professional blogger, social media consultant, internet copy writer and ezine creator. I grow my clients' businesses through the content I create and share across blogs, social media and ezines for them. 

Is Your #Manufacturing Company Safe From Cyber Attacks?

In light of the recent cyber attack at Goodwill stores and the attacks on Target and any growing number of retail locations, I wanted to take some time to point out the risks you and your employees are taking perhaps without full knowledge of the consequences.

First a few facts:

• 63% of companies let their employees use USB devices to transfer company information for use at home.
• 40% of employees use services such as DropBox or Box.com for cloud storage of personal and
  
  company information without their employer’s knowledge.
• “Phishing” for employee information on social media sites is now one of the most prevalent methods to gain information about a company before launching attacks.
• Most people do not use separate computers at home from their children or spouses when working on company information. They have no idea what programs, viruses, keystroke loggers etc. may have been downloaded by these family members.

Motivate Your Employees... Without Writing A Check

Guest post by Robbi Hess

#Manufacturers understand that keeping good help is crucial to the success of their operations. What do you do though when your company can't afford raises and bonuses have been cut as a way to keep the doors open?

There are ways a business owner can motivate and reward its employees without breaking the bank and

here are three to consider:

1. Do you have an employee that always goes above and beyond? Exceeds quotas? Doesn't miss a day of work? Helps other employees finish their tasks? Make that known to the rest of the staff. Send out a company wide email or hang a notice on the company bulletin board, "Wow, did you see what Jim did? He continually outperforms and we appreciate his efforts! If you see Jim today congratulate him on a job well done!" Recognition honors the person receiving it and motivates the rest of the team who may want the same acknowledgement.
2. Look for ways for the stellar employees to take additional training that will help them in their current job or may even help them move up to a job of more responsibility. Most business's have some sort of trade organization that will offer training seminars. Send your best and brightest and then ask them to come back from the training prepared to report to the team on what they've learned and ask for their help in implementing those items that make sense in your #manufacturing business. 
3. Have you considered a flex time schedule for your employees? This may not be feasible in all organizations, but if it was why not offer to let them work four 10-hour days rather than five 8-hour days? What if they could come in late and work late in the event they had to attend an event at school for their child? Offering an employee a more flexible schedule -- within reason -- is a perk that many employees will readily embrace. Autonomy like this can boost morale! 

What can you do to motivate your employees without pulling out the checkbook?

Robbi Hess is a Content Creator, Social Media Manager & E-zine Marketer. Contact her for more information on her services at All Words Matter.

Giving the Customer What They Want

I hear a lot of things in the customer service area in regards to how to satisfy a customer. Some say “Under promise and over deliver.” Others talk of exceeding their customer’s expectations. While these are lofty goals, I’m going to go out on a limb and call “BS” on these and other similar comments.

Certainly, you’ve got to satisfy your customers to remain in business. However, in the manufacturing world, customers contract for a product at an agreed upon price, to be delivered on a particular date that meets the blueprint and purchase order requirements. That’s it. Simple enough.

Here’s the rub. Let’s say you’ve got a dimension on the print that has a fairly open tolerance. Many choices are available on how to measure this dimension. These choices may range from a simple set of calipers to a sophisticated coordinate measuring machine that is capable of inspection to millionths of an inch. Both will give you acceptable results. What do you do?

I know of many companies that will put these parts in the CMM and measure away. I say it’s a gigantic waste of time and MONEY. I submit that all you are required to do is comply with your purchase order at the least cost to you. You’ve got to be able to document (as required) what you made. But other than that, you’re done.

I had customers in my gear #manufacturing business that only wanted to know that we had put the right number of teeth on the gear. Others wanted everything. (Those of you that do this kind of work know what that means)

What I’m getting at is that by attempting to satisfy by over delivering, you are wasting money and time that could be better spent on exactly meeting the expectations of all of your customers

When Do You Strategize?

Guest post by Social Wordsmith Robbi Hess

Many business owners look at the half way point or January 1 as the time to look at business goals and strategies. Since the half way point of the year is quickly approaching, is it time for you to strategize?

Whether you operate a large #manufacturing company or are a solopreneur, there are "correct" ways to set up a strategy session with your teammates and/or vendors or clients.

How can you ensure your time spent in a strategy session is as fruitful as it can be? Here are some tips:

• Involve the team in the sessions. This means the entire team -- not simply upper management. To gain buy-in you need to have everyone on board. If necessary, and if you're virtual, there are many free tools you can use (including Skype and Google Hangouts) to gather the team in one place. 
• Have your information ready on what you hope to accomplish, where the company is going and what role your employees and staff will play in that role. Set an agenda and stick to the topics. 
• Ask the members of the team, upper management and even your vendors for their input and their perspective on how they think things have been going and how they think operations may be changed to reap a better reward. 
• Invest in yourself and your continual learning -- as a business owner you need to be informed and at the top of the information stack in your industry. Be known as the "go-to" person for top notch industry expertise. 
• Write it down and revisit your strategy session feedback. It doesn't do any good to have a session, then forget about the comments and feedback. Use the session as a living guideline moving forward. 

When did you last perform a social media strategy session? If you feel your business needs one, contact me.

Does Your #Manufacturing Company Use 3D Printing?

I found this article on 3D printing intriguing. Do you use this technology in any of your manufacturing processes?

Gartner predicts that by 2018, at least seven of the world’s top 10 multichannel retailers will be using 3D printing technology to generate custom stock orders, at the same time as entirely new business models are built on the technology.

“Some retailers are already selling 3D printers to consumers, and as they become more readily available, consumers could use them to ‘manufacture’ their own custom-designed products,” said Miriam Burt, research vice president at Gartner. “We also expect to see 3D copying services and 3D printing bureaus emerge where customers bring 3D models to a retailer or provider and have increasingly high-end parts and designs printed, not just in plastics but in materials including ceramics, stainless steel, and cobalt and titanium alloys.”

You can read the entire article here. I'd love to know if you're using this technology.

Steps To Conquer The Overwhelm Of Your Mornings

Post by Social Media Strategist Robbi Hess

As a business owner how do you greet your mornings? Do you look at them as a way to jump into a new, fresh day and face exciting challenges ahead? Do you glare at the alarm clock, willing it to stop its noise and just let you continue to sleep?

There are steps I've found to help me conquer the overwhelm of mornings and I'd like to share them with you because as a #manufacturing professional you need to be at your best and greet the daily to-dos as a

way to really make your plant shine:

1. Plan your next day prior to leaving the office at the end of the day. This can prevent you being jolted awake in the middle of the night making a laundry list of things you didn't accomplish as compared to the things you have yet to accomplish. Action step: Write a to-do list for the following day before I close the door on my home office. If I wake up in the middle of the night and realize I left something off — even though it may not be earth shattering — I will jot it down on the sticky note I keep next to my bed; it helps quiet the gremlins.
2. When are you most creative/productive? Once you know that you can harness the power of that time of the day to tackle tasks that are daunting or those that simply drain your energy. I know that I am most productive first thing in the morning so that is when I write blog posts, plan social media updates and work on my book. I slow down, mentally, in the afternoon and that is when I do tasks that don’t require high levels of creativity. In the afternoons I, make follow up calls, work on editorial calendars, work on anything I have to do that is on a spreadsheet! Action step: Take a few days this week to see when you feel the most creative, inspired and mentally alert. Plan your most mind-challenging tasks for that time of the day and use your off-peak times to do repetitive tasks.