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[et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”]There’s this idea out there among many wannabe Newport Beach business owners that they have to come up with the next completely fresh idea in order to have a great business.

Shows like Shark Tank (which I love) go towards creating this kind of mindset – although the sharks do a very nice job of bursting the bubbles of anyone who thinks that business success is merely about having that great idea.

But I ran across this story about a company that was founded in the ’70s, and whose product you have very likely seen (especially if you have ever owned a dog).

It *is*, in fact, about the idea. But the idea was found within the cast-offs of an existing vocational work, and there might be something in there that sparks an idea for you.

Because I still think there is something to be said for us “small fry” Newport Beach entrepreneurs — the service business owners, the independent retailers, the salespeople, the franchisee, etc. — who look at the stories of those who have succeeded rather dramatically, and to see what it is they did.

Whether it’s a new product or service line within your existing business, or something brand new, sometimes we need to just open our eyes to identify and begin solving problems in an effective way.

Solving Problems in Newport Beach Businesses with Effective Solutions
“Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don’t have any problems, you don’t get any seeds.” – Norman Vincent Peale

Joe Markham had a problem.

The three-year-old German Shepherd he’d adopted, Fritz, loved to chew rocks. So much, in fact, that his teeth were one-third their normal size.

In every other way, Fritz was a wonderful and loving companion. But Markham knew the dog’s one bad habit was endangering his health. So Markham, a partner in a motorcycle shop, encouraged Fritz to try softer substitutes: radiator hoses and motorcycle tires (customers often saw Fritz flying through the shop with a whole bike tire sticking out of his mouth).

But the dog didn’t favor either of these items enough for it to become a rock replacement.

When winter came, the bike shop kept busy by working on cars and snowmobiles. One day, Fritz stretched under a workbench, pulled out a part from a car, and trotted over to Markham, where the dog dropped the part on Markham’s foot. This rubber-knobbed gizmo was a prize — and it was love at first bite. Fritz forgot his beloved rocks. His new obsession had customers asking what kind of toy was making the dog so joyful.

That’s when Markham speculated that if his dog loved this type of rubber so much, other dogs would too.

And so began a long journey of prototypes, rejections, manufacturing woes, ridicule, and late-night commercial slots. But Markham persevered because he knew his real customers — the furry, four-legged ones — would prove him right.

Today Markham’s toy, the Kong, has surpassed sales of 50 million products — almost one for every dog in America. And my take is that while perseverance played a role in his success, the real secret was that he stayed focused on finding a fun, effective solution to a common problem.

So I ask you, Newport Beach business owners…

Where can YOU find these hidden answers to common problems faced by your own customers? It doesn’t have to involve some witty, new invention — it can simply be serving a felt need effectively and well.

But those problems ARE out there. And the answer might very well be sitting in your cast-offs.

Feel very free to forward this article to a Newport Beach business associate or client you know who could benefit from our assistance — or simply send them our way? While these particular articles usually relate to business strategy, as you know, we specialize in tax preparation and planning for families and business owners. 

Warmly,

Pacific Tax Advisors
(818)431-2237
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Last week I wrote about working less and testing the 80/20 hypothesis for your Newport Beach business work cycle. I’d love to know if you had a chance to consider putting this into practice, send us an email using the email icon at the top right-hand corner of our site when you can, if so.

Well, on that note, let’s spread some of that 80/20 wealth around and take a look at your Newport Beach business as a whole.

Now, this might not exactly apply to you if you’re a pure “solopreneur” — but I’ve also found that “pure” lone rangers are few and far between. There are almost always people with whom we have to meet, and potential time vampires all around us, even as sole proprietors.

And let me get this important point right out front: yes, meetings are absolutely necessary at times — and a business that NEVER has them probably won’t get on the same page with the frequency or efficiency that succeeding in 2017 (and beyond) now requires. It’s a fast-moving marketplace, folks.

But exactly because it’s so fast-moving out there, we simply must not allow the “corporate culture” of meetings and memos to rule over the advantage we carry as a smaller, more nimble organization or business.

And even within the corporate culture, there is growing literature and research about cutting down the wasteful environment of relentless meetings.

So here are a few guidelines I’ve put into place … let’s free ourselves from those additional, mindless obligations.

Three Keys To Shorter Meetings For Your Newport Beach Business
“Prepare while others are daydreaming.”  -William Arthur Ward

In the spirit of what I’m writing about, this will be a quickie…

Three essential guidelines for taking control of meetings — and your time.

1)  Determine whether you really are necessary to the meeting. Look at the agenda, or find out what the meeting is intended to accomplish. Ask yourself, “Do I actually get anything out of the meeting?,” and “Do I actually contribute anything to the meeting?” If your answers are “no,” then let meeting organizers know, and find a way to avoid attending. Just do it.

2) Try to attend only part of the meeting. If the first part of a meeting is relevant to you, but the other half isn’t, find a way to skip the second half. Just do it, and let the chips fall.

3) Arrive on time–leave on time. Let meeting organizers know that you’ll be happy to attend the meeting, but will only stay until the time stated. Then get there on time–and leave on schedule.

These may seem harsh, but your time is valuable. Respect yourself enough to treat it that way.

I’m grateful for our partnership and dedicated to your success.

Feel very free to forward this article to a Newport Beach business associate or client you know who could benefit from our assistance — or simply send them our way? While these particular articles usually relate to business strategy, as you know, we specialize in tax preparation and planning for Newport Beach families and business owners. And we always make room for referrals from trusted sources like you.

Warmly,

Pacific Tax Advisors
(818)431-2237
Pacific Tax Advisors

Seeing what has happened in our nation’s fourth-largest city has been a sobering reminder of the fragility of life, and business.

It’s helpful to be reminded that threats and disasters can (and do) strike from directions that you might least expect.

And while this is quite obviously not the case when it comes to natural disasters, I’ve come to realize that more often than not WE are our own worst enemy, when it comes to running our Newport Beach businesses — not external factors, not market forces. It comes down to looking in the mirror and taking responsibility for the results we’re currently experiencing.

So, if things are down right now: don’t blame anyone but yourself. This doesn’t mean self-flagellation, but instead that seeing things in this light really is the first step to getting OUT of it — because you finally begin to focus on things WITHIN your control, instead of outside of it. And it’s really quite liberating.

Conversely, if things are GOOD: don’t abandon what got you there in the first place and coast, as if just by showing up, the magic happens. That just isn’t the case, and I believe that you know it.

Last week, I wrote about some common advertising and marketing mistakes I see … and, well, I think it touched some familiar nerves. But allow me to remind you — being challenged in your thinking is a GOOD thing.

Here are a couple more I’ve seen.

A Few More Common Marketing Mistakes Made By Newport Beach Businesses
“How many things in your life do you do automatically, routinely, that is a waste of time but you don’t take the time to remedy them?” -Robert S. Scott

Whether you create most of your sales through referrals, through direct marketing, or with a dedicated sales force — there are some quite common mistakes I’ve seen which are destined to suck the life out of your sales process.

Last week, I posted the first three. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, send me a note, and we’ll get it to you.

Here they were:

1. Failure To Tell Your Story
2. Right product, wrong market?
3. Right market, wrong problem?

As we head out of summer, it’s the perfect time to evaluate your marketing processes … and plug the holes.

So, here’s the next installment.

4. Right problem, wrong pitch or promise?
Emotionally, you’re right in line with your target audience. Yet still, they don’t call your office, act on your sales pitch or otherwise respond. Not to worry, because knowing how your customers think is already half the battle. But now you need to work out the other half of the proposition — the solution they’ll respond to.

The first thing you know is that it has to be somehow better, stronger, or entirely different than whatever solution everyone else is offering. How do you figure that out?

It starts with studying the competition. What’s working for them? Further, what has worked for you in the past, which you haven’t since returned to?

Because these pitches are already tested and proven effective.

In both cases, you’re getting a feel for the solutions that hit the prospect closest to the core. Good sales processes or advertising solves problems. It offers hope. That much is proven over ages. And it works.

5. Right pitch, wrong timing?
Bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell called it the “tipping point.” One of the things so many businesses fail to take into consideration is how well timed their promotional campaigns and sales presentations are with what’s currently happening in the marketplace.

The bottom line is that markets move fast, and armies of prospective customers march on. What worked yesterday or even this morning may not work tomorrow. That’s why you SHOULD be plugged into what’s happening in the world, and in the marketplace.  Subscribe to the magazines your customers read. Use blog-tracking services online to see what the most passionate customers for your product or service are talking about (www.BuzzSumo.com is one useful one). Set up a Google news alert related to what you’re selling (you can do so at this page: https://www.google.com/alerts).

I truly hope this helps. I’m by no means a marketing guru, but I do get to see what works for my clients and pass it along.

Feel very free to forward this article to a Newport Beach business associate or client you know who could benefit from our assistance — or simply send them our way? While these particular articles usually relate to business strategy, as you know, we specialize in tax preparation and planning for Newport Beach families and business owners. And we always make room for referrals from trusted sources like you.

Warmly,

Pacific Tax Advisors
(818)431-2237
Pacific Tax Advisors

We’ve been talking about meetings, efficiency, and how Newport Beach small business owners simply have to stay laser-focused on tasks that will bring them and their business towards actually achieving their goals.

Especially with all of the political and cultural chaos we’re experiencing in this particular moment, it’s worth emphasizing that staying on point is a battle worth fighting.

We can get so bogged down with what’s happening around us, or on the small, picayune details of life.

But what I’ve seen when working with my Newport Beach business-owner clients is that when you focus on something enough — however small — it becomes “big” and crowds out room for the truly significant issues.

The client service coordinator focuses on moving the paper, ticking off the tasks in the software, getting the phone answered … and maybe focusing just as much on the person in the next room she doesn’t like, the chair that squeaks … and on and on.

We all need to be brought back to what’s important in business. Over and over.

It adds purpose to what we do. It’s also the magic ingredient that separates the good from the great.

And I’m here today to remind you (and perhaps your staff, now!) of it…

Keeping Your Newport Beach Business Focused On Revenue Growth and Customer Retention
“It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

What are the most important tasks in your business?  Taking care of customers and growing revenue.

Add any trendy business philosophy you want on top of that, and it still gets down the same thing.

So … EVERYONE on your team should either be adding revenue or helping to control expenses.  I suggest you (constantly) ask your staff — and yourself — what they can do to help:

1. Get more customers
2. Keep customers longer
3. Increase the amount of each transaction
4. Control expenses
5. Get more referrals
6. Get good online reviews
7. Make operations more efficient

So, in that vein, here’s a discussion you can have at your next staff meeting:

* Review and discuss these 7 issues
* Ask everyone to write down the things that would help them do their job better (or obstacles that are in their way)
* Ask everyone to write down ideas for each of the 7 issues between now and the next staff meeting
* Review everyone’s first draft privately or as a group in your next staff meeting

Everyone in your business must be involved in growing revenue or controlling expenses.  They must see their role in that part of the business.  And YOU — the business owner — must keep that discussion alive and dynamic.

Good luck!

Again, I don’t pretend to be a “guru” … I just see what works, and I pass it on.

I’m grateful for our partnership, and for your referrals.

Feel very free to forward this article to a Newport Beach business associate or client you know who could benefit from our assistance — or simply send them our way? While these particular articles usually relate to business strategy, as you know, we specialize in tax preparation and planning for Newport Beach families and business owners. And we always make room for referrals from trusted sources like you.

Warmly,

Pacific Tax Advisors
(818)431-2237
Pacific Tax Advisors

Slogging through the summer, and with the weather still hot, it can be really tempting to sort of press cruise control for the month of August until Labor Day hits us, and *then* really put that nose to the grindstone.

But could it be that a rhythm of working a little less might actually make you more productive?

It’s a pretty counter-intuitive notion, but the reality is that we Newport Beach business owners entered into this venture for many reasons … and I know that for many of us, prime among them was this notion of freedom.

But too often what we thought would mean freedom instead leads us into a kind of slavery that we could never have predicted.

The notion of “80/20” (the Pareto Principle) is something worth studying when you are caught in this cycle of relentless *work*. And I hope to give you some inspiration to that end today.

The Pareto Principle And Your Newport Beach Company’s Work Cycle
“Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not realizing that life is made up of little things.” -Frank Clark

There was a recent book that changed a lot of minds about management, and it’s worth checking out. It’s called The 80/20 Manager by Richard Koch, and in it the author cited a fascinating experiment on the subject of “forced time off”:

“…(Boston Consulting Group) consultants were obliged to take one day and one evening off, during which time they were not allowed to use email or voice mail…I’m sure you can guess the results. The teams who were forced to take days and evenings off rated higher not just on work-life balance but on job satisfaction, learning, personal development and open communication within the teams. Moreover, their clients reported greater value delivery than the clients of the control groups. Empirical proofs that less really is more.

“I’m waiting for someone to have the courage to test what would happen if a team is forced to take off two days… then three, then four. Let’s see what happens when they work just one day and one evening each week.“ (page 174)

The Perlow & Porter experiment cited above (and further detailed here: http://hbr.org/2009/10/making-time-off-predictable-and-required/) hints at why this is so profoundly true. Faced with the constraint of having to take time off, the consultants at BCG suddenly found themselves having more discussions about HOW work was being done and fewer conversations about WHAT work was being done.

“People were initially skeptical about spending so much time looking at work processes. But in the end, most teams found it helpful. The check-ins not only allowed teams to engage in explicit conversations about achieving their time-off goals, but they also sparked valuable discussions–involving the whole team–about priorities, expectations, and problems people were facing.

“By contrast, in typical teams, consultants generally start talking about problems only when they are already overstressed and less able to think rationally or do much about them.”

Re-read that last sentence. The always-on, smartphone-addicted lifestyle of the average Newport Beach business owner makes it LESS likely that you will think rationally about the strategic decisions you need to make in your business.

But forcing yourself to take time off, one evening a week, then one day a week — and perhaps yes, as Mr. Koch recommends, even 4 days a week — will force you to make clearer more strategic decisions.

Working less CAN equal earning more.

It’s an equation that seems to violate everything we’ve been told about work … we’ve been told that you work your tail off, lay aside a bunch of profit and then some beautiful day in the future, well,  you’ll be able to work less.

But could this entire paradigm be wrong?

“Working less = earning more” is an equation that I have come to believe must be considered by the digitally-connected business owner who wants to take their Newport Beach business to the next level.

So, take one day off next week as a test. I wonder what would happen?

I’m grateful for our partnership and dedicated to your success.

Feel very free to forward this article to a Newport Beach business associate or client you know who could benefit from our assistance — or simply send them our way? While these particular articles usually relate to business strategy, as you know, we specialize in tax preparation and planning for Newport Beach families and business owners. And we always make room for referrals from trusted sources like you.

Warmly,

Pacific Tax Advisors
(818)431-2237
Pacific Tax Advisors

As you may have heard, “Labor Day” originated during the time of 7-day workweeks of 12-hour days, in the late 1800’s, as our country was in the throes of the Industrial Revolution.

Times have certainly changed since then — and our economy is no longer driven by the manufacturing jobs of the past.

Yes, now our economy is about *knowledge* … and that’s why I take the time each week to inform YOU about the “real world” steps you should be taking with your Newport Beach business, and how to be prepared for any circumstance.

Which brings me to a question: Is there anything I can do to help you this week?

I obviously take pleasure in helping my clients and Newport Beach business-owner friends thrive during this craziness in our culture and economy, and my weekly Notes are just one way I’m happy to help.

But I hope you know that there are probably other ways in which we could come alongside you and your business. From cash control analysis to taking financial tracking off your plate, to tax planning and other consultations — we’re here for you.

Give me a call, or send me an email … we are in your corner. Yes, we’re headed into a busy period before the deadlines on 9/15 and 10/15 for our various clients on extension or filing under corporate status — and then we start gearing up for our busiest season of the year after the holidays.

But we will always set aside time for you. Give us a call, or drop me an email.

This week I’m wrapping my series on marketing mistakes by offering more marketing tips for small business owners. Here you go…

Marketing Tips for Small Business Owners in Newport Beach
“Trust your instincts when they tell you to ‘pause’ and think it over.” -Susan G. Owen

Over the last few weeks, I’ve written about how so many Newport Beach small businesses shoot themselves in the foot by failing to improve their advertising and sales processes. So far, I’ve given you FIVE blunders to avoid:

1. Failure to tell your story.
2. Right product, wrong market?
3. Right market, wrong problem?
4. Right problem, wrong pitch or promise?
5. Right pitch, wrong timing?

So, let’s keep plugging those holes for you, shall we? Here’s the final installment.

6. No urgency.
In most cases, of course, it’s just common courtesy not to rush people. But that’s a courtesy you can’t afford when you’re trying to close a sale. Why? Because of the salesperson’s and marketer’s greatest enemy … inertia.

If you can’t give your prospect a push to “act now,” you’re only inviting him to shelve the offer until later. Translation: Never. It’s not a question of politeness, it’s a question of sales and marketing survival.

Go back and look more closely at your sales piece or script. Start with the offer and work backward. Is there a deadline for any special deal you’re offering? Is there a bonus for a speedy reply?

If you can work it into the deal, do so. But then move back through your piece and find places you can repeat or highlight the deadline date. Make it as specific as possible. Midnight on a certain date, just weeks from your mailing. Or maybe a website countdown. Or a limited number of orders allowed.

If there’s one thing that drives people more than the promise of getting something, it’s the fear of missing out. In short, if there’s no urgency, find some. And make sure you build that tension, the closer you take your prospect to the point of the sale itself.

7. Failure to offer proof.
As much as we may consider ourselves thoroughly rational creatures (and I say this as a “numbers person”!), no sale is ever made based on logic alone. The way to get attention and action is with emotion.

(Some people shy away from using emotion, and that’s quite understandable — because it’s often perceived as “manipulative”. My simple contention here is that if we don’t speak in the language of emotion, then we’re not truly speaking the real language of life.)

That said, once you’ve engaged a prospect emotionally, you’ve got to give him or her a reason to believe. You’ll want to work into your script or sales piece a way for your prospective client to go back and rationalize the smart decision they made to use your product or service.

Credibility-building charts and statistics, relevant stories, strong testimonials, track record, expert testimony, reassuring credentials … they all add up to support the prospect’s original emotional commitment.

If you are already using these elements, I suggest you go back and make sure your proofs are clear and easy to read. If you have testimonials, make sure they’re as naturally presented as possible. Don’t use stock photos. Use pictures of the real customer. If you can use full names, do. If you’ve got experts who recommend your product, mention them.

If you’re reading third-party sources that support your claims, name them. And use quotes just long enough to show that the credible experts agree. Don’t just say your results are great. Show what happens when you get great results. Thinner customers. A nicer car. A bank statement. A healthy, happy couple. And so on.

Anything to put an image into the imaginations of your future customers.

8. Failure to close.
This is the last one, and it’s a biggie.

Zig Ziglar famously said, “Timid salespeople have skinny kids.” And once you’ve gone through your sales process, written a fantastic sales piece or advertisement, you MUST seal the deal with an actual “ask” and a clear call to action — stating *exactly* what your prospective customer should do right now.

Without this final step, all your good efforts go to waste!

Again, I don’t pretend to be a marketing “guru” … I just see what works for my successful Newport Beach clients, and I pass it on.

Feel very free to forward this article to a Newport Beach business associate or client you know who could benefit from our assistance — or simply send them our way? While these particular articles usually relate to business strategy, as you know, we specialize in tax preparation and planning for CIYY families and business owners. And we always make room for referrals from trusted sources like you.

Warmly,

Pacific Tax Advisors
(818)431-2237
Pacific Tax Advisors