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How to Make Your Business Amazing Begins With Your People

by leannehoaglandsmith on August 31st, 2010
95 Comments



In spite of the advancement of technology and the expansion from a local to global economy, people still do business with people. So if your goal is to make your business amazing, then your first step is to develop two plans.

The first plan is called your strategic action plan or strategic business plan or just plain business plan. This is an overview of the following key areas within your organization based upon some very intensive research:

  • Marketing
  • Sales
  • Customers (I prefer Customer Experience as this involves both external and internal customers)
  • Management/Leadership
  • Growth and Innovation
  • Financials

Since strategy comes from the Greek meaning for a General to deceive his enemies, then this is your battle plan to out think your competitors while securing necessary benchmarks (goals) such as market penetration, increase sales, build customer loyalty through repeat purchases, etc.

Your second plan and this is the one that 99% of most organizations never considered is a Human Capital or Employment Development Strategy. Here you work on developing your internal customers, your employees, to be the best that they can be.

Effective employee development is truly not that difficult provided you are willing to embrace new ideas and remove yourself from the traditional K-16 experiences where are the foundation for the majority of existing non-effective training and development. Research from organizations such as American Society for Training and Development continue to report that anywhere from 50% to 95% of all dollars invested in training and development do not stick. This failure to deliver sustainable change is why so many executives view human capital as a liability instead of an asset.

There are a plethora of great employment development tools and guess what, they do not cost an arm and a leg. For example, a simple workshop on goal setting and achievement using a proven goal setting worksheet tool along with a proven process is very affordable and beyond that necessary since organizations run by goals. Unfortunately, consistent goal setting and achievement are not taught in the K-16 experience and this is one skill set that cannot be learned through osmosis.

Another employee development tool is positive affirmation statements or what I prefer to call positive belief statements. Due to negative conditioning many people have pre-wired their brains to think what is going to go wrong instead of what is going to go right. By actively reprogramming your own mind, you can change your results. This is the basic premise in the book, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

A third employee development tool is a talent tool that assesses a person’s attributes, strengths or talents. Most people from my experience truly do not know their strengths and focus far more of their energies on their weaknesses and non-talents. Just imagine if your people knew what they did well. Awareness is the first step to improving any situation. Training and development tip: A talent assessment should not be confused with a personality assessment. There are two different instruments.

To make your business amazing does require you to be ahead of the flow. And this may mean you may need to find mentors, colleagues, business round tables, mastermind groups or even hire a business coach or executive consultant. Remember, people buy from people they know and trust. Therefore beyond the strategic goal driven well research action plan, effective employee development is the next action to truly be the Red Jacket in a sea of gray suits.

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This post is part of the HP SugarTone contest: “Making your business amazing”, sponsored by Hewlett Packard



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The Author: leannehoaglandsmith

As Chief Results Officer for her 10 year old international executive coaching and consulting firm focusing on sales through human capital and organizational development, Leanne Hoagland-Smith is not the typical coach or consultant. With over 30 years in corporate America along with teaching in public education, she brings a no sense solution approach to her clients. Since April of 2005, Leanne has devoted 75% of her marketing time to article writing because this education based marketing approach really works. Her articles have appeared in a plethora of websites, ezines, blogs, newsletters and ebooks. She is a top sales expert at EzineArticles as well as Sales Gravy, Evan Carmichael, Sales Bloggers Union and NBiz Magazine. In June of 2010 Leanne published her first book, Be the Red Jacket in a Sea of Gray Suits, the Keys to Unlocking Sales Success. As to her practice, the initial focus is to increase sales through these 3 steps: 1. Assess to know the talents 2. Choose what gaps needs to be closed 3. Create an executable plan of action By integrating a simple one-page business action plan along with a proven goal achievement process into daily behaviors, she is able to quickly deliver results for her clients. Her business philosophy is simple: Know, choose, create tomorrow’s results today. And that is what Leanne does for herself and her clients. http://www.increase-sales-coach.com

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  • http://twitter.com/smallbiztrends Anita Campbell

    Hi John, have you done much with typos and misspellings? I haven’t (other than plurals and singulars). But a very common misspelling might be worth it….nn- Anita

  • http://twitter.com/smallbiztrends Anita Campbell

    Hi Garry, I like that: “saved me from myself.” Now if we could all just get saved every single time we were about to step off a cliff or something….. :-) nn- Anita

  • http://twitter.com/smallbiztrends Anita Campbell

    Hi Scott, so true on the economics. As domain names go, given some of the numbers I’ve heard through the years, I suppose I actually got off easy.nn- Anita

  • Anonymous

    Hi Anita. As a long time writer on Bloggertone, I’d like to welcome you, on your first post here. Thanks for sharing your story which is a great lesson that we can all learn from.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Hi Anita, welcome to Bloggertone. What a very honest and insightful first post. nnWhen I first bought my domain name the .com wasn’t available (owned by a school somewhere in Africa) and became available April 2010, unfortunately I was away at the time and I missed the slot. It was bought by someone who offered it to me for $10,000 and I refused to bite. He badgered me for a month until I told him to shove it where the sun doesn’t shine, that I would NEVER pay more than the normal asking price for it as I had the .ie, .org, .net, .co.uk domains and .com really wasn’t that important to me since most of my business was local.nnLike some of the other replies on here, it has been suggested that I trade as my own name too, however that would be really difficult to sell if I ever wanted to, plus as a generic Irish name is is difficult for the average Irish person to spell, never mind the rest of the world.nnMis-takes are the things we do so that we can learn how to do it correctly the next time – an essential part of life. Unfortunately all too often we beat ourselves up over them unnecessarily.

  • http://twitter.com/smallbiztrends Anita Campbell

    Hi Mairead, nnTalk about extortion!!! Good for you for not caving in.nnI also have my name as a domain and used it when I was consulting. Now I have it mainly for reputation management and to make sure my name comes up in search engines. So it’s not a bad strategy to at least have the domain name for your own name, even if you use a company name to conduct business under. nn- Anitan

  • http://twitter.com/smallbiztrends Anita Campbell

    Well hello, Frank! Thanks for the welcome. You’re all so friendly here. :-) nn- Anita

  • http://twitter.com/smallbiztrends Anita Campbell

    Hi Elli, nnYes, you’ve got it right — it’s all too easy to overlook something. nnAnd really, it’s that way with a lot of things when you have your own business and you have 30 balls in the air at any given time. At least one thing is bound to fall on the floor — I always hope whatever I drop won’t be TOO critical or TOO expensive. nnThanks for the welcome!nn- Anita

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  • http://www.techiemania.com Sathishkumar

    Wonderful article. Its so true that Google need to change the model of +1 button and they need to increase the awareness about the Google profile to Gmail account holders. Until then, Google +1 is just a waste of time.

  • http://www.garrendennylane.ie/blog Lorna

    Totally agree with your point – tis a bit strange to be asked to like a search when you haven’t even visited the site and why would one return to the search page again, will be interesting to see how it all pans out though. Thanks a mill for the explanationnLorna

  • http://twitter.com/beatricewhelan Beatrice Whelan

    Hi Niall,nnThe combination of Social influence with the traditional search algorithm is definately the way for Google to go but the issue is how best they should do it. It might have been better if they put effort into getting people to use and understand their Google public profile more and then once that is achieved they can allow people to recommend links from that profile. Google profiles are still not mainstream, nearly everyone I know is on Facebook but I never hear anyone mention they were in their Google profile. Gmail seems to be pretty mainstream so perhaps they should look at it from that point of view, expanding Gmail into a social network and then allowing people to search the web from Gmail and then recommend links from there.

  • http://twitter.com/beatricewhelan Beatrice Whelan

    Thanks for all of the positive feedback. I am going to go into my Google profile right now and start connecting and +1ing links – we might as well give Google all of the help they need!

  • http://www.tweakyourbiz.com Niall Devitt

    Hi Beatrice, great answer! I don’t think I can disagree with any of it :)

  • http://www.cgonlinemarketing.com/ Christina Giliberti

    If Google are tapping into it, then the power of ‘likes’ is sure to increase. I do agree with you Beatrice, that the word ‘like’ would have worked much better. Then again maybe Google is hoping the new name is much more unique – who knows.nnIf you do have to click the magic button to express a like beforehand, then couldn’t this be a pointless metric or abused by brands and companies?? I’m all for some social integration online, but do worry about manipulation. Rankings has always been about relevancy as opposed to popularity.nWatch this space!

  • Facundo

    Completely agree with you and Beatrice, there is no logic in one having to click on a result that one hasn’t visited. Before anyone says it, it is true that sometimes we “like” posts or content with the FB button without actually reading it fully, but that doesn’t mean that the principle behind it is to like blindly. It also seems to me that Google has missed a first step: Facebook first got us to like like like stuff within Facebook and only then rolled out the button to external sites. In this case Google is rolling it to external sites & search results without having us adopt the +1 somehow before (they can’t). Probably Beatrice’s point that Google should call a “like” a “like” makes even more sense in this race for adoption.

  • http://twitter.com/beatricewhelan Beatrice Whelan

    Hi Chrstina,nnI agree that manipulation is a significant concern for this. Google have put some regulations in place to make manipulation more difficult, for instance, the +1 button only shows to you if you are logged into your google account while doing the search and to set up a Google account such as a Gmail account you need to verify with a telephone number. This will allow Google to track if numerous clicks on the same +1 button are coming from the same account and then would probably count those as invalid. Google seems to be able to determine invalid clicks on Adwords ads so it should be able to do the same for the +1button. Having said that I’m sure it will be a constant effort from them to ensure they are keeping up with all of the latest tricks from the spammers.

  • http://www.ultimatemarketingonline.com Aleksandra

    I so agree with Sathishkumar – until Google does their part, whose going to use it?

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Very useful post Facunda. I already know I’m going to have fun playing around with those in the near future.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Very useful post Facunda. I already know I’m going to have fun playing around with those in the near future.

  • http://profiles.google.com/richard.conroy Richard Conroy

    @37b80f46c3622a6b1e0a16c9f20c4035:disqus Great post. A lot of these WP plugin roundups tend to over-focus on eye-candy operations, and ignore genuinely useful, nay indispensable alternatives. I know options with respect to Caching & Minify and why you would use them (too many clients on the one share hosting shard), have used 301 Redirects for similar reasons, but WP Security Scan looks like a real find, especially on sites with too many admins (like one that I am building now: http://w3projects.org – ~15 people with admin rights). Installing it now.nnHowever for me qTranslate is the peach. I have seen professional translation plugins like WPML (site 5?) but nobody seems to get it when I try to explain what a translation plugin REALLY means. Too many suggestions along the lines of Google Translate. I actually have a potential client who really wants something along these lines (she is bilingual).

  • Facundo

    Hi Richard. Glad you found the suggestions useful. The guys that do qTranslate seem to really get it so if you decide to go that way you can expect even more features in the future I’d say. n

  • http://www.channelship.ie/blog Facundo

    Thanks Mairu00e9ad. Trying out new plugins is something I enjoy too of course :) n

  • http://www.cgonlinemarketing.com/ Christina Giliberti

    Excellent Facundo! Will add the ‘related posts’ one for sure. n

  • Anonymous

    Great list there. I also think it’s important to have a plugin to give users the ability to share a post they like on any social network, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, etc. Found a neat one today: nhttp://www.daddydesign.com/wordpress/social-toolbar-wordpress-plugin/

  • Facundo

    Thanks Tina. Makes sense, especially if you have plenty of older posts!n

  • http://www.hal9000.ie Jennie Molphy

    Great selection Facundo – there’s so many plugins out there, it’s good to get recommendations.nnnI’ve just installed Dagon Design Sitemap Generator – another useful one.nnhttp://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sitemap-generator/nnnSo next up is WP Security Scan…

  • http://twitter.com/beatricewhelan Beatrice Whelan

    Some really useful Plugins there Facundo. For SEO do you prefer the All in One SEO Plugin or the SEO Ultimate Plugin?

  • http://twitter.com/beatricewhelan Beatrice Whelan

    That is a good one Simon. I use Digg Digg but it can slow up a site if you opt to use all of the different buttons. nhttp://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/digg-digg/

  • http://twitter.com/PaulPinnacle Paul Cawley

    I’m not sure if you’ve tried it yet Beatrice, or if Facundo will agree, but I’d opt for Joost’s wordpress SEO plugin ahead of both mentioned. Still technically in beta and continually being developed and improved, but already a superb (and stable) option.nnhttp://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/nnGood list Facundo. The security scan is a new one for me, looking forward to trying it out.

  • Facundo

    Thanks Jennie!n

  • Facundo

    @twitter-201285346:disqus & @twitter-155752094:disqus I normally go for All in one SEO because it is generally compatible with other plugins. I’ve tried Platinum SEO which is great but a thing to consider is that once you choose one of these SEO plugins if you then want to change you may end up having to re-enter metadata again or find a way to export it and import it (and it can be a bit messy as this is not built in). In short, I tend to decide based on the plugins I may need down the line too. n

  • Facundo

    Very true Beatrice nn

  • http://twitter.com/PaulPinnacle Paul Cawley

    A very valid point Facundo, both on compatibility and on import/export flexibility. nnMost of the tools mentioned are compatible with the SEO data transporter plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-data-transporter/), but it can still be messy if you’ve a high level of customisation on your site. Regardless of what methods you use to achieve it (Joost’s tool has a nice and tidy import/export function which works pretty well), ensure you have a safe backup before proceeding. It can cause serious headaches if you run into a problem down the line without a safe restore point.

  • http://blog.myprojecttracker.com Barney Austen

    Hi Facundo. A good list.nnnI’d also add a spam filter like Akismet. Not so important when you start off first but as you increase your profile online, targetted spam does come it’s way :) nnnCheersnnBarneyn

  • Facundo

    There’s a plugin for everything :) Didn’t know about that tool, excellent!n

  • http://www.seefincoaching.com/blog Elaine Rogers

    OK, you lost me after No 5 but the first few are excellent for WP non-techies like me. Looking forward to experimenting @facundov:twitter

  • Facundo

    Thanks Elaine! You can probably try out number 7 too without too much pain :) n

  • http://bestpluginsforwp.com Adam James

    A great list Facundo! – I love W3 Total Cache for improving load times, has much more extensive features than other plugins but because it seems to cause some problems with the themes I’ve been using, WP Supercache does the job well for me now though and it very straight forward to setup.u00a0

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