Growing Your Business
The purpose of this Squidoo lens is to provide information to help new and existing business owners take their businesses to the next steps that leads to the successes they desire!
The purpose of my business is to help new and growing businesses develop their strategic plans, create financial models, write business plans, and fund and execute their growth strategies (http://www.hoytgroup.com).
I finally have my own blog! http://www.paulhoyt.com
Quotes That Inspire
A New Quote or Two (Almost) Every Day
"I fight every day, but who said a fight has to be tongue and feet? You fight by showing you can overcome."
--Mookie Wilson,
former professional baseball player
--Mookie Wilson,
former professional baseball player
Building a Solid Business Foundation
Seven Key Performance Areas
We do not have accurate data on the number of businesses that fail to survive until their fourth anniversary, but the number may be as high as 80% - and much higher if your count all of the part-time network marketing and home-based businesses that come and go. We don't really know, because many business owners start up and shut down without leaving a paper trail. They never make it onto the radar screen - they invest a lot of time and money, and then simply fade away.Truthfully, this kind of failure rate is a huge national tragedy. By any account, our society is not doing as well as everyone would like when it comes to successfully starting small businesses, and all too often, the "Great American Dream" turns out to be the "Great American Nightmare". Talented individuals squander their lifesavings and damage precious relationships in pursuit of the dream of being a small business owner.
I believe that the reason our success rate is only at 50% at best is primarily because the job of starting, growing, and managing a business is extremely difficult. It takes broad experience and diversified talents, and corporate success does not prepare us adequately. Neither does an MBA. It takes a tremendous amount of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual strength. It takes proficiency in each critical area of business, the Seven Key Performance Areas, because a weakness in any one of them will seriously impede your growth or cause you to fail.
Those Seven Key Performance Areas are:
Customer Service,
Financial Management,
Leadership,
Marketing,
Operations and Administration,
Product Development, and
Sales.
Having a great foundation for your business is as critical as having a great foundation in one's education. It is not okay to fail countless subjects early in your schooling, just as it is not okay to skip one of the Seven Key Performance Areas. If you do, that weakness in your business foundation (something I call "The Foundation Factor®") will most likely come back to haunt you. It is your responsibility to "know what you need to know" by being familiar with every aspect of running a successful business.
(Based on information contained in the book "The Foundation Factor - Critical Measurements of Business Strength", written by Paul Hoyt)
Seven Key Performance Areas
Click on each of the links below to learn why these areas are important and what it takes to be successful in each of them.
- CUSTOMER SERVICE
- There are several variations on what Customer Service is and what it means, depending on the products and services you provide and your way of delivering them...
- FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
- Businesses do not survive very long without the ability to successfully manage their finances...
- LEADERSHIP
- Even though there have been thousands of books written on the subject of Leadership, surprisingly, there is not a clear and consistent definition of what it is...
- MARKETING
- Marketing is perhaps the toughest aspect of business to master, primarily because it is not easy to gain marketing experience...
- OPERATIONS AND ADMINISTRATION
- Strengths in this area is necessary for the business to run smoothly, while weaknesses will cause a business to struggle or fail...
- PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
- Product Development, also called Research and Development ("R & D") and Engineering, is the department in which your engineers and your design teams create ways to bring value to your customers...
- SALES
- Being successful in Sales is a matter of both the head and the heart. It requires great emotional intelligence, mental intelligence, a strong work ethic, and focused discipline...
Recommended Reading for Business Owners
A few of my favorite books
Recommended Books on Leadership
Recommended Books on Marketing
Business Professionals and Resources
These are exceptional business professionals and resources, from a variety of fields.
- CEOSpace
- CEOSpace and its affiliate www.ceospace.biz seek to deliver improved plans for any level of CEO agenda, as well as improved plans and accelerated resources to execute both. These objectives are achieved through a twenty year CEO retreat hosted five times annually in business convention hotels as a public service to the concept of CEOMIX integrating cross mentorship for CEOs of the world.
- Jeff Magee International
- Dr. Jeffrey Magee knows performance! He started Jeff Magee International after 20 years of hands-on experience in business, and has earned almost every professional designation available in the business world today. By age 25, he was the #1 salesman in the nation for a Fortune 500 firm and the youngest certified sales instructor in the world for Dale Carnegie.
- Performance Magazine
- PERFORMANCE Magazine, published by Jeff Magee, is where successful people speak for themselves. This is the only national magazine dedicated to the professional skill development and intellectual asset development of professionals, regardless of stature or industry.
I highly recommend this magazine! - Profitable Marketing Systems
- Joe has 31 years of experience in business marketing, as well as founding and building businesses. The most important part of the entire marketing process is getting inside the prospect's head and truly understanding his concerns, fears and motivations.
My Websites
- Hoyt Management Group
- We help business owners develop and implement accelerated growth plans so they can get the success they want as quickly and safely as possible! We have a wide variety of programs available so they can get the help they need - wherever they are in the growth of their business.
- Remember the Spirit
- Paul Hoyt is also the author and recording artist of Remember - A simple, gentle, and powerful pathway to your magnificent potential, an inspirational CD and timeless message guaranteed to inspire all who listen.
