Adam Sonnhalter Articles
Who's Your Market - Click To Read Article
When you first start your business, your market is defined as anyone who will pay you money for your products or services. After you've been in business for a while (whether it be a few months or a few years), you'll have some very valuable market data. You have a list of customers who have actually parted with their money to buy what you sell. So how do you identify just who is YOUR MARKET? This article should give you some good guidance.
Why Do Most Small Businesses Fail? - Click To Read Article
Depending on what youve read or heard, the failure rate for small businesses in the first 5 years has been estimated to be anywhere from 40% to 90%. Whatever the actual figure, its higher than it needs to be.
Why Is It OK To Plan A Vacation But Not Your Business? - Click To Read Article
I had two people tell me this week that they were taking a day to pack for a vacation. I mean, they were only going away for a long weekend, or maybe even a week. And they spent the entire day packing. They probably spent some time prior to this planning the trip as well.
Why is it that well easily spend several hours (and sometimes even days or weeks) planning for a vacation or for a wedding, yet when the word planning is mentioned in business, business owners usually have an extremely adverse reaction?
Where Did All My Cash Go? - Click To Read Article
We hear this all the time from small business owners. They look at their Profit & Loss statement (a.k.a. Income Statement) which shows all this activity in their business, and yet their Balance Sheet (and checkbook) show little to no cash! So where did it all go?
A big challenge for a lot of business owners is understanding the difference between profit and cash flow. While the P&L may be showing growing sales and profit, the owner may notice that their cash balance is shrinking or that they are struggling to meet payroll.
What Makes A Good Customer? - Click To Read Article
How do you define a good customer? This is a question that many small business owners rarely, if ever, stop to ask themselves. After all, arent all customers good customers, you ask?
Quite simply, NO!
I mean, the fact that someone wants to give you their money in exchange for your product or service is a good thing, but that doesnt automatically make that customer a good customer.
What Is The Pursuit Of Happiness? - Click To Read Article
As a new President is inaugurated in the U.S., Ive seen and heard a lot of discussions regarding our forefathers. One concept that struck me is the idea of the pursuit of happiness which is spelled out in the Declaration of Independence. Did you notice, they left out the path for that pursuit? I mean, the next line in the Declaration of Independence doesnt say, and this is how Happiness should be pursued
When Does Customer Service Start? - Click To Read Article
Does customer service start once someone becomes a customer or does it start upon first contact with that person?
What's It Take To Run A Successful Business? - Click To Read Article
I was reading an excerpt from a New York Times article that profiled a woman (Charlita) who opened a restaurant that failed after about 1 year. This is a woman who had spent 20 years in the legal field. A quote from the article that talked about her speaking to herself grabbed my attention:
How could someone with a law degree and as smart as you blow it this big?
I know that is a question that many small business owners ask themselves every day.
What Does It Mean To Be An Entrepreneur? - Click To Read Article
I wanted to share my thoughts on a recent article from Inc. Magazine on an economist named Joseph Schumpeter who had a very insightful way of looking at entrepreneurs. I found that it captures the essence of the day-to-day grind most small business owners experience.
What Do Quarterbacks and Business Owners Have In Common? - Click To Read Article
Its that time of year when there is a lot of football on TV. Everything from college bowl games to professional playoffs. No matter which games you watch, it quickly becomes evident which teams quarterback (i.e. QB) is better than the other, and usually that is the team that wins the game. How are you doing as the QB of your team (i.e. your company)? How do you measure up against all those other QBs (i.e. business owners)?
How To Stay On Top Of Your Game - Click To Read Article
Do you ever stop practicing? My wife and I were talking earlier tonight about this parenting class we took a little over 3 months ago. We both really enjoyed the class and got a lot out of it.
The course was called Love and Logic and our instructor was a former grade school teacher and counselor named Ron Chidsey. He reminded us how important it was for us to come to the class because, not only did we get the chance to discuss our experiences over the past week, but it was important for us to do something every week to get better.
It's hard to form new habits. This article provides a few tips for ways to stay on top of your game and form new habits.
How To Market Your Business In 3 Words
- Click To Read Article
Many of us often unnecessarily complicate things. Especially when it comes to something as magical as marketing. Here are three words to market your business:
Who
Why
How
Those three words should guide all of your marketing activities.
Who am I trying to reach? Who is my market? Who will buy my stuff? Who has been buying my stuff?
Why have your customers purchased your products and/or services? Why do they continue to buy? Why have some stopped buying?
How am I going to reach my customer? How do I know what to track? How do I know what advertising or marketing strategy works the best? How do I know which marketing dollars to spend and which ones to redeploy? How can I connect with my customers (especially the ones who dont know I exist yet!)?
How To Make Money In Your Business - Click To Read Article
The Profit Plan is the answer to how to make money in your business. If you cant plan it out on paper, chances are you wont be able to do it in real time with your hectic business.
Pulling together a Profit Plan does a couple of great things for an organization:
1. It Pulls Everyone Together
2. It Allows for Ownership
3. It Prevents Monday Morning Quarterbacks
How To Keep Your Business Afloat - Click To Read Article
I was talking with my good friend Doug Maurer the other day. Doug is the founder and owner of Brian-Kyles Construction, which is a landscaping company based in Northeast Ohio.
Doug was talking with me about a plant in my front yard that wasnt doing so well. He was explaining how I should cut the shrub down to its base to re-balance the plant so the roots were larger than the plant itself. And then he said a magical quote, "plants don't want to die."
It got me to thinking about how businesses are a lot like plants. Businesses dont want to die either. This is particularly true of small businesses.
How To Motivate Your People - Click To Read Article
f you do just a handful of things right as a leader, youre going to have tremendous success when it comes to motivating your employees. Heres what I keep in mind:
1. Keep Goals Simple & Laser Focused
2. Consistently Communicate
3. Lead By Example
4. Find the Energy
In the full article I'll share examples of what I'm working on with my Rotary Club during my year as President.
How To Evaluate Your People In 2 Simple Steps - Click To Read Article
The world is filled with all kinds of assessment tools and ways to analyze your current or potential employees and it can get overwhelming in a hurry.
Were big on keeping things simple. Whether it be in life or in our business coaching practice when advising our clients. Basically you can evaluate your people in two broad categories: i) Skills, and ii) Attitude.
It boils down to this:
1. If someone has the wrong skills AND they have a bad attitude, YOU SHOULD GET RID OF THEM IMMEDIATELY!
2. If someone has EITHER great skills or a great attitude, then should invest in improving the weak area (i.e. the skills or the attitude).
3. If someone has BOTH the skills and the attitude, promote them as fast as you can and include them in as many things in your organization as you can. This is someone you want in your organization.
How To Find Good People - Click To Read Article
One of the most common question we get from both our business coaching clients as well as from business owners we meet is, how do I find good people?
Ever tried volunteering for a community or non-profit group? Whether youre someone looking for good people or you are a good person looking for work, one of the most overlooked recruiting tools is volunteering.
How To Embrace Change - Click To Read Article
I recently came across the following passage from Napoleon Hill. It provides some terrific insight into why change is important. The article also addresses how those situations which can often appear to be a negative actually turn out to be a positive because they force you to change your habits and allow you to discover new things.
How To Communicate Better With A Business Partner - Click To Read Article
About one-third of our business coaching clients have involved situations where there are multiple owners in the business. This has included spouses, siblings, parents & kids, in-laws, friends, and business acquaintances.
One of the biggest struggles with multiple owners is getting all the owners on the same page. When the business is first formed, everyone is usually on the same page. But as the months and years go by, its easy to drift apart.
Here are a couple of keys for better communication with your business partner:
1. Understand Behavior Styles
2. Keep The Appointments
3. Do What You Say Youre Going To Do
4. If You Feel It, Say It
How Do You Achieve Work-Life Balance? - Click To Read Article
I received an email from a friend earlier this week entitled Personal Balance in Demanding Times with the following question:
How can we balance our personal needs with the most pressing needs of our community and the larger world?
Her email continued with some deeper questions including:
- How are you doing this balancing act?
- Who do you know who seems to balance well and what do they know?
- How does your life touch the life of the larger world and what would allow you to feed your personal life while making a difference out there?
- How can you feel satisfied youve given enough to yourself, your family and your community?
Some pretty deep stuff, right? All variations of questions Ive asked myself over the years. Perhaps you have as well.
How Do I Keep My Business Afloat? - Click To Read Article
Plants dont want to die.
Doug Maurer, Brian-Kyles Construction
I was talking with my good friend Doug Maurer the other day. Doug is the founder and owner of Brian-Kyles Construction, which is a landscaping company based in Northeast Ohio.
Doug was talking with me about a plant in my front yard that wasnt doing so well. He was explaining how I should cut the shrub down to its base to re-balance the plant so the roots were larger than the plant itself. And then he said the quote above regarding plants not wanting to die.
It got me to thinking about how businesses are a lot like plants. Businesses dont want to die either. This is particularly true of small businesses.
How Can I Make Decisions Faster - Click To Read Article
Some people are naturals when it comes to making decisions. Give them about 5% of the relevant information and they will make a decision and move on. Unfortunately for most of us its not that easy! There are some good tricks I've learned to help make decisions faster.
How Do I Pay My Bills? - Click To Read Article
This is a question many business owners are asking themselves these days. While the trials and tribulations of many of the bigger companies have been well documented these past couple of months, chances are the government is not going to be writing any checks into your business to provide liquidity in the near future. So whats a small business owner to do? The short answer is to focus on the future. Can you see a future where you are making enough money to pay all of your bills?
How Can I Make More Money? - Click To Read Article
Money, its a gas. Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash. by Pink Floyd
Things in business can often get confusing. After all, isnt every business in business to make money? So shouldnt that be the #1 focus? Well, perhaps surprisingly to some, the answer is a definitive NO!
How Do You Know If A Business Should Be Condemned? - Click To Read Article
Youve seen condemned houses right? I mean, its not a pretty sight. Holes where there arent supposed to be holes. Boards where there are supposed to be windows. All sorts of things could be or are going on in there that arent good. Shouldnt these condemned houses just be torn down? So whats the difference between that scenario and whats going on with many of our industries, particularly here in the U.S. Can you tell me its hard to see the similarities between the condemned houses and industries such as the U.S. auto industry.
How Could Ayn Rand Have Known - Click To Read Article
I recently started reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It's scary how many things in this book that was published over 50 years ago relate to our current times.
Do You Have A Brainstorming Partner? - Click To Read Article
Most small business owners dont have a person or a group of people to effectively brainstorm with. Quite often, its simply the business owner throwing his or her ideas on the table and the staff just nodding their heads in agreement without really bringing too much to the discussion. Or the owner simply talking to himself or herself. If you are a successful business owner or if you know any successful business owners, chances are pretty high that theyll have a brainstorming group they meet with regularly. They may refer to it as a mastermind group, a sounding board, a partner, a business coach, or just someone to bounce ideas off.
Are You Afraid of Public Speaking? - Click To Read Article
Its common knowledge that fear of public speaking is one of the top fears for most people (not you of course). Why is that? In this article, I share some of the lessons I learned from an 18-year old exchange student from Germany who addressed a recent Rotary Club.
Are You The Networking "Joker"? - Click To Read Article
One of my favorite superheroes growing up was Batman. My favorite shows almost always included my favorite arch-villain too, The Joker! Jack Nicholson reprised this role of The Joker beautifully in the 1989 version of Batman the movie. I was reminded of this character at a recent networking event where I met someone who had what I refer to as The Joker smile.
Are You Aware Of The Noise In Your Business - Click To Read Article
All too often, you're too close to your business to hear the "noise." I was reminded of this at a recent going away party I attended. I'll share some tips for helping to break through this noise to get a better handle on where your business stands.
Are You A Defensive Driver? - Click To Read Article
My partner Jack said something the other day that got me thinking. For those of you who dont know, Jack is affectionately referred to as Mr. Magoo when he drives. It basically means that he does whatever he wants and assumes everyone else will react to him. I think this quote from Jack explains it all. Everyone is trained to be a defensive driver, so I count on them being defensive while Im busy being Mr. Magoo.
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