Posts Tagged 'Business Consulting'

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Healthcare – What it Means for Small Business

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Healthcare – What it Means for Small Business

Healthcare Reform:

Affordable Care Act (ACA):

 

On June 28, 2012 the Supreme Court declared the individual mandate to be
permissible exercise of Congress’s taxing powers under the Constitution.

 

The mandate was not a penalty, but a tax and was allowed under Congress’s
power to tax under Article 1 of the Constitution.

 
The Court held that the Medicaid portion of the Health Reform, which requires states to accept an enormous expansion in the number of people they cover under the program or face a cut of all Medicaid funds, was unconstitutional as enacted, but found that the expansion could go forward without the threat of the loss of all Medicaid funds.

 
So what does this mean to the small employer? Well for starters here in the state of Illinois, Governor Pat Quinn just signed into effect that Illinois will have a State Exchange. This would mean by October 1st of 2013 individuals and small groups would need to be signing up for the exchanges for the implementation date of January 1, 2014.

 

The problem is that the infrastructure is not even close to being in place and I certainly would not want to be one of the first ones to jump into the exchange!

 
Small employers should look very closely at all the implications to having the exchange in place. Work closely with your CPA there are more tax laws and filings that will need to be done – Even Now – here in 2012 – make sure your accountant keeps you aware of what needs to be reported. For instance in 2012 you will now need to report and do the following:

 

  • Prepare for mandatory Form W-2 reporting for health coverage,
  • Distribute the Summary of Benefits and Coverage to enrollees for renewals, and
  • Distribute Medical Loss Ratio Rebates to participants, if applicable.

 
The small employer (defined as fewer than 50 employees unless the State of Illinois raises it to 100 employees) will need to stay on top of the many additional regulations to ensure they are in compliance.

 

Government run health care – as implicated in it’s name – means more paperwork and more reporting and more penalties for noncompliance. Watch for information and make sure to obtain it from credible sources.

 

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17
JUL
0

Categories: Healthcare, Small Business

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Management – Coaching with C.A.R.E.

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Coaching Means C.A.R.E.

Collaborate
Acknowledge
Responsibility
Engage

 

In the Management Arena, my definition of coaching is to help create an environment that will give your employees an opportunity to grow, develop, and pursue new goals. This is accomplished in collaboration with the goals of the organization and setting the level of leadership.
 
The steps in coaching are as follows:

Collaborate:

Coaching means the ability to work together. Instead of telling your employees what to do and how to do it, ask them. The more you involve them in decisions and give them the opportunity to take ownership of the coaching matter, the more success you and your employee will have.

Acknowledge:

If you have a coaching matter, acknowledge it with your employee. Do not scoot it under the rug and hope it goes away. Acknowledge that it exists and help your employee get to the next level in their lives by providing the structure necessary for them to excel.

Responsibility:

As a Manager or employer, it is your responsibility to coach your people to excel in their position. It is your employee’s responsibility to take what you coach and implement it immediately. Ensure timelines are set and goals are achieved that are measurable and achievable.

Engage:

Keep your employees engaged. Coaching is not a one-time event. It is a process that is put into place until it’s completion and new habits are formed. Engage your employees in the process and have fun with it!

 

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9
JUL
0

Categories: Leadership, Management

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Sales | How to Sell… Inside/Out

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YouTube Preview Image

In this video, Holly Katko explains the What, How, and Why of Sales. How taking a
different approach to sales and selling can pay off with this explanation of
sales from the Inside/Out.

 
 

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5
JUL
0

Categories: Sales Video

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Sales – Selling with a M.A.P.

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Sales – Selling with a M.A.P.

Sales and Selling

This post is an excerpt from Entrepreneur You using the final letter of the acronym M.A.P. for an explanation of a critical aspect of sales and selling.

Probe

To keep the sales call moving forward, you’ll need to develop a line of questioning. But this isn’t just any type of questioning. This is asking questions that you could not find the answers to on a piece of paper — questions that will help build your relationship and your proposal.

 

At this point, you may feel like you’re ready to jump into closing the sale and to begin providing your services or product to your client but no matter how tempting this may be, you’re not really ready yet! Realize that you still know relatively little about the client, and you need to understand them fully before you can begin to help them. Remember that the point is not to sell to them. You’re there to help them.

 

There are different lines of probing questions you can ask. You might ask simple questions that need only a yes or no response. You might ask questions gleaned from information you found on the client’s website. Or you might choose to ask questions that elicit intelligent, thought provoking answers. We will concentrate on the last group. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling you to sit in this meeting and hound the poor client. There’s nothing I hate more than someone who interrogates me like a private investigator trying to get a murder confession out of me. This will put anyone on the defensive! Instead, I’m talking about developing questions that you can easily ask during the conversation and that allow you to understand the client more clearly.

 

I have developed over 100 questions for each of my product lines. Does that mean I use all of them during a call? What do you think? Of course not! But when you’re in front of someone and you get nervous, having these questions readily available is what will make the difference between you and the competition. The categories and the questions you’ll develop will follow the natural flow of a conversation. Read on to learn more.

 

For further information on the rest of M.A.P. go to Entrepreneur You.

 

This is an excerpt from Entrepreneur You.

 

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22
JUN
0

Categories: Sales, Sales Training

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Sales – Assuming the Sale

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Sales – Assuming the Sale

Selling and Sales

 

I want to share with you one of the most powerful ways in the world to close a sell.

Don’t do it!

You should never have to close a sell, the sell should close itself. What do I mean by that?

 

It is simply described in one-word “assume”. What this means is to assume the sell from the beginning. Before you get on the phone, before you walk in the door – you must assume the person on the other end is going to need and buy your product or service.

 

What you want to do is open the door by assuming the sell. It all starts with self-confidence and self-confidence comes from ensuring you are at your peak capacity to absorb information. That you are ready to deliver the highest quality of information based upon your self-confidence and product knowledge. That you are in complete control of the situation.

 

In order to assume the sell, you must be aware of and deliver in the following three areas:

  • Self-Confidence
  • Preparedness
  • Visualization
Self-Confidence:

If you do not have self-confidence the following 4 areas are affected:

 

Capacity: You lose your capacity to provide or give information because you no longer feel confident in your ability to give it.

Quality: The quality of your work diminishes because you no longer feel worth and your ability to provide quality work becomes doubtful in your own mind.

Growth: If you lack self-confidence, your ability to grow and excel in the area that you are not confident in will shrink even more and you lose your ability to expand.

Control: The most critical area that affects you is no longer feeling in control of the situation.

 

Therefore, before you can move forward in assuming the sell, you must be self-confident. The next two steps in the processes will improve your self-confidence and get you to the next level:

Preparedness:

The more you know about your subject matter and the more you know about your audience and their needs and potential objections, the easier task you have in assuming the sell. You will never have to sell again once you understand the power of doing your homework and knowing when you walk in that door or answer the phone that your client is waiting for you and you will have all the answers and ability to help them with all of their needs.

Visualization:

The key that unlocks the door to self-confidence and preparedness is your ability to visualize. To begin with the end in mind. Once you visualize that the sell is already completed, the rest is easy. As long as you have brought your self-confidence to the conscious level and you have done all your homework all you need to do is visualize the sell being completed and the check is in your hand.

 

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11
JUN
0

Categories: Business Training, Sales, Sales Training

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Management – The Third of Three Steps to Great Leadership

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There’s a New Sheriff in Town!

Three Steps to becoming a Great Leader:

1. Understand yourself first before you manage others

2. Understand your staff next before you provide direction

3. Understand AND set strong S.M.A.R.T. Goals

STEP THREE - SMART Goals

Specific  Measurable  Attainable  Realistic  Timely

 

Setting goals and expectations for your staff is critical. I recommend using the SMART goal technique to ensure the goals you are setting meet all of the above criteria. Only set 3 goals at a time. Why? Because if you set too many at once – number you won’t be able to keep track of their progress and secondly the employee will feel overwhelmed by trying to achieve too many goals. Set goals and move forward to ensure strong leadership. Goals setting is part of the plan from the moment you become a manager. This will help you and your employees to remain focused and keep the end result in mind at all times.

 

Remember a Leader Inspires, Communicates and Facilitates – be the just right leader and your staff will give you the empowerment and respect you deserve!

 

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31
MAY
0

Categories: Leadership, Management

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Management – The Second of Three Steps to Great Leadership

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There’s a New Sheriff in Town!

Three Steps to becoming a Great Leader:

1. Understand yourself first before you manage others

2. Understand your staff next before you provide direction

3. Understand AND set strong S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Step Two – Understanding Your Staff

I like to survey my staff to fully become aware of their type of personalities, their strengths and where they want to be within the organization.

 

What empowers them and makes them want to get out of bed in the morning. What can I do to help them get to the next level in their lives?

 

What are their personality traits and how do they receive and analyze information? How can I work to provide the information they need to be successful be fulfilled in their duties.

 

Where are they in their learning process? Have they just begun their position and need a lot of direction? Or have they been in their position for a while and are feeling relatively confident about their position but not feeling as committed about the position. If so, how can I provide them guidance and also increase their dedication to the position and the company?

 

This is second of three steps to Great Leadership.

 

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24
MAY
1

Categories: Business Training, Leadership, Management

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Management – The First of Three Steps to Great Leadership

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There’s a New Sheriff in Town!

Three Steps to becoming a Great Leader:

1. Understand yourself first before you manage others

2. Understand your staff next before you provide direction

3. Understand AND set strong S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Step One – Understand Yourself First

So many times as new managers we are promoted into a position because of our excellent performance in another area. What we don’t understand is how to be a leader of the team.

The great thing is that you may have developed a level of respect and empowerment while working on the team. The bad thing is now you are changing roles and you will need to work hard to keep that respect going at a different level. Management is all about mutual respect, helping to guide your people and delivering on your promises.

In understanding yourself first analyze what kind of manager you are or aspire to be. There are those that are managers and not leaders, which mean you, manage and dictate by force instead of listening to your team. There are those who are extremely nice – in fact so nice that everyone steps all over them and they are not able to obtain goals because they are afraid to enforce the rules.

And then there are those that are just right. Willing and able to share their experience and work side-by-side with the employees to ensure they understand the position and understand when improvement is needed.

 

Which type of manager are you? Which style would you like to be? Hopefully the just “right manager”!

 

This is first of three steps to Great Leadership.

 

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16
MAY
0

Categories: Business Training, Leadership, Management

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What is Sales? Part Three

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Three Areas of Sales to Know – Number Three

When I first started in business I did not look forward to sales at all – I thought sales meant you had to “sell” something to someone. When in actuality it is simply educating someone about a product or service that they didn’t have sufficient if any information on. Once a client understood how this wonderful product or service would benefit them, then they would either choose to use it or not. There are areas of knowledge that make this transition of education easier.

Here is the Third of Three Areas to Know:
Know How to Treat Your Client

Everyone wants to be treated special, so show your prospects that you care. Call them by their first names. Offer a firm handshake. Pay attention to what you see in their office or facility. And above all, let them know that you are there to help them.

Let’s assume you’ve done your homework on both your prospective new client and your competition. You can now use this information to get to the next level. When you contact your new client, you can lead with what you already know about their company and your competition. Explain to your client that you have a solution for them that they might not have thought about. Bring up one of those unique areas about you and your company that you know provides that over-the-top quality, and don’t let it go. Don’t sell, either; the point is to pro- vide information for solutions that solve their problems. If they don’t remember their prior conversation with you, well, make this one memorable. Don’t bother asking if they got your brochure, and don’t belittle yourself by saying that you’re “just checking in.”
 
YOU ARE THERE BECAUSE YOU CAN HELP THEM — SO LET THEM KNOW THAT!
 
These are three of the important areas to focus on in Sales. Do your homework and see the results!
 
These areas and more can be found in my new book Entrepreneur You.
 
In order to start your own business or maintain your current one, sales are critical to your growth and success.

 

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30
APR
0

Categories: Sales, Sales Training

Tags: , , , , , , ,

What is Sales? Part Two

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Three Areas of Sales to Know – Number Two

When I first started in business I did not look forward to sales at all – I thought sales meant you had to “sell” something to someone. When in actuality it is simply educating someone about a product or service that they didn’t have sufficient if any information on. Once a client understood how this wonderful product or service would benefit them, then they would either choose to use it or not. There are areas of knowledge that make this transition of education easier.

Here is the Second of Three Areas to Know:
Know Your Competition

You should know your main competitor’s strengths and weaknesses. Find out everything you can about what your competitor does. Why do people buy from them? Do they do things differently than you? Find out what those differences might be. Never cut down a competitor in front of a client, but instead, use what you know about the competitor to put your solutions in the most attractive light.

The first place to go to research competition is the internet. Visit their website and analyze everything about them — from their board of directors to old and new press releases. Is there any information you can use there? As with the first installment, if possible, talk to current or past clients or vendors about what they do right or what they do wrong. Find out why customers stay with them and why they leave. If feasible, purchase their product or service, how does it benefit the customers?

 

Make a list of three competitors and three items from each worth knowing.

 

You’d be surprised at how often you can turn a deal in your favor because you took the time to research them. Knowledge is power.

 

Stay tuned for the third Area to Know in my next post.

 

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20
APR
0

Categories: Sales, Sales Training

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