Business Instrument

Archive for March, 2009

How To Use Smart Goals To Get Ahead

We have watched many small business owners steadily grow their businesses to new levels as they have regularly set SMART 30day goals. The results have been remarkable and we found that consistency is key. If youve set goals in the past we encourage you to consider making goal setting a regular part of your schedule again.

The acronym below gives the criteria for a SMART goal. By using this goalsetting process and the downloadable MakeitFly Goal Worksheet you can create meaningful goals that you are much more likely to achieve.

Specific

Time Deadline

Specific: State precisely what you want to achieve. For example Make 25 sales calls from my prospect list every week is a specific goal. Vague generalities like Make more sales calls wont prove very helpful.

Specific answers the questions: What? Who? Where?

Measurable: Make sure that you have clearly defined criteria to measure whether or not you achieve the goal. In the above example you will know if you achieved the number of calls or not.

Measurable answers the questions: How much? How many?

Attainable: You are the best judge of this. You know your own limitations tendencies and abilities. Set the bar high enough to stretch you a little beyond your comfort zone but to a level still within your capacity. Be realistic!

Relevant: Keep your big picture in mind. Ensure that your goals are in line with your shortterm goals and are compatible with your values.

Time deadline: Set a clear target date or time frame as to when you intend to achieve each goal i.e. 25 calls each week.

Setting SMART goals significantly increases your chances of achieving success in your life and your business yet studies show that only 3 percent of people actually have written goals. Writing and following through on these goals will enable you to move your business ahead in the direction you want to go. In addition SMART goals will:

Motivate you to action

Keep you on the right track and moving in the direction you want to take your business

Enable you to easily identify and avoid distractions

Encourage you as youre able to measure progress

Create incentives within you to think feel or act in certain ways

Help you to write motivating daily todo lists

We recommend that before working on goals you take a serious look at where you want your business to be five years from now. In light of that what will you need to have accomplished in two years time? Then in order to keep you moving in the right direction what will you need to have in place 12 months from today?

Longrange goals should be reviewed frequently. Circumstances will change and as you move forward gain new information and insights and grow personally you may wish to modify or change your goals.

Six Steps to Achieving 30Day SMART Goals Using the MakeitFly Goal Achievement Plan:

We chose 30day goals because this gives enough time to make significant progress yet is short enough to keep you motivated.

Step 1:Express a clear intention by beginning each goal with the words

I will

Step 2:List all the potential benefits youll enjoy as a result of achieving your goal. If youre not excited about the potential payback consider a different goal.

Step 3:Record all possible obstacles to reaching the goal. For example if your goal is to make 25 sales presentations but you will be out of town for two weeks and you havent yet refined and tested your presentation these obstacles could sabotage your success.

Step 4:After each of your possible obstacles note a possible solution. In the above example perhaps adjust the goal to 15 presentations and block out time to refine your presentation.

Step 5:Break your goal into smaller specific action steps set a target date for each and include each one in your electronic or paper time management system.

Step 6:Find someone to regularly hold you accountable and keep you on track to do what you have committed to do!

If you dont achieve your goal take time to evaluate why. Consider what you could have done differently.

Dont forget to reward yourself for your successes!

About the writer:  Victoria K. Munro is cofounder along with husband Dave Block of MakeitFly LLC a company dedicated to creating success for small business owners through creatively designed programs and tools. Victoria has started and run nine different businesses. To receive FREE business success articles with tips to help you with your business sign up for their awardwinning ezine InFlight Refueling at: www.MakeitFly.com and receive a free copy of the eBook Get More Done in Less Time: 101 Quick and Easy Time Tactics Tips.

How To Prepare Your Mobile Home Park For A Recession

Unless youre George Bush you probably already realize that we are heading into a national recession. And if you agree that we are heading into economic trouble then it is worth your while to make preparations to survive and prosper during this cycle. Its important to remember that it takes time to make adjustments in your business plan so you should start making these changes immediately.

Focus on Affordable Housing

The universal desire during a recession is to keep costs low. Consumers are looking to find the cheapest housing they can. Instead of focusing on bringing in newer homes that look nicer in your park instead concentrate on older uglier ones that can be sold or rented cheaply. Remember that old ugly houses have no monthly mortgage payments and that means that your customer only has to pay lot rent to survive. You will have a more solid billpaying tenant base with older paidfor homes.

Be Tougher Than Ever on Collections

When money is tight your tenants have to pick and choose which bills to pay. You must never let them think that the rent can be delayed or missed. You must keep the big club of eviction dangling over their heads at all times. Never miss a beat on getting out your demand notices and filing evictions. And keep pressing with writs of execution dont delay because you are worried about losing tenants during a recession. These folks are not going anywhere. They cant afford to move their homes but they can afford to pay your lot rent. At minimum wage you can still afford the average mobile home lot rent of 200 per month or so. So be relentless and keep your tenants priorities straight.

Keep Raising Rent Annually

Some park owners make the mistake of delaying or eliminating the annual lot rent increase during recessions. The problem is that you still need that annual increase to cover the increased costs of running the park plus ever greater cash flow to meet your budget and reward you for taking the risk of buying a park. There is no way that a tenant is going to be pushed over the edge by a rent increase of 10 to 20 per month. However if you do not keep the rent escalating you may soon find that you are losing your battle and having reduced net income annually. If you do not raise the rent a little every year you will have to make a huge jump down the road and that will be much more offensive to your tenants.

Cut Costs

Question every bill you pay. Do you really need that extra phone line? Can you mow the grass every two weeks instead of weekly? Never write a check without thinking of at least three different methods to cut that cost. Often such as the power bill there is not much you can do to about it. However a lot of times you do have some discretionary control over what you spend especially in repair and park maintenance categories as well as administrative and office costs. Although you do not want to live you life that way it does not hurt to roleplay the pennypinching miser out of a Dickens novel. By focusing on cost control you will spread that gospel throughout your organization.

Approach Loan Renewals Well In Advance

One of the big hurdles of a recession is the sudden disappearance of the usual banks and other lenders. In a world in which Indymac can fail why not your lender too? In that type of environment you need to allow yourself extra time to line up a loan. If your current loan expires in two years you might want to attack that problem starting now. It might take you two months to get our loan package perfected another two months to find the right lender and four to six months to put the deal together. So whats the other year for? Just in case that lender falls apart right before closing and you have to start all over again. I would much rather pay a slight prepayment penalty on my existing loan from starting early rather than be unable to find a replacement loan and end up in foreclosure.

Never Prepay For Anything

You have to look at all other businesses that you do business with very cautiously. In a recession anything can happen. Businesses that have been around for decades can suddenly disappear overnight. So never pay for any project until it has been completed. I have actually had cases during recessions where the contractor disappeared in the middle or even the end of a job. One time I had a guy build a brick and stone entry to a park really fancy and he disappeared when the project was 95 complete. We never saw him again. Prior to running off he had wanted me to prepay him for the project but I had refused to pay him until it was done. By refusing to pay until completion I ended up with a virtually free fancy entry. So where did the guy go? I have no idea. Maybe he ran off because he owed so many people money.

Be More Aggressive on the Acquisitions Side

Some of the best mobile home park buys in history have been made during recessions. That is the exact time when all of the planets come into alignment to make the ideal buy. So start watching and listening for real distress mobile home park deals. You may see pricing that you never dreamed you would see. And that is why it is more important than ever to keep yourself out of trouble so that you can reap the rewards that only a recession can bring.

Conclusion

Recessions are terrible things. However once you get used to them they are like a big rain storm. You want to make sure that you have a big umbrella when they hit and make sure you dont step in a big puddle. But when theyre over everything is cleaner and smells better and if you have put yourself in the proper position you may end up with some great parks you bought for a penny on the dollar.

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;For over a decade Frank has been involved in all facets of the mobile home park business as an owner/operator of parks in four different states. His experience includes:
Purchasing and operating over 25 mobile home parks as an investor
Performing “due diligence” on hundreds of other mobile home parks.
At one point ranking as the 63rd largest owner of mobile home parks in the U.S. Frank has achieved a highlevel of expertise in evaluating buying operating turning around financing and selling mobile home parks. His experiences are real life and he can provide you with real life scenarios and solutions on almost any issue that you can face as an investor or operator. His knowledge can be yours through the unique offerings at “Mobile Home Park College” as a Faculty Member.
Mr. Rolfe has also authored and coauthored some very informative books on investing in Mobile Home parks to see more books and articles written by Frank Rolfe visit Mobile Home Park Store

How To Motivate Your Staff Through Corporate Entertainment Events – The Treasure Hunt

You look at your sales figures and they are OK up a little but not as much as you expected. So what’s wrong? You think things over for a few days and take a look around. The people in the sales office just don’t seem to be buzzing. The atmosphere in accounts seems flat. Even the canteen seems to be subdued. So you need to figure out how to improve this how can you motivate your staff and get an electric atmosphere in all departments? Easy let’s do a team building day.

3 weeks later the team building is done and the vibes are more negative! It seems that people did not really enjoy using canes string and sticky tape and a newspaper to build an aircraft that would carry an egg 40 feet! They did not like the activity where they had to hold hands through their legs! Hardly surprising as that was team building from the Ark!

Times people and attitudes change. These days team building needs to be more subtle and sophisticated to be effective. It needs to be enjoyable and challenging but without excluding people. So instead of team building organise a corporate entertainment event!

One of the best for teambuilding is a treasure hunt. But some are better than others. A good treasure hunt will need the winning team to have planned communicated organised itself internally and solved problems using creative thinking and allowed everyone to contribute in a fun and enjoyable atmosphere. Skills that are essential to business teamwork. So let’s look at each in turn.

Planning A good treasure hunt will have more clues than could possibly be answered in the time available. So the teams will need to plan their strategy for success.

Communication Some of the clues will be cryptic and so the team will need to discuss what they think it means. Also a good event will include a scavenger element and perhaps a quiz too. To succeed in the scavenger element the team will need to negotiate with people they have never met before in order to achieve their goals. They will need to persuade complete strangers to do things that they may not ordinarily do.

Internal organisation the best hunts will need team members to take responsibility for different parts of the hunt for example someone needs to take charge of the quiz recording answers acquiring the scavenger items …

Problem solving many of the clues will require creative thinking to solve them whilst the biggest problem to solve will be how to obtain the scavenger items legally!

Inclusive A good treasure hunt will have cryptic and straightforward clues so that everyone whatever their background can contribute. It will also take into account any disabilities of the group.

The element of informal competition will be emphasized throughout with a good hunt supplying some simple prizes at the end. Some treasure hunt organisers will take the answer sheets away and mark quietly however the quality organisers will involve the teams in the marking which encourages a lively debate!

About the writer:  So if you want to motivate your workforce and improve company performance order your treasure hunt or team building right now.