Costco Connection - April 2012

FRESHviews

ways to collect contact info, set up a customer elationship management (or CRM) program if you don’t have one and start a monthly newsletter to stay in touch year-round. Planting the seeds of new growth. If you want your company to grow, now’s the time to take action. Identify your most profitable customers or product lines, then figure out a realistic strategy to increase those sales. Boost your marketing efforts. Mating season. You can’t grow if you try to do everything yourself. It’s time to find ways to leverage the capabilities and reach of others. Perhaps it’s by hiring employees or contractors or finding strategic partners who complement your skill set or who reach the same target customer base. Combine your marketing efforts with these partners or work together to offer prospects a wider range of services. Spring training. One way to grow is to increase your skills and knowledge and learn something new to help your business expand. Attend industry seminars or meetings to stay on top of new developments. Dive in and learn about social media or cloud-based business applications. Get in shape, and then play ball! C RHONDA ABRAMS:STRATEGIES

Rhonda Abrams is the author of Successful Business Plan: Secrets and Strategies. Register for her free business-tips newsletter at www.

planningshop.com.

Small biz and big gov

A NEW SURVEY of 740 small-business contractors, from American Express OPEN, examines federal contracting trends and how small businesses have fared in the wake of government’s reduction in spending.

Notable findings from the study include:

• Small businesses are spending more. Over the past year, the amount of money that small-business contractors have invested in seeking federal contracts has averaged $103,827, an increase of 21 percent over the previous year.

• Small businesses are bidding less. Even as the average investment made in seeking federal contracts has risen, bidding activity has declined by half in prime and subcontracting activity. The average success rates for small-business contracts in both prime and subcontracting have also declined, pointing to a more competitive and tighter environment.

Latham calls treadmill verbs. “Discuss vendor
options” has no clear conclusion. By con-
trast, “Narrow vendor list to top three”
tells attendees exactly what must be
accomplished before the meeting’s end.
Phrasing agenda items as answerable
questions or measurable outcomes gen-
erates momentum.

In the end, the best meetings may be the ones you cancel. To request feedback or brainstorm ideas, “post a question on Twitter and get inputs from your customer base,” says Petz. The freshest views often come from outside your company. C

Make the most of meetings

BANANA STOCK

• Invite only the people you need to accomplish your goals, says Jon Petz, author of Boring Meetings Suck! Get More Out of Meetings, or Get Out of More Meetings ( www.jonpetz.com). “Leaders over-invite because they don’t want to hurt people’s feelings or because they get an ego swell from a big audience,” says Petz. Individuals without an active role should skip the meeting and get to work.

• Fourth time is the charm. Small-business contractors reported that they had to submit an average of 4. 4 bids before they won their first prime federal contract. Once small-business contractors got their first taste of procurement success, they wasted little time before trying—and succeeding—again. Two-thirds of small-business contractors have performed on more than one federal contract, and, on average, it took them slightly less than a year ( 11½ months) after their first procurement victory to win their second contract.

YOU’D HAVE TO look long and hard to find a busi-nessperson who loves going to meetings. Experts say it doesn’t have to be that way. Done right, meetings create energy instead of draining it. Business writer Heidi Smith Luedtke has gathered these tips from experts.

• Wasted time is a common complaint. If the destination isn’t clear, meetings can drag on, inciting frustration and resentment. “If you don’t know what will be different when you walk out of the room, cancel the meeting,” says business consultant Ann Latham ( www.uncommonclarity.com).

• Trade your wall clock for a stopwatch. Petz recommends a speed-meeting technique. Allow two minutes for each person to mention his or her top three priorities or an opinion on the proposal at hand. Follow up with one minute for questions and answers.

• Change the scenery to shake things up. Stand up or go outside for your next meeting, says Petz. It’s easier to break old habits in a new environment.

Average success rates in prime contracting— 38 percent overall—are significantly higher among those with 10 or more years under their belts ( 53 percent), compared with those who have been seeking federal contracts for three years or less ( 20 percent).

A full report of the survey findings is available at www.

openforum.com. Search “small businesses working harder.” C

Put spring in
your business

SPRING IS THE season of new life and growth in nature, and it should be in your business too. Use this time to make the most of your company.

Spring cleaning. Get rid of expenses that are dusty from lack of use, like subscriptions to online services you don’t log in to, monthly journals you don’t read, memberships in organizations whose meetings you don’t attend. Go through your monthly bills to find ways to lower fixed expenses. Call vendors—especially telecom and cable companies—to negotiate lower fees.

Things heating up. If your company is dependent on warm weather and vacationers, your high season is about to begin. Communicate with past customers and prospects now so you’re part of their summer planning. Announce “first of the season” specials if clients book for May. Establish