• Thinking & Reasoning Style
• Behavioral Traits
• Occupational Interests

The Entrepreneurial Assessment will allow the entrepreneur to use this knowledge to work more effectively with others in making your business a success!  After completion of your assessment, you will understand:

• your thinking and reasoning style as it relates to how you learn and how you manage 
• how to leverage your occupational interests
• your interest in activities associated with persuading others as well as presenting plans and concepts 
• your interest in activities such as organizing information or business procedures
• your interest in activities such as helping people and promoting the welfare of others 
• your interest in activities using imagination, creativity and original ideas
• your interest in scientific activities, technical data and research
• your interest in working with tools, equipment and machinery 
• how you fit with the rest of the population based on the following 8 behavioral traits
• your tendency to display endurance and capacity for a fast pace
• your tendency to take charge of people and situations.  Leads more than follows
• your tendency to be outgoing, people-oriented and participate with others
• your tendency to follow policies, accept external controls and supervision and work within the rules
• your tendency to have a positive attitude regarding people and outcomes
• your ability to use available information to make decisions quickly
• your tendency to be friendly, cooperative, agreeable.  To be a team person
• your tendency to be self-reliant, self-directed, to take independent action and make own decisions
• your ability to think clearly and be objective in decision making

 To put it nicely, you will understand what you should do and what you hire others to do for you.  Of course if you can't afford to hire others, you will know why you are doing the things that you are doing.  You may understand that you are not doing what is most important to the growth of your business, you are doing what you like to do most...even if that is not the most important activity you can be doing at that moment!

The Association of Entrepreneurs feels so strongly that entrepreneurs need this kind of honest assessment that they are reviewing a variety of assessment tools for the one that most fits the Entrepreneurial Way!  If you are interested in more information on the concept of the Entrepreneurial Assessment, e-mail me at kim@mybizuniverse.com.

Let us know how you assess your strengths and weaknesses by responding to this blog.

• what exactly make your service better
• how is your product better
• why do your customers love you

Only a small percentage of astute entrepreneurs had a well thought out answer based on some basic market research and business acumen.

No one is disputing that the next couple of years in South Florida are going to be tough and that business is going to be slower this year.  This means that to stay the same size and make the same money as last year you need to own a bigger piece of a shrinking pie!  You will have large and small competitors getting scared and discounting prices, offering more value without charging more or possibly dumping their product or service just to get some money out of their inventory.  Corporate America understands this situation and you will see them begin to consolidate with competitors so they can grow their piece of the pie and cut out un-needed overhead or pull out of the market all together.

This is happening in the financial market as we speak, Merrill Lynch is forcing people out by not offering them bonuses like they have become accustomed to (too bad for these spoiled crybabies), Bank of America is taking over Countrywide, Starbucks is going to close non-performing stores, Washington Mutual has closed their mortgage stores and may be taken over this year by one of the larger wall street firms.

You may be thinking that this is the financial market, however the effect of thousands of people not making money or not having jobs is that many of these people will become consultants, insurance sales people, credit counselors, collectors, franchise owners, retail store owners, restaurant owners, wholesalers, distributors, DJ's, and anything else they feel they can do to make money.  If you are in a business that makes money, you will find a whole new set of competitors entering your market within the next 12-18 months.

What does this mean, it means that you must quantify and qualify your value to your customers and prospects.  I recently spoke to the owners of a variety of businesses, below are my observations and hopefully you can identify with them and change or be happy that you have more defined benefits:

• a computer service business owner stated to a group that he helps small businesses with their technology needs.  He did not have an understanding of document imaging, OCR, VOIP and he was just learning about Vista.  His recommendations showed that this company did not understand the technology that entrepreneurs needed to run and grow their business
• a networking group that was deciding if they should stay together asked what they could do to grow their group.  If they don't know if they are going to stay together then why would anyone join their group.  While discussing if they should stay together they could not come to any agreement on why they only were getting 30% attendance... maybe they offered no real value!
• a web designer that creates sites for small businesses is looking for customers that want an inexpensive, qualify web site for around $1,000.  When we asked what a quality site means, she said it varies, just like what she means by around $1,000.  Oh yea! she said that she just left her corporate job as a marketing executive and that gives her a unique value over her competitors (her and 1,000 other ex-marketing people)

What can you do? 

• Write out why you are better, why your product or service is better, why your customers stay with your company. 
• Once you write it out, take it with you on your next sales call and see if you are saying to others what you feel are your value statements!
• Ask your customers to state your value to them is specific terms
• Make sure your literature is consistent with your value statements
• Ask yourself if these benefits and value statements are enough to keep your business growing or stable during the next two to three years

I would like to hear what your unique selling proposition is.  I would also like to hear about any companies that know their specific value statements, even if it is not your company, just add your comments to this blog.

Floridians use to look at the summer time as vacation time.  If you owned a business in Florida you would close up and wait until tourist season came back.  Retailers would stop advertising, restaurants would close up and the owners would open their summer business up north.  Those few people that worked outside the tourism industry would know that the roads and movie theaters would be empty.

Well, that’s not how Florida operates today.  We are a year round business environment that is thriving during the summer months.  Our population has skyrocketed and the number of people working in the tourism industry does not make up the majority of our economy any more.  We have grown up and it is time to acknowledge it.
This means that local businesses must continue to advertise; they must continue to network, they must continue to cold call and they must continue to grow their business.  Many organizations used to limit their networking events or cancel them altogether, not any more.

Sure, lots of decision makers take their vacations during the summer, however that does not mean you can develop more business.  It means you need to work harder and smarter than usual in order to take business from your competitors.

Summer Time Action List

Put together your summer time action list now.  A summer time action list is the actions and activities your will do during the summer that will continue to grow your business:

• Create a summer business plan – this plan should consist of all the projects you don’t have the time to complete during the busy season.  It may include getting all your contacts into your contact management system, or developing that media kit you have been working on, or even conducting that sales training you never seem to get around to doing.  Don’t limit the items, list everything you have been wanting to do or have started but have not finished.

• Identify what will help you the most – once you have your list, you must identify which projects will help you the most.  

You should use the following criteria for making these decisions:
1. Will this project by itself solve one of my biggest issues or increase business substantially
2. Do we have the resources to make complete this project during the summer months
3. Will it cause disruption to our regular business
4. Is this the best time to complete the project
5.  How will we measure success

• Create a basic project plan – during the summer, even you and your employees take time to go on vacation, so use the project plan to make sure all the resources required to complete the project will be available when you need them.  Your project plan can be as simple as listing the tasks, related tasks, resources required, start and finish dates, time required and person the task is assigned to.
• Take action – seems obvious, however this is the one step that is often overlooked.  Hard to believe, however many companies like to plan and plan and plan, they just find one excuse after another why they don’t implement the plan.

You Competition Is Probably On Vacation

No, not all your competition.     They may still be in town, however they expect the summer to be slow and they aren’t paying attention to you or the fact that you are advertising more, networking more and selling more.  This is the perfect time to let your customers know that you are serious about business and that you are here year round to service them.

The networking events you attend will be with other businesses that are working through the summer and they will enjoy working with companies that are working as hard as they are.
You competition may not run their advertisement in the summer, leaving more room for your ad to stick out and stick in your prospects minds.  There is less direct mail, there is less telemarketing, and there is less cold calling.  This means that your increased efforts will have a much greater impact on your prospects.

Other Dedicated Businesses Like Yours

If you are still out there doing business this summer take the time to respond to this blog and let us and the other 4,000 entrepreneurs that visit mybizuniverse.com each month that you are dedicated just like them. 

Please tell us your company name, type of business and what you are doing during the summer.

Entrepreneurial Paul was a corporate executive that recently entered the world of Entrepreneurship.  He dreamed of all the freedom, excitement, fulfilling days and hassle free life he felt Entrepreneurs have.  After a few years in business, he realized being an Entrepreneur was not as glorious as he had dreamed.  He wasn’t having fun anymore and he felt that something was wrong; he just couldn’t put his finger on it.  His business has grown; he was hiring more people, he was making a living and some years a good living. Then he told me about his morning, just before he got to my Fort Lauderdale office.  Here it is:

Paul got up this morning and went to do his exercises.  He turned the computer on in his home office…just check his e-mail.   Wait, he realized he just checked it last night at 11pm when he went to sleep…He checked it anyway!  During this time he saw a stack of papers on his desk that he just had to look through to make sure he is not missing anything important; he felt he could always cancel his appointment with the Sales & Management Group. 

Thirty minutes later, Paul finally got around to doing his exercises while watching the business channel.  Of course, he had to stop and listen to the story about a company he had stock in. 

Ten minutes into his exercise he realized that he was running late so he cut his exercise short and went to take a shower.  He is running through all the things he had to do today and for the rest of the week.  He was also thinking about the employee he had to fire and the sales people he needs to hire.  Don’t forget the plans he has for growing his business.  Paul feels it’s ok to think like this in the shower because he saw a commercial that proved that business people think of great ideas in the shower!

Time to get dressed; he was trying to remember if our meeting was business causal or should he were a suit (it makes no difference to me).  Great! He selected the suit figuring it’s easier to dress down if the meeting is more causal.  Paul stopped and congratulated himself on knowing that factoid of business dress.  However, this triggers a flood of thoughts about the old days in corporate America where he wore only the finest suits and couldn’t wait to be an Entrepreneur so he could wear what he wanted to wear.  Just then he stopped, got undressed and put on his causal pants and a silk Tommy Bahama shirt.  Ahhh, now that feels better.

Paul had to leave immediately, even to be 20 minutes late.  He guzzled down his coffee and some cereal, grabbed his palm pilot and off he went into his car.  Once in his car, he reviewed the business books on tape and decided to listen to the sports talk show to relax.  Of course the conversation is designed to incite your emotions and he is now cursing all of his losing teams, the old people on the road and how crowded the roads are in South Florida.  Then he realized that crowed roads meant more potential business for him and he began to think about all those ideas that can make him rich.

Paul began to think of all the ways to grow his business; most of them over and over again, working out the details in his car, on a plane or while watching TV.  He knows he wrote the ideas down somewhere, and for one reason or another he has not implemented the majority of them.  This triggers a flood of remorse over not implementing enough new ideas.  He begins to think he got complacent.  What can he do to implement new ideas?  He is taking a first step by going to an Entrepreneurial consulting firm like the Sales & Management Group.  But wait…what if they just give him more ideas!  He thinks of all the business coaches that he has spoken to.  All they did was give him more to think about, they didn’t ever do anything.  Paul now thinks of all the things he could do if he cancels the meeting, but he sees these guys every week at a networking meeting so he may as well get it over with.  Plus, he reminds himself that Marc never pushed him, and he always said that the majority of my investment is based on productivity, and meeting pre-arranged goals…my goals!

Now Paul, while still driving, began to review the calls and to-dos he has to do today.  Sure he went to that time management class while he worked in corporate America, however he doesn’t have time to manage his time right now, and those trainers don’t understand the time constraints that Entrepreneurs have.  Back to his to-do list… Oh darn! Forgot to put two to-dos and  three calls that he has to  make.  Paul can’t write on his blackberry while driving so he jots it down on a Starbucks napkin he has on his front seat, from one of his four large cups of highly caffeinated coffee they sell. 

Paul’s blackberry is buzzing with e-mails, half of which are junk. However he still checks to see if it is something important.  Now he wonders why he hasn’t received the e-mails he has been waiting for and why he has not received any calls yet this morning?  Then he realizes that it is only 7:30am; he made our meeting for 7:30 am so it wouldn’t interfere with his day, and that’s why he hadn’t gotten any calls.  This did not soothe the cell phone beast in Paul; he had to make some calls, and he had to know what was going on.  Paul quickly dialed his office assistant on her way to the office to make sure she was going to be on time (she hadn’t been late in three years).  Then he called his salespeople just to confirm that they were on their way to their networking events, something he did on his way home last night!

When Entrepreneurial Paul got to my office, it was obvious that he was already experiencing Entrepreneurial Chaos,  so I got him a cup of coffee and asked him to tell me about his morning.

This event happened months ago, Paul is doing fine and slowly replacing his Entrepreneurial Chaos with the strategies, tactics and philosophy of the “Entrepreneurial Way.”   More on that in later columns…the goal of this column, is to get  you to ask yourself if you are experiencing even a little of what Entrepreneurial Paul went through.

In conducting the research for this article, we found that this is a much bigger problem than anyone on our team thought.  With more and more people becoming entrepreneurs, and the business environment getting more and more complex, we have decided to meet this problem head on and create a seminar that would help Entrepreneurs eliminate Entrepreneurial Chaos!

Let us know about your Entrepreneurial Chaos revelations.  First, acknowledge you may have a problem.  Next, write it down, hopefully in this blog.   Then take action to make your Entrepreneurial experience be all that you knew it would be.  Over the next month, Mybizuniverse.com will conduct a survey of Entrepreneurs that will culminate in a seminar on how to eliminate Entrepreneurial Chaos.  Our goal is to have this seminar rolled out in late March of 2007.

Entrepreneurs enjoy the journey!  If you aren’t then perhaps you are experiencing Entrepreneurial Chaos!

By Marc Gilenson

We have developed the Mybizuniverse.com (MBU) 7 Steps To Great Referrals white paper after interviewing hundreds of Entrepreneurs and attending numerous leads and networking groups throughout South Florida for the past 16 months.  We analyzed what the companies that generated the most referrals as well as the companies that had almost no referrals.  We looked at the root causes of the success and failure of these Entrepreneurs and developed the system outlined in this blog.  If you would like to receive a copy of the Mybizuniverse.com 7 Steps To Great Referrals white paper, please e-mail me at Marc@mybizuniverse.com and put in the subject line…Great Referrals!

Our blogs are meant to give you practical…affordable…effective…solutions that any Entrepreneur can implement.  We utilize real Entrepreneurs like Scott Davidson so you can see the advice in action. 

Here are seven steps that you must take on your path to generating great referrals:

1.      Ask yourself why do I refer the people that I do

2.      Identify who I want to get me referrals

3.      Decide what’s in it for the person making the referral

4.      Develop three features/benefits you want the referrer to stress

5.      Create the collateral support material (website, etc) they can use

6.      have a process to keep the referrer informed on the status

7.      Create an on-going education process

Step One – ask yourself why do I refer the people that I do

Scott answered the question this way, “I refer companies and people that I know and feel comfortable with, and in most cases have used or still use.  In addition, I refer people and companies to other members in ITEX”. 

Now let’s break it down;

Ø      Scott must know and feel comfortable with the people or companies he refers.  In his job as an ITEX Broker Scott will spend over an hour understanding a person’s business needs and potential unused capacity.  This gives him a good understanding of the businesses that become ITEX members through Scott’s organization.

Ø      Scott likes to recommend companies that he or someone he trusts has used or is still using.  As an ITEX Broker, Scott and his Trade Director are in constant communication with all his members, therefore they are aware of companies that are great at what they do and those that are not so good.

Ø      It should be obvious by now that Scott hands out a tremendous amount of referrals to his ITEX members.  This is a business group that he knows and believes in, this makes it easy to refer to other members

Ø      The more referrals Scott makes, the happier his clients are and the more referrals they bring to Scott.

Step Two – Identify who I want to get me referrals

This was a very interesting discussion.  Scott knows exactly who he wants to get referrals for ITEX… Current, active ITEX members.  He understands that the only way a person can explain a barter service is to understand that it is another form of currency.   ITEX corporate also understands the value of current members (more on this later in the article).

Step Three – decide what’s in it for the other person

This was easy to identify.  If a current ITEX member refers someone that they currently do business with, then they may be able to use barter dollars instead of cash.  Let me give you an example, a client referred a toner company (Tonerbob) to Scott.  Now the person that referred Tonerbob used to spend $200 per month cash on toner, now he can spend 200 barter dollars that were generated from unused capacity!  If a current ITEX member is speaking to a friend that has excess inventory that is costing money to maintain or has downtime that is not generating money, then the current member can refer them to Scott after using their situation as a reason for making the referral.

So as you can see, Scott has identified the following reasons why a current member should refer ITEX:

Ø      referring ITEX builds a strong network of members that means more products and services they can spend their ITEX dollars on

Ø      referring ITEX helps their friends and business associates turn unused capacity into business, this makes the person referring Scott a valuable resource to their friends and business associates

Ø      referring ITEX can allow you to spend ITEX dollars instead of cash with your vendors

Ø      referring three companies that become members means you don’t have any monthly dues for one year (saves you 390 dollars)

Step Four – develop three features/benefits you want the referrer to stress

Being able to have your referrer spew out up to three features/benefits is a critical part of MBU great referral system.  Scott retained the Sales & Management Group to conduct  round table discussions with his top referring clients as well as clients that are active an do not refer much at all.  There were many eye opening findings; however the one that was most amazing was that the top referrers would say why a company should get involved with ITEX and especially Scott in less than 45 seconds.  They were able to answer the one or two most frequently asked questions in their 45 second discussion. 

The discussion around ITEX was not a pitch, however it was a couple of questions with the follow-up statement “sounds like you and Scott have some potential synergies, I’ll have him call you this week.”  The following are the features that the group felt was most helpful in getting referrals for Scott:

Ø      Do you have any slow times that your staff is not working at capacity and yet you’re still paying them for the time or any slow moving inventory that is taking up valuable space and tying up cash?

Ø      In your business, If you could free up cash from buying things like advertising, toner, graphic design, pest control, and about 50 other areas, would that help your business be more profitable?

Ø      Would it help if you had someone promoting your business through e-mails to over 800 businesses and someone that was financially motivated to actively promote your business ?

You get the point; the benefits are putting unused capacity to work, and generating revenue from non-revenue producing inventory (most times it is costing to keep the inventory).  Let’s not forget paying for a myriad of products and services with ITEX dollars that you currently pay cash for.  Of course, last but not least is the infrastructure that Scott has put in place.  His operations staff is available every day to answer any and all of your questions, requests for help getting the products and services you need using ITEX dollars, and finding you business.

The purpose of the question format is to make it more conversational.  Your referrer is not there to give a complete presentation, just pique their interest enough to either call you or accept your call to them.

Step Five – create collateral and support material the referrer can use

It’s nice that you have beautiful brochures; however the referrer is not going to carry those around with them.  You need to give them something that will be easy to get to or small enough to hand out.  Scott is fortunate enough to be a local Entrepreneur with  mult-national company support.  The ITEX website contains all the information a company needs to make a positive buying decision.  This allows Scott’s referrers to just recommend that the person they are referring go to www.305292.itex.com for more detailed information.  This also helps Scott qualify the referral, if they have visited the website they and they want to meet, half the sales process is done!

Step Six – have a process to keep the referrer informed

Whatever the reason a person refers someone to you, they want to know the outcome.  People like to know the score, they want to be kept informed and they want to know that you know where the referral came from.  Once again, Scott utilizes the investment made by ITEX corporate.  There custom software will track all the referrals made by a current customer.  This is also required in order to effectively track their referral program of no monthly fees for up to one year after a third referral turns into an ITEX member.

Technology is not enough, Scott and his operations staff, led by Jasmine Poitier keeps all their referrers up to date by calling them to let them know that they have followed up.  If a referral does not want to meet with Scott or does not want to become an ITEX member, Scott and Jasmine will call the referrer back and let them know the status while thanking them for making the referral…Now that’s a system anyone can do and only a few implement!

Step Seven – create an on-going education process

This does not have to be formal training; it just has to be consistent and constant without being intrusive.  Scott currently reminds all his members about the referral program in every e-mail he sends out.  It is subtle, yet makes the point.  Scott is working with the Sales & Management Group on a series of how to refer statements that will go along with the e-mail message.

If you want to reach Scott to discuss his implementation of the MBU referral system, or are just interested in ITEX, call him at 954-337-2183.

By Marc Gilenson

While watching one of the many financial news shows, they were discussing how gift cards are helping some of the largest businesses bring in new customers.  In addition to bringing in new customers, they discussed how it offers businesses the chance to use the cash paid, to purchase the gift for a number of days before having to provide the service or product.  It sounds like a great way to help finance the additional inventory that is necessary for your busy season.

Entrepreneurs Can Use Gift Cards

Imagine having people give you money for a gift card! They in turn give the gift card to a friend or co-worker who becomes your new customer.  Wow! Your customers are paying you to bring in new customers.  Not only are they bringing in new customers when these new customers come in, they will usually spend more than is on the gift card.  Gift cards should be promoted by you and your staff, and some point of sale material (signs, posters, etc.) can be the perfect use of direct mail or an e-mail marketing program.

Entrepreneurs Can Implement A Customer Loyalty Program

Let me see… I can buy from a large company that sends me newsletters, is available when I need them, and oh yeah, they show me how much they appreciate me by giving me rewards.  It’s their way of keeping me, their customer, loyal.  Based on the success of the frequent flyer program, it is obvious that Entrepreneurs should find a way to duplicate these programs.  One example of a very simple customer loyalty program is to give a frequent user card that you can put money on after your “loyal” customers spend a pre-determined amount of money, or they buy a certain product or service that you want to promote.

Entrepreneurs, Forget The Coupons

I know, it’s hard to give up what we have done for years, even if it’s not working. Just kidding, I’m sure your coupon advertising is working great, however, if you want to try something different, try giving a gift card good for $5, $10 or $20 on any of your products or services.  Don’t give a paper coupon that your customers will put with all those other coupons… give them a gift card that will be put into their wallet and used at your establishment.  Even if they don't use the card, you still get a consolation price, you keep the money! 

When staying at a fine hotel on vacation or business you often turn to the Concierge for advice on where to dine, what tour to take, or getting the last-minute shipment of samples for a tradeshow redistributed to your colleagues’ rooms.

A concierge is a person that takes care of your every need.  It is someone ready, willing and able to be there to respond to those needs immediately – and sometimes intuitively - without even being asked.   

So what is an Entrepreneurial Concierge?   This is person who hits the ground running, learning your business and focusing on its success as if they have a personal stake in it. They have superior skill sets the area of expertise you’ve charged them with.  They think like an entrepreneur and act like an integrated part of your company. 

An Entrepreneurial Concierge is a person that is so confident in their abilities that they don’t need the recognition that many consultants live for.  They are humble, unassuming and work behind the scenes either on their own or in small boutique firms. 

Part of a Larger Team

Your Entrepreneurial Concierge does not work alone; he or she is part of a much larger team.  Your team must include a technical expert, a legal expert, an operations expert, a sales expert, and many more.  Some of these team players will be found in your company and many will be found as outside business partners.

Your job as the business owner is to assemble the best players possible and make them work for you.

A Creative Concierge in Boca Raton

Nancy Suchoff identified the need of businesses and professionals to outsource their creative work to someone they could trust to think and perform like they did.  Suchoff Marketing Communications has been a Creative Concierge in Boca Raton since 1994.  Nancy helps businesses and professionals market themselves via identity (logo) development, website design, collateral materials and sales promotion programs.  “Branding is paramount,” says Nancy. “Every company and professional needs to connect with their target market – and build their brand and awareness, no matter the size of their marketplace.”   She enjoys the collaborative process with enthusiastic clients and works with some of the best copywriters, photographers and printers in South Florida to help put projects together.

Her client’s words say it best: “Two years working as my creative ‘right arm’ Nancy instinctively knows the needs of my business and contributes much more than her design and marketing talents,” says Patrick Cioffi, Jr., CEO of Premier Partners Marketing Inc. of Boca Raton.   “Her ideas and resourcefulness are invaluable.”

Do you know an Entrepreneurial Concierge?  Tell us about them, and why you would bestow such a coveted title upon them!

By Marc Gilenson

Managing Editor

The past 5 years have seen rapid growth and good times in South Florida.  The housing boom has meant plenty of disposable income.  Consumers have been buying everything and the companies that sold all these goods have seen record profits.  Now that the housing market is slowing down and people are looking for where their disposable income is going to come from, there is a potential for a recession in 2007.

Corporate America has already identified that times will get tougher in the next year.   They are:

Ø      buying back in anticipation of decreased earnings

Ø      investing in technology that reduces the need for knowledge workers (entry level and mid-level) in anticipation of increased payroll costs for these workers

Ø      looking to move to a more virtual workforce reducing the cost of real estate

Ø      searching our vendors that provide commodities for less

Ø      communicating more with existing customers, increasing their revenue per customer

Ø      focusing on their more profitable customers

Ø      merging to maximize operations

Ø      merging to acquire new clients

Ø      outsourcing non-core functions

This is not a gloom and doom forecast for South Florida Entrepreneurs.  In every downturn there is opportunity!  That’s right! The opportunity to look at your company’s operating costs, sales costs, marketing costs, payroll costs, technology investments and unprofitable customers.  Every Entrepreneur overlooks these costs during times of revenue growth. Successful Entrepreneurs are dialed into their marketplace enough to realize when things are about to change, and Entrepreneurs love change and the challenge it brings.

What’s The Entrepreneur To Do?

It’s time for Entrepreneurs to look internally at their current business processes in order to reduce costs and increase profits.  Corporate America will inevitably lessen their customer service, decrease quality, worsen the customer experience in their attempts to reduce costs and increase profitability.  This is where the Entrepreneur can capitalize on the coming recession.  They can reduce costs and increase profitability while maintaining or even increasing their service, quality and customer experience.

The following are some ways that South Florida Entrepreneurs are reducing costs while increasing profits:

Ø      Outsourcing what is not your core business is easier than you think, and you don’t even have to use a foreign company to achieve great cost savings.  Myriam Cohen, President and Founder of Equilibrix says “our customers love the fact that we do all the data entry, tracking, design and delivery of their e-mail based marketing plans for much less than they can do it themselves.”  Equilibrix is a South Florida based company helping over 100 South Florida entrepreneurs sell more to their existing customers and generate new customers for less.

Ø      Scanning and imaging technology that reduces the need for expensive real estate to house file cabinets.  This same technology can increase customer service by making document retrieval taking seconds versus hours or even days.   From a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, entrepreneurs can implement a digital document process that can save thousands of dollars in real estate costs, labor costs, and supplies cost, all the while increasing customer service through quicker response time.

Ø      There are few commodities that can offer more immediate savings than “toner”.  Office supplies, copiers, printers, office furniture all offer small or one time savings. Only “toner” is the commodity that keeps on saving.  Bob Hagen, President of TonerBob.com, has spent the last two years helping South Florida Entrepreneurs’ save thousands of dollars on their toner expense.  A recent study conducted by Toner Bob found that the average business in South Florida can save anywhere from $30 to $500 a month on their toner expense.

Ø      Nothing is sacred!  Look at everything, even those processes that seem to be working well.  During times of plenty, Entrepreneurs will justify not making a money saving change with the old adage “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”  A perfect example of this is credit card processing, where you can get a potential saving of 5% or more with the card service company doing all the transition work for you.

Ø      Branding is the development of a consistent logo, look and feel that can be used for all your marketing material.  According to Nancy Suchoff, President and Marketing Concierge of Suchoff Marketing, “branding allows Entrepreneurs to save money through the use of “Shells” for their marketing materials, while increasing recognition of their company logo.”  All great products and services have a recognizable brand, and during a tough economic time if your brand stands for quality and value, it can  make the difference between maintaining your profits or going out of business.

Ø      Turning used capacity into savings through the use of Barter.  Entrepreneurs have thousands of dollars of unused capacity or excess inventory that they can use to generate barter dollars that will then pay for products or services they currently pay cash for.  Scott Davidson, one of the top brokers for ITEX, an international barter company, has access to thousands of companies that provide products and services on barter.  Everything from restaurants to car repair can be purchased with barter dollars.

Ø      Eliminating unsuccessful marketing.  There is an old saying that “50% of marketing is not effective,” however most Entrepreneurs don’t know which 50%.  Tracking results is not difficult, it just takes time and commitment.  The potential savings can be huge.  Mybizuniverse.com lists a series of workshops designed to help Entrepreneurs identify what is working and what marketing dollars can be saved.

The Top Three Benefits

Even though the benefits of reducing costs and increasing profits are obvious, I would like to review a few:

Ø      Each of the dollars saved by using the above techniques are bottom line dollars.  This means that every dollar you save is a dollar of additional profit

Ø      To keep your business running during tough times

Ø      Even if the projected recession does not arrive, you will have a stronger, more efficient and profitable company