Business Owners Indianapolis

Anita is a native of Phoenix and has been Chief People Officer for Jokake Construction for the past eight years.  She specializes in strategic planning, training and development, and business development.  Recently she undertook a leadership role in business development for one of Jokake's major lines of business.  Jokake is a whale hunting company!

Anita is passionate about helping business owners be successful and achieve their goals. She has worked with numerous entrepreneurs to help them grow both business and talents.  She also works with college students who are preparing for their careers and their first job.

For more information about The Whale Hunters Chapters, please click here.

Saying Good-bye to a Business I Loved
Christine Kloser

Little did I know at the time I went through this that the choice I finally made to shut down the business was the very opening that's led to the success I'm experiencing in my business today. The most important thing I learned through this journey is that everything truly does happen for a reason. And it's up to me to look for the deeper meaning in my experiences and to be open to the gifts and the lessons that are sometimes wrapped in sadness and pain.

So, I invite you now to take a look at your life. First, allow yourself to notice if you're doing something (or not doing something) because you don't want to let other people down. If you can relate to this in your own life, take some time to journal about it to discover the gift that is trying to reveal itself to you.

Second, if you find yourself in a business situation where you feel like you've come to the end of a path... trust the saying that, "When one door closes, another door opens." This was certainly true for me, and I know that if you're going through a similar "letting go" in your business, that it's true for you, too. One door never closes unless another door is simultaneously opening. So, look for the openings and you'll be amazed at the opportunities just waiting for you to notice them. 

From Overcomers, Inc.; True Stories of Hope, Courage and Inspiration. To get your own copy and receive dozens of bonus gifts go to http://www.overcomersbook.com/booklaunch

• First, Frances Hesselbein spent years at the Peter Drucker Institute, helping to translate Drucker's business principles into leadership strategies for nonprofit and public organizations.  I believe that leadership lessons for your company are best derived from lessons learned in each economic sector--from the private sector we learn best about markets and competition, from the public sector we learn best about national interests and service, and from the nonprofit sector we learn best about social responsibility.  The better we can become at aligning these lessons, the more powerful and successful we will be as leaders in every sector.
   
• Second, it is very good to see the US Armed Forces continuing on their path to a broader definition of "leadership" -- one that goes beyond military strategy to embrace a deep understanding of language, culture, and place as key elements in a military engagement.  Increasingly, these are key elements of a business engagement in the global economy.  We should expect lessons learned from this alliance that will enlighten business leaders in new ways.
   
• Finally, I am pleased to see Frances Hesselbein recognized in this way for her phenomenal career's work.  Formerly head of the Girl Scouts of America, she has been a beacon for leadership education that embraces women and girls yet is not exclusive to women and girls.  She is a powerful role model for women business owners and entrepreneurs, demonstrating that collaborative, team-based strategies have their own source of power and can supersede top-down directive strategies.

• First thing you need to know is how the government defines "small business."  In most industries, the category includes businesses with as many as 500 employees.  So if you are much smaller, and much newer, than the competition, the odds are heavily stacked against you unless you have a product or service that the government wants and no one else offers yet.
   
• The idea of presenting yourself as a subcontractor rather than prime is especially relevant.  Prime contractors need to demonstrate their inclusion of small businesses including women-owned and minority-owned firms.  Companies in those categories that are professional, reliable, and knowledgeable about government contracting are at a premium.  Rather than working directly for a local, state, or federal government, you work for the contractor.
   
• If the subcontractor route interests you, build a sales process that targets prime contractors, not government agencies.  You will need a completely different approach and message.
   
• If you have not done business deals with public agencies, understand that there is a great deal to learn.  Everything from how to respond to the RFP to how to invoice and track expenses will be new and foreign.  If you are not ready, the requirements can  undermine your company seriously.  Even as a subcontractor, you will need to contribute meaningfully to the proposal.

Has the recession affected your spending habits?

These are not questions that affect my business life or even my "balanced" life.  Ladies Home Journal cornered that market a long time ago, and People covers the dirt on public figures.  If these are questions of interest related to business, they are not gender-specific.  Could you possibly imagine an invitation to male business owners based upon questions like these?

The Forbes Fiasco comes right on the heels of Dell's incredible faux pas in launching the "Della."

But this blog is about sales and business development, so I need a link from my real anger at Forbes to some positive ideas or actions for business owners and sales leaders.  Especially women, but this is equally important for men.

In the jargon of my business, Forbes is a whale--a big company with a big reach, a big media reach.  It matters when major businesses screw up like this.   Business people around the world--owners, entrepreneurs, executives, employees, students, wannabe's--they look to Forbes for insight, support, advice, and current events, and not incidentally, the current business environment in the United States.   What is the message?  The message is that in the midst of a very difficult global economic climate, the American business women are busy standing by their men who cheat and lie, focusing on their office outfits, buying make-up and shoes, and making their daughters rich.  That is not a good message or a remotely true message!

I am an advisor to small and midsized business about how to grow by doing bigger deals with bigger clients.  It is ALL about understanding your target customer and presenting yourself in a way that is attractive to them, meets their needs, does not annoy them, and does not frighten them.  This offer I received from Forbes violates all of those criteria.

So before you make the Forbes mistake, my advice is to consult with your target audience about their business interests, their business needs, their business challenges and their perceived opportunities. 

The people at Forbes are obviously trying to get on the very popular and lucrative women-in-business bandwagon.  I applaud their motives and hope they will find a way to be successful.  But here's just a quick laundry list of topics that would be oh-so-much more interesting to business women:
 

• who are the lenders and investment bankers targeting women-owned businesses?
• how can your company get involved in the federal stimulus package?
• How are female leaders and employees responding to downsizing and outsourcing? 
• What can you do when you are downsized or outsourced?
• How can business owners mitigate the recession influence on their employees?
• what are the most promising new business fields or opportunities of particular interest to women?

1. Clearly defined responsibilities and outcomes-based performance expectations, in writing, and agreed upon in advance.
    
2. Agreement on the time line of deliverables and the consequences of failure to meet performance expectations.
    
3. Separate business conversations from family conversations.  For example, during the business day, all conversations are about business.  Family conversations are for after-hours.
    
4. Never talk to other family members about business issues until you have first discussed with each other.  No surprises!
    
5. Frequent, scheduled review of how things are working.
    
6. Identification of an agreed-upon mediator that either can call if an issue can't be resolved.

• "Creative Class" cities with lots of entrepreneurial activity, well-networked, open to new ideas and hungry for economic development, business growth, and community engagement.
   
• Local representatives/Chapter Chairs.  Key people with good community connections, strong sales and business development experience, entrepreneurial spirit, to assist in convening the Whale Hunters Launch in your region and to populate and lead one or more local chapters of 12-15 members.  You may be an independent consultant, a coach, a trainer, an entrepreneur? 
   
• Members of local chapters and prospective attendees at local workshops.  You don't want to lead but would like to see Whale Hunters services delivered close to you at prices you can afford. 
   
• Sponsors.  National and local business owners, executives, and marketers who want to be in front of The Whale Hunters target audience of small to mid-size business owners, sales executives, and development officers.  We are grateful to Bose McKinney & Evans for sponsoring the Indianapolis summit  and delighted to announce the National Bank of Arizona as our lead sponsor for the Phoenix launch.
   
• Communication Partners.  National and local organizations that can help us market Whale Hunters events and related opportunities.  Chambers of Commerce, TV and radio, digital broadcast programs, business journals, for sure.  Also local/regional businesses willing to co-sponsor and share their digital database in a mutually beneficial fashion.

My home town, Indianapolis, features a beautiful city center, all deliberately laid out before the city was developed.  The city center is a perfect square mile, circumscribed by the streets named North, South, East, and West, and in the middle of that square mile is a circle, in the center of which stands a monument to Indiana's soldier and sailors who fought in the Civil War [and also in the Spanish American war, but that is another story].  We call this landmark "the monument" and the center of our city "Monument Circle."  At this spring-time of year, it is lush with flowers and its fountains are splashing into the pools that surround it.

The figure at the very top of the monument is "Miss Liberty."  It is said that she faces south in order to welcome home the surviving troops.  At the lower levels of the monument, east and west depict friezes of "war" and "peace," and each of the four lower level squares is dedicated to one of the armed forces.

Today America honors our fallen heroes and our veterans--all of the men and women who serve and who have served to protect the liberties that we enjoy.  I add my voice to that praise and thanksgiving, and I do so from the heart of a city that knows well how to remember and how to honor.

Business owners and executives have struggled through recent downturns in our economy, and it is easy to feel discouraged and disappointed with sales and business development or opportunities or growth, or simply a temporary downturn in expectations.   Can we find the grace to honor?  Do we have the spirit to celebrate?

I'd say yes, and that grace and spirit is more important today than ever.  The fundamental freedoms still live that encourage entrepreneurship in the United States, that nurture business development and business growth, and that allow women and men to found and grow business enterprises.

For those privileges I am profoundly grateful to the women and men who have fought for them since our founding as a nation.  I think especially today of my dad Ray Tag, WWII fighter pilot stationed in England and flying missions over Germany, who was a German POW when I was born, and who survived and thrived as an entrepreneur and salesman after that war and who [with our Mom of course!] raised seven daughters to think like he did about American business!  My dad passed away almost 40 years ago but his love for enterprise and American ingenuity is alive and--I hope--well.  Let's give thanks, celebrate, and build our businesses with renewed energy tomorrow.





 

I've been experimenting with social media as sales and business development tools.  In that process have written two articles featuring a series of questions that business owners or executives should ask when considering a social media strategy:

10 Critical Questions You Should Ask about Social Media

10 More Social Media Questions

Let me know what you think--what questions would you add?

I had a great time presenting the keynote at the first annual Women's Resource Day in Phoenix last week, at the lovely Desert Willow Conference Center, co-sponsored by the Phoenix chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) and SCORE.

Attendance was excellent, and even more important was the tremendous sense of energy and optimism expressed throughout the day.  Lots of exhibit spaces were sold with broad representation of business services aimed at women business owners.  Sponsor National Bank of Arizona was represented by its new Women's Financial Group, headed by Executive Vice President Deborah Bateman, who emphasized that her bank is looking for exciting companies to invest in.  Many of the women who attended have flourishing businesses and others are developing new products and services for changing times.

Clearly, there was a sense that women-owned businesses will be leaders in the economic recovery.  I predict that will happen--women-owned business in particular (just because women have more "growth space" available) and small to midsize business in general.

If you'd like to read about it, here's a link.
 
So, are you optimistic about women owned busines and other small businesses?  Leave a comment, please!

Today I’m starting a blog series on The Whale Hunters Process. It's a how-to process for landing big sales with customers that are much bigger than you! It consists of three stages—scout, hunt, and harvest—and nine phases, illustrated below.

• It is a strategic business development methodology for explosive growth.
• It meets the needs of entrepreneurs and small business owners and executives who want to have fewer, larger sales to increasingly larger customers. 
• It assumes that you have a complex sale, not a simple transaction.  You are selling a service, a system, or a combination of products and support, training, or consulting.
• It includes subject matter experts as part of the sales team.
• It assumes that the sales process is not complete until the contract has been fulfilled.
• It provides everyone in your company with a defined role in selling and delivering your products and services.