Business Really Does Grow Like Trees -Your Hands-On Guide for Business Successby Skip Weeks is a new book that can help you get control of your business and start building the kind of company that you have always wanted. Chapter One of the book is included here at no charge. For additional information visit http://www.InfoCentre.biz or call (801) 369-2225. Email FOREWORD  Business is likegardening. When businesses are started, their founders begin with the seed of an idea. They establish their business or plant their seed of an idea in the garden called their market niche or segment. If theseed is a good seed, if it's planted in good soil and the founders water the seed, see that the sprout gets plenty of sun, carbon dioxide and nutrients, and if they cultivate the soil in which the seed is planted, a strong, healthy tree will establish itself. This business tree will provide shade, fruit and even beauty for those that care for it and those within its realm.   The founders and their associated team aregardeners and laborers. They are ultimately responsible for the quality and quantity of the fruit they harvest and even, to some extent, for the quality of other trees that sprout from the seeds of the fruit from their tree. They have the power, through their intelligence, energy and hard work to control the outcome of their garden. They have an obligation to themselves, their families, the community and to the environment to grow good fruit and to care for and tend their garden.   Their tree will grow if they follow the natural laws of the harvest. Large, productive, fruitfulbusiness trees rarely grow without the attention and commitment of many laborers. They must be unified in their understanding of what is necessary to make the tree grow and prosper. They must help one another concentrate on the basic needs of their tree: good location, rich soil, sunlight, cultivation, water and nourishment. This book is about helping you to plant your tree and make it thrive.   This book provides a simple, yet powerful, model that will help you to organize your business activities in a focused, meaningful way that will empower your organization to leverage the natural resources within. It will help you to re-engineer your company to take advantage of the opportunities that await your organization.   The profound importance of this process of review and empowerment can not be overemphasized. For those who desire to succeed in today's complex and changing world economy, it is no longer enough to conduct business as usual. What is needed is nothing less than a personal and organizational revolution. Time is moving faster. Change is accelerating. The need for quality has never been more compelling. Innovation is no longer an option, it is an imperative. The world is crying out for specialists, who are willing to respond, personally and professionally, to specific individual needs. It is critically important that you find new ways to differentiate your company, its products and services. The market is demanding, more than ever before, a higher level of attentive customer service... and the willingness to pay for it has never been more prevalent.   Our society is changing at an ever increasing pace. Change provides opportunity, for those who have the vision and the courage to adjust their methods, perceptions and thinking patterns to take advantage of the new realities. This book returns back to the most basic of all principles, the law of the harvest, to provide you with a map that will guide you and your team through the complexities of today's business environment and will enable you to plant, cultivate and harvest a rich harvest in your business garden.   YOUR BUSINESS TREE   Think of your business or organization as a fruit tree. The conditions and activities involved in planting and growing a fruitful tree are directly comparable to the conditions and activities required to manage a successful business. Each of the business elements are identified below, along with their related corollaries. Your Business                                         The Garden   The Global Marketplace..........................................       Earth Environment   Your Market Segment/Niche.................................       Garden soil            Your Proprietary Ideas, Products............................       The Seed               Services   Product/Service Introduction...................................       Planting                Marketing, Sales   Your Company..........................................................       The Tree                 You&Your; Management Team...........................       The Gardener   Your Staff....................................................................       The Laborers   Leadership, Energy, Enthusiasm, Warmth...........       The Sun                                                                   Communication (facilitates flow)..........................       Water                      Cash Flow, Market Feedback..................................       Nutrients               Market Feedback   Competitors, Confusion, Poor Management........       Weeds                      Effective Management, Process Controls.............       Cultivating                           Customer Service, Time Management                 Regularly Reviewing Your Objectives....................       Pruning and Activities. Eliminate Activities and Investments in Your Business that are Unprofitable or Inconsistent with Your   Your Profits, Happy Customers, Fulfilled                      The Fruit                              Employees, Improved Environment.              The Global Marketplace: The Earth Environment Today's global marketplace provides an incredibly rich environment, filled with opportunities to add value and create wealth. Each person living today is the beneficiary of the consolidated experience and knowledge of thousands of years. Leveraging this knowledge and creating innovative, meaningful products and services is what business is all about. The global marketplace is analogous to the environment of the earth, where millions of gardens exists, each growing unique and wonderful things.     Your Market Segment/Niche: Your Garden Soil Within the global environment each company needs to identify its own sphere of influence, segment or market niche. This includes a geographic dimension and a product/service/industry conceptual dimension. For example, one company's sphere of influence or market niche is defined as:      "The northwestern grocery market".   The "northwestern" defines the geographical boundaries of the market and "grocery" defines the product/service/industry target market boundaries. This company has grocery stores in , , and northern . They specialize in that area of the global economy. They choose not to participate in other markets or industries. The definition of a market niche can be further refined to include just a certain kind of grocery store within this area, such as full-service, premium or discount. It is important to clearly understand and operate consistently with your defined market niche. You can change your definition to expand or reduce it when conditions dictate such action, of course. But until you make a formal change in this fundamental concept,you should ensure that all your actions are consistent with the currently defined market you have defined. Your market niche is your garden soil. You need to do whatever you can to enhance your plot of land to enable you to grow a rich and abundant crop.   Each company is unique in fundamental ways. Even companies that build their reputations on their sameness such as McDonalds or Wendy's are different, location to location, primarily, because of their locations. Each location has its own idiosyncrasies such as the location demographics, the labor market, the weather, the language, etc. Astute managers will take these differences into account and adjust their operating philosophies to take advantage of these differences, while leveraging the sameness and common heritage which they share with other similar businesses.   Every company or organization exists to provide unique and proprietary ideas, products, or services to their market niche. The development of these products and services demands innovation, fueled by knowledge gained from an understanding of the marketplace, how it operates and what it needs. As you plan and develop new products and services, take the time to validate your assumptions about what the market is saying about what it needs. Be market driven.   Your unique products and services are your seeds. Don't go to the trouble of planting immature, inappropriate seeds in your garden. Test out your ideas, obtain feedback from your market. Carefully anticipate the impact of your ideas on individual lives and on the organizations that will be affected by their use. Insist on developing, producing and selling products and services that have a positive impact in people's lives. Make sure your seeds are authentic and robust.   Planting your Seed in the Marketplace: Marketing&Sales Activities Take special care when you plant your seed. The introduction of a new product or service into a market can be greeted with great anticipation and applause or it can meet great resistance. It's up to you. The process of marketing is like preparing the soil to receive a healthy seed. Take the time to prepare and cultivate the soil, ensure that there is adequate heat, light, water and nutrients. Do it right, and your seed will explode out of the ground. Then your workreallybegins.     You are the Gardener: The Management Team You and your management team provide the labor necessary to manage the process in your garden. You and your management team also provide the leadership, energy, enthusiasm, warmth, just like the sun does in a garden. Your personality is the catalyst for change and commitment. You inspire your team to give their best, to cooperate, to compete and excel in everything they do. Invest time in quality meetings with them, individually and collectively, to share your vision and your enthusiasm. Let your sun shine on them. Make clear your crystallized vision of the future. Draw them into your dreams and ambitions for the organization. This can only be done when you have a genuine interest in them and in their success. You are in the enterprise, together, and are jointly responsible for the success of your efforts.   Do everything you can to ensure a shared vision. Set your standards high for quality, responsiveness and commitment. Set a personal example for every member of the team to emulate. Live a balanced, full life.   Communication means Life: Water to a Business Remember thatcommunicationis like water to a plant. It facilitates the flow of information and contributes a critical element in the process of growth. Communication keeps everyone "on the same page". Your first communication priority is internal. Make it perfectly clear what your organizational mission is, and what each person's responsibility, is to ensure its fulfillment. It is amazing how rare it is to find managers, willing to spend the time and energy necessary to communicate clearly what is expected. The payoff is so dramatic for those that do! It is amazing that all managers don't make this their number one priority.   Take the time to empathically put yourself in the place of each of your team members. Imagine yourself being asked to accomplish the objectives that you assign to them with only the information that you have provided to them. Perhaps, you can and should improve. Perhaps, you have already found the right balance. Remember that without effective, clear and regular communication the productivity of your garden is bound to suffer.   Nourish your Seed: Cash Flow, Market Feedback The best ideas, or seeds, rarely grow very well without nourishment. In your business cash flow and market feedback are the best fertilizer you can get. Each of these nutrients provides different, but crucial benefits, to your growing business tree. Cash flow enables you to hire helpers in fulfilling the mission of your organization. It helps you train and empower them. Cash flow helps you to prepare the soil through your marketing efforts. Market feedback helps you to grow the right kind of branches and fruit. Without market feedback you are never sure if you are caring for your business tree in just the right way. These important nutrients can make all the difference in the world in your ability to produce a rich harvest of valuable fruit.    Empowering your people nourishes them and enables them to fulfill their purpose in your garden. Empowerment implies training and trust. Too often, managers give the concept of empowerment lip service with neither the training nor the trust that really makes it work. Respect your team members and they will usually respect you and the mission that you both support. Investment in tools and facilities can also serve to communicate your commitment to success. Very often, investment in computers, software, training, ergonomic workstations and hundreds of other people-leveraging tools can make all the difference in your team's ability to compete effectively in the marketplace.     Weeds are Negative Influences: Competitors, Confusion & Poor Management From time to time, as you grow your business tree, you will encounter weeds in your garden. These weeds include confusion, competitors, and even poor management. You need to eliminate, wherever possible the negative influences of these weeds.    In the case of competitors, you may be able to leverage a strong position for your products and services from a competitor's position of weakness. For example, one company entered a market with a new product that competed, directly, with an existing product from another company. They identified weaknesses in the competing product and aggressively compared their own strengths to these areas of weakness in their marketing and sales activities. The original company had, at great marketing expense, established a recognized need in the marketplace for the kind of product that they both sold. The company with the new product was able to take advantage of this, now widely-recognized need and was successful in gaining significant market share at the expense of the company that had effectively created the market. The first company served as the "icebreaker" for the second.   Viewing all competitors as "weeds" is not always realistic. It can sometimes be beneficial to develop cooperative relationships with your competitors.   You can eliminate the weeds of confusion by establishing well-thought-out plans, and then taking the time and energy to carefully communicate and manage the execution of those plans. This process is an on-going one that takes constant attention and care. Keep an eye out for any negative influence in your business garden. Eliminate these influences before they take root in your organization. In the case of competitors, you may consider taking the approach of Novell's former C.E.O throughout its rise to prominence, Ray Norda. He coined the term "coopetition". This effective strategy relies on strategic alliances to expand the category or in other words grow the pie, rather than expanding your slice, at the expense of others.   Cultivate your Soil: Effective Management, Process Controls, Customer Service & Time Management Effective management serves as an important cultivation element in your garden. It enables the roots of your business tree to breathe. The hallmark of effective management is productive, involved, energized people. Happy employees are the result of a well planned organization with a meaningful mission. Each person should be trained and accountable to participate in the various necessary processes within your organization. These processes provide direction to your business and enable your staff to communicate with and serve the world outside your organization. Managing these important processes must be a daily ritual. Businesses and gardens do not automatically get better on their own; they get worse. You need to establish a scheduled, regular system of review of all aspects of your organization's activities.   Pruning your Business Tree: Eliminate Activities and Investment in Unprofitable Aspects of your Business or Things that are Inconsistent with your . Sometimes, it becomes necessary to prune your business tree. Regular review of your mission, your objectives and your activities will help you to know when and if it is time. Have the courage to eliminate all the activities and investments in aspects of your business that are unprofitable or inconsistent with your mission. Specialize and be experts in your market niche. Don't try to be a "jack of all trades". The world doesn't pay those guys very well. Brain surgeons and Olympic gold medalists do pretty well, though!     A Rich Harvest: The Fruit, Your Profits, Happy Customers, Fulfilled Employees, Improved Social & Physical Environment The fruits that you harvest from your business tree are your profits, your happy customers, your fulfilled employees, and last but certainly not least, your own personal satisfaction and fulfillment, whether you are the owner of a business, a manager, or any one of the other important gardeners that help the process of fruition along.   The existence of your business tree can have an incredible impact on the quality of life for thousands of individuals and businesses. Each member of your internal team can learn, grow, and personally flourish in their respective careers, as they contribute to the realization of your common, shared vision. Working together, and being actively engaged in a worthwhile cause can bring some of the most satisfying experiences that we can have.   Your focused, shared efforts can positively affect people's lives, bring security to the unsecure, correct problems that have caused suffering and pain, and improve our physical and economic environment. You really can leave the earth a better place than it was when you arrived. I challenge you to make a serious commitment to this objective. The better the quality of your fruit and the more of it you can deliver to the world, the better! The dynamics of successful businesses are such that they continue to grow in their ability to produce better and larger quantities of products and services, as they live by the simple laws of the harvest. I wish you well in your mission to grow and deliver abundant quantities of great fruit!   This book is a hands-on guide to re-shaping your business to empower you and your team to make your business effective in its mission of delivering products and or services to the marketplace. The book will guide you, step-by-step, through this powerful ten step process. The first step in this process of change is an audit of the current internal and external conditions. This process should be undertaken as a team. Involve everyone in your company in the process. Let everyone know that you are embarking on a new adventure of self discovery and that everyone's participation is valued and appreciated. Budget time for planning, understanding, communication and feedback. Involve your best advisors. Establish a timeline of not more than 30 days to complete the first eight steps in the process. The last two steps will involve an on-going monitoring and review process that will require a continuing effort for months to come to refine your plans and processes and to reinforce new expectations.   This may be the most challenging thing that you have ever accomplished. But, I can assure you, it will be the most satisfying. Change can be painful. But resisting change can be fatal.   Let's get started . . .                                          Skip Weeks -www.InfoCentre.biz                         The other chapters of the book are listed below:     Chapter Two            The Process of Change            10 Steps to a plentiful harvest                        1. Audit of Internal & External Conditions                        2. Crystallize your Objectives                        3. Verify Your Motivations                        4. Identify Your Resources                        5. Create Your Plan                        6. Establish the Timeline                        7. Organize Your Staff & Alliances                        8. Do It                        9. Monitor, Feedback & Quantification                        10. Adjust & Reinforce   Chapter Three            Tools For Growing Your Business Tree                        Obtaining Good Seeds (Planting & Marketing)                        Planting (Critical Path Sales Model)                        Cultivating                        Planning                           Chapter Four            Nourishing Your Business Tree             C. E. "Skip" Weeks, III is theFounder and President ofInfoCentre, an executive mentoring and business consulting company, specializing in Web Development and Internet technologies and helping companies exceed their goals by implementing creative financing, marketing, sales, and business strategies that leverage corporate resources to empower client companies to succeed. Specializing in Private Placements. (www.InfoCentre.biz). Mr. Weeks is an experienced business manager, author, speaker and mentor.   Business Really Does Grow Like Trees -Your Hands-On Guide for Business Successby Skip Weeks is a new book that can help you get control of your business and start building the kind of company that you have always wanted. Chapter One of the book is included here at no charge. For additional information visit http://www.InfoCentre.biz or call (801) 369-2225. Email   ...read more