BRCbuilders e-zine

Dear Reader,

You probably noticed a layout change in this month's e-zine. I'm trying this format for one primary reason - ease of archiving. If you strongly prefer the previous format, please drop me a note. Thank you.

In this article we're going to cover your Advisory Staff. Wildly successful business owners know one thing extremely well - they don't know it all! Every successful business owner knows his or her weaknesses and strengths and knows that a group of minds all on the same page with a common goal is a force to be reckoned with.

Many business owners mistakenly believe that they have to learn and know every possible nuance about business to be successful. From accounting to taxes to incorporating, many business owners needlessly try to do it all.

I've learned important lessons over my 15 year career as a cleaning and restoration business owner and one of the more important lessons is that trying to learn every little detail about every business function will DRIVE YOU CRAZY! Having said that it's still important to understand key concepts of your business and options, but trying to learn all the details of taxes, the legal system, business structure, etc. will most likely stunt your business growth or add many unnecessary years to becoming extremely successful.

Your Advisory Staff
As stated above, there are functions in your business that you need to fully understand; but you can't possibly or even need to understand every little detail. That's what an Advisory Staff is for. Let's look at some of the Advisors and how they can help every business owner, not just bigger companies.

Financial Advisor
This person knows everything about finances and how they affect your business. A well-established bookkeeper or accountant makes an excellent Financial Advisor. This should be a person who is well familiar with you and your business and someone you can call on for good financial advice. Be sure this person is qualified! Uncle Louis may have run a successful machine shop, but the financial differences between a machine shop and a cleaning and restoration firm are many. Your Financial Advisor must help you with things such as structuring payroll, tax strategies, budgeting, and money management.

Banking Advisor
The allocation and disbursement of your assets - especially equipment and money - are functions familiar to a good Banking Advisor. Your Banking Advisor should work well with your Financial Advisor to give you the best advice about investing in and using your assets wisely. My Banking Advisor is my bank manager. I confer with him about my asset needs and together with my Financial Advisor (my accountant) we develop strategies to help my business grow.

Legal Advisor
Your Legal Advisor helps you understand and plan your business from a legal standpoint. He confers with your Financial Advisor and you to help develop succession plans and asset allocation in the event that the unthinkable happens to you. Your Legal Advisor is also instrumental in helping you map out legal strategies and advice as you grow; such as employee issues, real estate contracts, contracts with your customers (esp commercial and restoration), potential liabilities, collection efforts, and many other functions of your business. My Legal Advisor is my business lawyer whom I've known and done business with for years. He's restructured notes, helped build a succession plan, helped with power of attorney plans, made changes to forms and contracts, and pretty much keeps me out of trouble!

Business Advisors
Business Advisors are those with business knowledge and experience familiar to your situation. One of my Business Advisors is my Mentor, CJ, who taught me more in just a few sessions than I learned in five years prior. Two more of my Business Advisors are my partners at BRC Systems Solutions - Dan Burk and Keith Collins. Yet two more of my Business Advisors are my parents, whom I bought the cleaning/restoration business from. Also on my Advisory Staff is my webmaster and marketing experts I've sought advice from over the years.

Other sources of Business Advisors can include: executives at your local Small Business Development Center, your local SBA and SCORE officers, Key personnel at your local Chamber of Commerce, successful friends and family members, Specialists who have already been where you want to be, etc. I'll bet if you sat down for a few minutes you could write out a short list of potential Business Advisors that can help you grow.

Assembling Your Advisory Staff

First, make a list of the 4 types of Advisors I noted above: Financial, Banking, Legal, and Business. Think of people you know or have heard of from a trusted source that could fill these roles. One word of caution - pick your Advisors VERY carefully! Try to pick those who are not only on the same page as you, but are well familiar with your situation, your business, where you're at, and where you want to go.

Next, create an "Advisory Portfolio". Get a binder and Title/Divide the binder into the four Advisory sections. Notes with each of your Advisors will go in the appropriate sections. You will use this for reference about things you've discussed and planned.

Third, meet with your potential Advisors and let them know what you're trying to accomplish. Tell them that you would like them to be on your Advisory Staff. You'll both know very quickly if the potential Advisor is right for you. I can't stress this enough - it's your life, business, and future. If you don't think a prospective Advisor is going to work out to your benefit, don't feel bad about saying "sorry" and keep looking. Professionals understand that they can't be all things to all people.

Fourth - after you've created your Advisory Staff, choose the frequency of your meetings and follow through. Consider getting a couple of them together if and when their functions overlap, such as your Financial and Legal Advisors. Meetings where all of you are together are much more productive than trying to talk with each individually.

Lastly, use your notes as benchmarks for your goals. For instance if you set up a budget with your Financial Advisor, check your progress at planned intervals, such as monthly at the start and at least quarterly after it starts humming along. Be sure to review your portfolio of Advisors at least once a year and see if there are any holes that need to be filled. If you're having trouble marketing, for example, consider Business Advisors who are great marketers.

Cost

There will be costs involved, especially with professionals. They have to be compensated for their time, effort, and expertise, of course. With a little bit of homework you can decide if the expertise you're looking for is worth the added expense in a given category. When you pick the right advisors, though, you should end up saving tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours of stress. One of the smarter things I did early on in my career as a business owner was I surrounded myself with successful people in key areas I needed help with, especially Finances, Legal, and Business Advisors like CJ and Dan and Keith at BRC Systems Solutions. Through their help and expertise, my business made hundreds of thousands of more stress-free dollars and faster than it would have if I tried to do it all by myself.

Create and implement your Advisory Staff and you'll be well on your way to Wild Success!

Scott

Become Wildly Successful!

Class 1
When: March 30th, 2006
Hosted by: NEIRC
Where: Publik House in Sturbridge, MA
Cost: $50 for members and $125 for non- members
Signup contact: Robin Deschane - 603-886-9461

Class 2
When: April 13-14, 2006
Hosted by: Steam Way International
Where: Steam Way Superstore; Denver, CO
Cost: $39 each student
Signup contact: Eloise - 800-447-8326

Click Here For More Upcoming Course Details...

I'm sorry for snagging a popular movie title as the headline, but it fit perfectly for what I'm about to write.

Everyone who knows me knows that I do not endorse just anyone for several reasons. First, I only place my signature of endorsement with those whom I have already had experience. I don't give out referrals unless and until I'm fully familiar with the person, product, or service. To gain my endorsement, the person or product has to be something that I fully believe in and have experience with. If you research the industry bulletin boards you probably have seen or experienced yourself advice from some who have never even used the very product or service they endorse.

I'm sorry, I just don't do that.

I've received a few calls and emails from people whom I've heard of, but have never done business, asking me to endorse their product or service. They know I have a large audience and understandably want to use this e-zine to advance their agenda. Heck, I can't blame them - that's the sign of a good marketer; but please understand I won't endorse or include your services or company unless I know you, think your services or products will benefit the readers of BRCbuilders e-zine, and complement our services and products.

Having said that, there are a "Few Good Men" I do strongly endorse. Please allow me to write about 3 of them today.

The first two are from the same company - John Rupich and Cary Cassidy from dirtygrout.com. These two gentleman have created a fantastic marketing CD to help Tile/Grout cleaners get more business. If you're looking to expand into this lucrative field, stop over to their board and see what it's all about. Also, there are hundreds of tile and stone experts on their bulletin board who specialize in hard surface care. They have a contest going on right now until the end of April. There are a TON of great prizes to be won. Unfortunately, I'm not eligible!

The 3rd gentleman I endorse is a new friend of mine, Dick Larkin, the author of The Yellow Pages Commando

I say "new" friend of mine because up until last week, Dick and I had never spoken on the phone. In reality, Dick really is an old-time friend of mine, we just didn't know it until last week. I've subscribed to his free e- newsletter - The Yellow Pages Commando - for the past 18 months and since the first issue I received thought of him as a friend. Dick has spent a decade as an executive with several phone book companies such as Transwestern Publishing, GTE, and Yellow Book.

Ok, now before you hang me for being in "bed with the enemy" (Dick reads this and is well familiar with the typical attitude of business owners and YP salesmen), Dick is not the typical YP ad rep. He "gets it", knows how it works, and is truly an expert at successful Yellow Pages marketing. Believe it or not there ARE successful Yellow Page ads in our industry, but the problem is many YP ad reps are only out to sell space with empty promises and the business owner follows their "name, rank, serial number" advice.

I encourage you to take a look at his site and sign up for his free e-newsletter. You'll see what I mean by Dick not being a "space and sales" type guy; he's definitely a "results" guy.

Hey, thanks for reading this rather lengthy edition of BRCbuilders e-zine. I know a certain Pig Farmer in Alabama will be glad I'm finally done.

To your Wild Success!