Winners of the 2nd Annual WinLAVA Pitching Competition

Three outstanding winners chosen in 2nd Annual WinLAVA Business Plan / Pitch Competition

Three outstanding winners were selected March 8th (International Women’s Day) by a team of distinguished judges in the Finals of the 2nd Annual WinLAVA Business Plan / Pitch Competition.

Winners were:
Dale Stuart, StarQuick Solutions Inc 

Angia Grigas, OneGo Inc.
Kathryn Arnold, Secrets of the Red Carpets

Judges for the event were:
Julia Dilts, Maverick Angels
Petra Griffith, Grandpoint Bank
Heather McCormick, Credo Law LLP and Pasadena Angels
John Peate, Peate Ventures

Finalists in the pitch competition before a sold out crowd at Century City were Marci Norkin-Schoepel of EcoPas LLC and Rebecca Ordonez of Mustered. Alternates included Yvette Ayers of Rare Attitude and Melissa Schulman of Yoga-Urt.

Prizes for the three winners were donated by Keiretsu Forum SoCal, Maverick Angels, the Business Technology Center of Los Angeles County, and Tech Coast Angels.

We will be accepting applications for the 3rd WinLAVA Business Plan / Pitch Competition beginning in October, 2013. If you know of a promising woman-owned/co-owned small business interested in coaching and growing her firm (especially innovative, creative, and/or disruptive enterprises in ground-breaking sectors of interest to the investment community), tell her to contact a member of the WinLAVA Steering Committee to learn more.

The Spaghetti Strategy

"Let's see what sticks." said my client during our most recent coaching call.  I lost my professional demeanor and burst out laughing.  Images of clients being thrown up against a wall like a string of spaghetti danced through my head. 

The Spaghetti Strategy is where a company attacks the marketplace, addressing all types of clients with one message point and sees 'what sticks'.  I remember that strategy well. The corporation I had worked for used this strategy over and over again.  And I remember how costly it was and how little ROI it produced.

Strategies for Growth understands how to assess and create the best strategy for clients as we have deployed them all - including The Spaghetti Strategy.  What we have learned over the years is:  the strategy is set by the client.

When deciding which strategy you want to deploy for your sales efforts, work backwards.

• High end clients need high touch 
• Middle market with growth opportunities need continued touch.  As they grow, you grow.
• High visibility clients need upper management touch

My client decided against the Spaghetti Strategy.  She is now deploying a much more high touch approach that will yield 'her 5 dripping roasts' of clients.

What strategies do you use with your high end clients? Comments welcome.

Screaming Mimis and Chatty Cathys

Do you give nicknames to your most difficult clients?   I have a client who does.  She assigns names to her clients as it tends to relieve her stress. Monikers such Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Clueless, Obi (obnoxious) and Nobi (knows nothing) and the list goes on.

With the Good, the Bad and the Ugly clients, it's all about relieving the stress.

I use Screaming Mimi to describe the client who always likes to complain at the top of their lungs.  They tend to be a bit elusive, irrational and it usually has nothing do to with you or your company.

I use Chatty Cathy to describe clients who have nothing better to do but take up your time with meaningless chatter.  All designed to torture you slowly, word by word, with a monologue that has nothing to do with the service or product you have provided to them.

So how do you get them off the phone and minimize the flotsam of feelings they leave behind?  Aside from just plain hanging up, gently interrupting them with a request to 'continue the conversation' at another time usually works. They are going to feel privileged to now have an appointment to complain versus just an impulse call.

What do you do to get them off the phone?  Comments most welcome. 

Off on vacation!

We all know the value of vacation time  We dream about where we are going, we make plans, book hotels, and meet up with family and friends.

The Europeans know the value of vacations as they have a government-mandated, paid 5 weeks time off a year.

It means time to slow down, let the body relax and mind think on stuff other than our daily lives. When it comes to an end, we pick up, with more energy, our lives as we know it.

One of my coaching clients just returned from a month's vacation and sounds completely different. She has a lightness to her voice from having regained her sense of self and has a new perspective on how to move forward in her life and business. Plus her great sense of humor has returned full force.
 
So before I return from vacation, rested and renewed, I wonder what the rest of the world does to  maintain the sense of renewal and carry it forward until the next vacation?

Quicknote:  "No Touch Monkey" by Ayun Halliday is the funniest travel adventure book I have read in a very long while.  High recommend reading it.

How would you do it?  Comments most welcome.

Toxic Clients: 3 Reasons to Fire Them

I ran across a fantastic blog that said it all so well that I rushed to gain permission to re-blog.  I have cut the article in two parts for easier reading. Here is Part 1.

A bit about our guest blogger: Emily Brackett is president of Visible Logic, Inc. Established in 2001, Visible Logic is a graphic design firm that works across all media—including web sites, logos, print materials, annual reports and book design. Based in Portland, Maine, Visible Logic builds complete
branding systems and designs individual projects for clients across the U.S. You may reach Emily or learn more at: www.visiblelogic.com

Unfortunately, I am currently in the midst of “separating” myself from a toxic client. And while this blog post is not about design, it is about being a small business owner, and I had to write it.
First of all, what makes a toxic client? There can be many variations and each is unique but there are usually early red flag warnings, followed by one or more of the following:

• Disrespectful behavior. Any client relationship should be a partnership, not a stomping ground.
• Pays late, disputes bills. If you are providing a professional service you should be paid. Someone who constantly questions your bills are questioning the quality of your work or your honesty in billing them.
• Questions your skills and expertise. If you are providing a service you are getting paid to help someone using your specialized experience. If a client continually questions your decisions, they don’t feel comfortable about your level of expertise.
• Undermines projects. When working with a  client, there should be a mutual goal of creating something together. For us, that means a web site, a logo, an ad, etc. We should be helping each other. When a client becomes an obstacle rather than a resource, there is a problem.

The first question I always ask my clients is:  How many toxic clients do you currently have and what are they costing you in time and revenue?
 It takes guts and courage to fire a toxic client.  How do you do it? Think about finding a colleague or consultant to 'second' you in your decision and communication with the client.

Second Part of blog next week.  Stay tuned. 

Laurelle Johnson
Strategies For Growth
The Good The Bad and The Ugly
Client Retention Program
laurelle@laurellejohnson.com

Book Recommendation

Am reading a great book I picked up at a book fair for $7.00.  Brought it home and have been working my way through it voraciously.  I am terribly impressed by how these authors put into words that which is so challenging to us humans that we muck it constantly: communication with our clients.

The complexity of communications has ended up with muffling, bashing, confusing our clients and peers alike.  Communication is so complex that it's like walking a tightrope every time we open out mouths. Then we spend hours blaming ourselves for a job badly done!

Service professionals need to be able to really listen to their clients and help untangle the challenges of the business while offering solutions without minimizing or insulting the dignity of the client. This book creates such a road map of "how to's" so well I've made it my carry-it-everywhere-with-me book.

I have posted access to the book via Amazon link in the box at the left. Enjoy!

The Ugly

We all have clients.  We love our 'good' clients, we work hard with our 'bad' clients.  But no matter what we do, we can never seem to make the 'ugly' happy!  They are impossible to coach, yell back or are unreachable or nasty on the phone when we do reach them. I define the ugly as non-paying, unreasonably demanding and rude. 

I like to categorize my clients so I know what to expect each time I speak with them. I made a vow, when I started Innerwealth Communications that I would  jettison those that are out to make my life miserable. I always assess the 'why' of the ugly - did I miss something, is there an issue they are not sharing with me,  cannot vocalize their dissatisfaction, etc.  Once I have determined I have done everything for them I can do and it's still not good enough, I do not hesitate to FIRE them quickly.  It frees up my time to find a 'good' client.   

How you deal with your 'ugly' clients?  Comments welcome!

Women and Intellectual Property Protection

This past month one recurring theme among my female clients rose above all others: Intellectual Property protection.  Each woman had confusion on who owns what in their partnerships. They seemed unable to ask for just compensation for their ideas or unique products invented. 

Let me say this very clearly:  It's yours if you invented it.  Copyrights, patents, trademarks are easily registered with the US gov't to ensure ownership and revenue rights for years to come. Tony Robbins does it, Martha Stewart does it, so why not you? 

I asked Beth Andrus, author of "The Essential Business Handbook," to weigh in on the matter.

"I work with very small businesses and many of the women I encounter are new to the business world," says Beth.  "Women are often reluctant to take legal steps to protect their intellectual property as they think it involves a long expensive process with lots of attorney fees.

"I have found that women will form partnerships quickly, without committing to paper the division of labor and IP.  Women don't want to appear distrustful as most of their partnerships are based on some type of 'best friend' emotions. Important to have someone neutral draw out the terms of the agreement for you so the emotion is kept to a minimum," suggests Beth, CEO of  www.minibizbuzz.com.

This is so true! We meet a woman with whom we have instant bonding. We talk, we plan, we dream and work our fingers off to get the 'dream' going. And then when "putting it writing" needs to be done, it's either blood on the table or dissolution of the partnerships with hurt feelings on both sides.

I advise all my clients the following: 

Protect all your material.  File with the US Gov't all your ideas, process, books, CD, DVD that you have developed.  Hold the material as an individual so you can then license it out to the company created to sell the service or item. You enjoy the protection of the US gov't on ownership and revenues.

Take a toy away from any two year old and they'll tell you firmly, 'Mine!' Let's take a page from their playbook shall we?

Clients: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is an adept description of the feelings we have towards our customers. 

Those we love (the good), those that drag their fee to pay, but pay big (the bad) and those that drive you straight into the arms of the shrink!

So what is an entrepreneur supposed to do?  Keeping a consistent revenue stream is so important to the small business and entrepreneur market segments. Let's look at ideas on how to deal.

The Bad - Large Health Care Organization

Problem: 

Client had not paid their bill in 8 months.  They did not return calls, ignored dunning notices and trashed the emails.  The bill was up to $15K! Outstanding invoices created a additional $641 in interest accrued.  Our services had saved this client 50K in operational costs.

Solution:

Did a bit of research and found out the objectives of the CFO.  What does he stand for?  What is he measured on? He had been PROMOTED because of his cost-cutting measures.

Letter:  We wrote an old-fashioned letter, sent via registered mail, to the CFO letting him know that 1) his company had saved 50K by using our services and 2) his company had accrued an extra $641.00 in interest COSTS due to ignoring the bill.

The client called the next day (after having his butt chewed out by the CFO), apologized with some excuse (ok by us) and said the bill would be paid immediately.

The check arrived the next week - All 15K of it!  AND......

We got a call to come back in and help them save once again.

What are you doing to turn your bad into good! Future blogs on the good and the ugly.