Dr. Stephen R. Covey, in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, (Simon & Schuster Fireside, 1989) defines Habit 6 as: Creating Synergy-several parts working together to produce results greater than their own independent efforts; where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The challenge is to apply the principles of synergy, or creative cooperation, to your approach to growing your business…

Over the last few editions of Grow Your Business we've looked at the "Four Ways to Grow Your Business."

1. Win more customers (of the type you want)
2. Get your customers to come back again and again
3. Get them to spend more each time they do
4. Improve the processes within your business

Most business owners focus on just one way to grow their businesses-winning more customers. However, to leverage your investment in marketing, generate the best results, and ensure the profitability and longevity of your business, you must integrate all four-creating synergy. Doing anything less means you're missing out on invaluable opportunities to grow your business.

How Can it Have such a Dramatic Impact on My Business?

Let's say you have a customer base of 1,000, and that you can increase the number of inquiries (and therefore the number of new customers) by 10%. That would mean your customer base would increase to 1,100. Now, imagine if you also increased the number of times your customers dealt with you during their lifetime by 10% (say from one to 1.1 times). Next, through the techniques and strategies you've been introduced to in other editions, you are able to increase your average sale or "transaction value" by 10% as well, taking it from $100 to $110. If you were to put all of these factors together, and assuming everything else was equal, it would make sense to say that the overall business would grow by 10%. Right?………..Wrong! Common sense would say that, but in fact something completely different happens. Something that could mean the difference between a profit or a loss for your business.

Crunch the Numbers for Yourself

The following formula shows the numbers before any increase, and multiplies them to estimate turnover (increase or decrease in profit).

Number of Customers	X	Number of Dealings	X	Average Sale	=	Turnover
1,000	x	1	x	$100	=	$100,000
Complete your own business figures below:
____________	x	____________	x	$____________	=	$____________
Look at what happens to turnover when just one area-winning new customers, for example-is increased by 10%.
1,100	x	1	x	$100	=	$110,000
Repeat the exercise for your business:
____________	x	____________	x	$____________	=	$____________
The same happens when either the number of times your customers deal with you, or the average transaction value is increased by 10%.
1,100	x	1	x	$100	=	$110,000
And your business?
____________	x	____________	x	$____________	=	$____________
Now calculate for yourself what happens when EACH area is increased by 10% at the same time.
1,100	x	1.1	x	$110	=	$133,100
That's right, increasing each area at the same time has a multiplier effect of increasing turnover NOT by 10% as you might assume, but by a staggering 33.3%! An increase of $33,100 in turnover for doing nothing else except improving EACH area at once, rather than concentrating on just one area at a time. This multiplier effect is caused by the combination-the synergy-of all 3 areas working together. Each complimenting the others. Try the calculation on your own business now:
____________	x	____________	x	$____________	=	$____________

The increase should surprise, impress, and excite you. Especially when you know that this information, the support you get from this firm, and Grow Your Business are all fundamentally built around helping you easily develop EACH and EVERY area-at the same time.

You may have heard the saying "managing a business with your eye solely on profit is like playing tennis with your eye on the scoreboard." In reality, the following chain of focus will ultimately drive profit in your business:

Profitability and Growth

Customer Loyalty

Customer Delight

Value

Team Productivity

Commitment and Systems

Team Happiness

Internal Quality

Leadership

Vision

From this you can infer that one of the most critical things in making your business grow is "the vision." It might seem to be "soft stuff," but it's the stuff that leads to success. In fact, in our studies of those businesses who have been most successful, one common trait we've identified is that they have addressed the issue of creating a vision-and sharing that vision with their team and their clients.

A few well-known examples of highly successful businesses can illustrate the power of a shared vision.

• Microsoft: "A computer on every desk and in every home, all running Microsoft software."
• Ford Motor Company: "Quality is Job 1."
• McDonald's: "Service, Cleanliness, Quality, Value."
• Southwest Airlines: "Arrive on time at a reasonable price."
• Sony Entertainment: "To create a product that becomes pervasive, worldwide."
• Federal Express: "Guaranteed Overnight Delivery."

A shared vision presents a clear picture of where everyone agrees the organisation is going and how it intends to get there.

How Do I Start Developing a Shared Vision in My Business?

In his book, Building a Shared Vision-A Leader's Guide to Aligning the Organisation (Productivity Press, 1997), C. Patrick Lewis defines a shared vision as "something that provides the framework that guides all decision making, planning and action." He says that an effective start towards building a clear, focused and shared vision requires careful thought and action, and suggests the following steps to begin:

1. Learn all you can about the organisation and the marketplace it's in, its past vision and corporate culture
2. Think about tomorrow and future business developments, focusing on potential changes in the market, stakeholders and products
3. Identify all stakeholders that will be affected by the vision and enlist these groups in forming the vision
4. Develop target goals for the vision, including what you need to do to get there
5. Focus on success so that every team member feels they are part of something special
6. Prepare to invest in the necessary resources to support the vision
7. Abandon the top-down theory of decision-making

As you can see by these steps, it is important that everyone in the business, from key executives to first-level personnel, buy into the vision, providing a significant opportunity for collective decision making and synergy. This is why we advocate the involvement of your team members, as well as your clients, at the outset in Advisory Board meetings to determine what will distinguish your business in the marketplace. The creation of a successful shared vision relies heavily on multi-level participation in its development and implementation. Their contribution and involvement uses the power of synergy to create a powerful vision, and increase motivation and commitment.

What Should a Vision Statement Look Like?

After you have performed the steps above, and you're ready to write down your shared vision statement, keep the following criteria in mind. Your vision statement must be:

• Imaginable: Conveys what the business will look like
• Desirable: Appeals to the long-term interests of key stakeholders
• Challenging but feasible: Realistic and attainable
• Measurable: Allows key elements to be measured
• Focused: Can be used to guide decisions
• Flexible: Allows individual interpretation and initiative, but always subject to an overall set of guiding principles
• Communicable: Can be explained and understood by all stakeholders
• Strategic: Makes strategic sense, and possesses internal integrity to avoid dysfunction

Putting all of these elements together will form the foundation for distinguishing your organisation in the marketplace.

"Host Relationships" are those between non-competing businesses who deal with the same type of "ideal" customers. Both parties formally agree to refer customers to each other, to benefit both. (For example, a winery may develop a relationship with a restaurant to reach mutual clients through wine and meal offers.) Why go out and spend a lot of money to generate new leads, when both businesses can leverage their investment by marketing to each other's well-qualified clients?

You may already have some of these relationships established. However, they may be less formal than they should be. Host relationships are only truly successful when a formalised relationship is formed, and where cross referrals occur on a regular basis.

"Piggyback" Mailings Save Money and Reach the Right People

Imagine if you established a host relationship with another business who is willing to send a direct mail campaign to their customer base (your ideal type of customer), fully endorsing your business. With this one simple strategy you can save advertising dollars, reach your target audience, and dramatically increase your response rate. In turn, you would endorse their business to your customers.

Interesting isn't it? Instead of buying mailing lists, spending a considerable amount on advertising, and working hard to generate new leads, a ready-made list of well-qualified potential customers is available within that non-competing business. All you have to do is tap into it!

Remember too that people are four times more likely to buy when they are referred by someone they know. Being referred to you by a business they trust increases the customer's willingness to buy from you, because they now consider you someone they "know."

So How Do I Make it Work for My Business?

To start you on your way to establishing host relationships for your business, try the exercise below.

1. Write down a list of as many businesses as you can think of that are serving your ideal type of customer. For instance, if your target is business owners, think of businesses that all businesses deal with (e.g., stationers, office furniture stores, computer suppliers). Or if you're looking for individual customers, think about businesses people in that particular demographic are dealing with (e.g., for 18-25 year-olds: gyms, record stores, universities). Keep going until you come up with at least 10 different types of business.

2. Now think of any people you know who own, or are involved with, any of those businesses with whom you could share referrals.

3. Contact those people and tell them you have an idea that could help them grow their business, and your own, just by working more closely together. Then set up a meeting and get going!

Web sites are essentially made up of two key elements, Design and Content, that must work together to create a powerful tool for both you and your site users. Design refers to things like navigational tools, backgrounds, menus, graphics, buttons, links, etc., while Content is the actual information available within your site. Both can directly impact how long, and how enjoyable, a user's visit to your site will be, and whether they'll be back anytime soon. And, both work together to help you get your message across effectively. Here are a few Design tips you can use to create more synergy in your site. We'll talk about Content in the next issue.

1. Keep it simple

Graphics and "bells and whistles" are flashy. However, these "memory hogs" often make users wait a long time for pages to load. Seconds can make all the difference as to whether a user will stay on your site or click over to another, so keep it to a minimum.

2. Keep it clean, uncluttered and logical

The graphical and navigational tools inherent in your design must help the user find what they're looking for easily. In fact, it needs to be somewhat "intuitive." What you should do is have team members or friends test the site to see if it makes sense to them, and that they can find the information they want.

3. Keep the "click throughs" to a minimum

"Click throughs" are the number of times a user has to click to get to the information they want. If the information a user needs is buried under 10 clicks or links, you will probably lose them before they get there. The best rule of thumb is "if you or your team members wouldn't click that many times to get to the information, your users won't either.

The team at GNS GROUP have systems, programs, turn-key solutions and one on one ongoing Business Development programs tailored to get results for you, address many of the ideas outlined here and ultimately, build the business you've always wanted.

Call Cameron Lamb on 1800 996 322 before 5.00pm Thursday September 14th] to find out if you qualify for a 'Business Development Assessment & Consultation' normally valued at $295.00 - absolutely free. Or simply check the box below, fax this page back to us and we'll give you a call straight back

"No unmet needs exist and current unmet needs that are being met will continue to be met."

-- Transportation Commission on unmet transit needs in California.

Be sure to read each article with the mind set 'how could this apply to our business?' because sometimes the best ideas come from examples that seem unrelated at first. Thinking of it that way will guarantee you get value. Better yet, take notes as you read and commit to having the ideas you glean implemented by the time next month's edition arrives. Also make copies for each team member. To really make sure something positive happens, arrange a team meeting to talk about the ideas and set a schedule for getting them implemented. Doing that should really jump start things and get some action happening!

While every effort has been made to provide valuable, useful information in this publication, this firm and any related suppliers or associated companies accept no responsibility or any form of liability from reliance upon or use of its contents. Any suggestions should be considered carefully within your own particular circumstances as they are intended as general information only.