A company award ceremony is definitely something to get excited about. It is a chance for everyone to leave their work self at the door and unleash their glitzy and glamorous side. Nonetheless, in order to put on an award ceremony to rival the Oscars, you need to put an extensive amount of planning into place. This blog post will help you with that. Read on to discover some useful planning tips.
Choosing the right venue for such an important event
The most important attribute of any successful award ceremony is the venue. Go for a typical award ceremony venue. This means those that boast high ceilings, no sound restrictions, and an extravagant appearance with seats arranged in a banquet setting. There are lots of great award ceremony venues depending on where in the world you are based. Of course, the big cities tend to have the best places. For example, in London, including; Old Billingsgate, the Auditorium at the Mermaid, the Pavilion at the Tower of London, Building Six at the O2 and Plaisterers’ Hall. In New York, some of the more unique venues include the likes of the Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, and The Museum of Modern Art. A quick search online will enlighten you to some of the best and most suitable venues for you.
Inviting your guests
Once you have booked the venue it is time to invite all of your guests. Make sure the invitations are as glamorous as the event will be. This sets the tone and gets people excited about the occasion. A great idea is to wrap the invitations in luxurious silk ribbon. This always looks fantastic. And don’t forget to state the dress code; only black tie will do when it comes to an award ceremony.
Awards and prizes
You will also need to deal with the award categories and prizes. When selecting a prize it is always recommended to go for a traditional trophy type product. You can get some specially made to suit your company. This is a great way of branding your business too. You will need to come up with a fair way of the winner being selected. Use various methods if you’d prefer. Let your customers vote for some awards, your employees vote for others and a prestigious judging panel for the rest.
Who is going to host your award show?
In addition to this, you will need to find the perfect host for the event. This can prove to be a little bit tricky. Do you go for someone who is well known at your company and so all the guests will be familiar with? This makes the occasion more personable and warm. However, not everybody is willing to partake in a bit of hosting, nor is this the applicable choice for all businesses. Therefore, you will need to hire an outside host. Make sure you take the time to seek someone who is experienced and qualified. They need to act like they know what they are talking about at all times; not merely reading off autocue.
The logistics of the event
There is no denying that hosting any sort of event can be difficult to manage. This is especially the case if you are hosting an award show that is large in size. You need to coordinate all of your staff members and services, and you have matters like security too. Good staffing software can really prove invaluable here. Or, you may want to consider looking for an outside events management company, with their own technology, to take over this for you.
Entertainment
And finally, make sure you choose some good entertainment for the evening. You can’t just give award after award after award. You need to make it more exciting than this. There are lots of fantastic entertainers to choose from. You could have a comedian for one stint, a band for the next, and then circus performers at the end. It is entirely up to you. But a diverse selection ensures everyone is kept happy.
If you follow the advice given in this article then you will have no trouble hosting the perfect award ceremony. The Oscars better watch out!
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/rosettes-2699899_1280.jpg9601280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2019-04-26 12:00:142019-04-27 12:45:24Hosting A Corporate Awards Event
Most small to mid-sized businesses have limited sales potential. These companies are often founded to capitalize on a perceived market opportunity and grow over time until eventually the owner has a healthy, and profitable company.
However, owners often assume that an exit will be as simple as selling the company. Why? Because large exit sales are often in the news. One need look no further than Inc. or Fortune magazines to see the latest Silicon Valley unicorn company selling for 4-6X annual revenues, while being unprofitable. But is it fair to assume that a privately held, profitable company can produce similar results?
Unfortunately this is not the case. What usually happens is: The owner starts the company, the company grows, and within 7-10 years, a few acquisition offers are made. These usually aren’t good deals and the owner gets a tough lesson in small company valuation. Look no further than the “entrepreneur” and “start-ups” categories to see what it takes to build a successful company.
Let’s assume you started a digital marketing agency, a realistic example, given this industry is hot. It’s easy to start out as a solo practitioner and build a company as the skills from one’s career are directly transferrable, and overhead is quite low.
Over seven years the company develops a solid client base, grows to 16 employees serving 40 clients, with revenues of $2 million annually. If acquired, this company would realistically sell for $1.2 – $1.6M, a far cry from the 10X multiples seen in Silicon Valley.
The lesson here: A company is worth what an acquirer is willing to pay; the fact of the matter is that small- to mid-sized companies have limited sales potential.
Additionally, small companies present risks to outside acquirers, who are likely to merge the company into their business, which means culture change, clients will receive notice and may terminate, and some employees will leave. The long and short story adds up to a risky business.
What if there was a way to reduce that risk, preserve the company’s culture, keep employees and clients, increase company morale and improve performance by paying employees more without costing the business more? What would this do to the company’s valuation?
Selling one’s company to an ESOP, an employee stock ownership plan, does just that. Selling to an ESOP preserves company culture and increases productivity, which generally ensures strong future performance. This reduction in risk can take the $2M digital agency that would sell for $1.2-1.6M, and enable it to sell for $3.5-4M+.
While you’re not getting the Silicon Valley exit multiples of 4-6x revenue, it is realistic to exit at 0.5-1X revenue when sold to a third party. As part of that acquisition, expect about half of the proceeds to be tied to an earn out, which is a way for the acquirer to ensure delivery of the goods.
How does an ESOP work?
The short answer is, if you own a profitable company and a culture that is worth maintaining, the company is worth owning, particularly by employees. In an ESOP transaction, owners essentially sell stock, whether some or all, to employees. Employees now participate in company profits, which can be significant financially, and the owner gets partial or full liquidity.
Often these transactions are underwritten by banks, which prefer to lend to ESOPs due to the record-low default rates.
Jack Ogilvie is a founding member of Legacy Press Ventures. After selling his previous company, Techwood Consulting, to an ESOP, Jack started Legacy Press to help others do the same. You can learn more about his company here.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/office-1516329_1280.jpg8481280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2019-04-26 08:00:212019-04-29 20:20:21Time to Sell Your Business? An ESOP May Be the Answer
Many businesses start from home, but often the issue with that is at some point, you need to be able to expand and move forward. A business idea can outgrow your small home setup fairly quickly, and while you want to keep the costs as low as possible, you might end up getting to the stage where things change and you need to move on. Many entrepreneurs consider opening up a retail shop. It gives you a business location to work from, but also gives you the chance of dealing with face to face customers and making sales in a different format. So how do you make sure that your new retail shop is a hit? Here are some of the things to consider.
Think about the location
One of the first things to think about would be the location of the shop. You will want a decent location to attract customers into your store and also to be easy to find, but you also need to be aware of the costs involved. A prime location on the high street might be great for business, but it will also hurt your business financially in those early days. So you will need to find a happy medium that you are comfortable with but us yet still worthwhile. It might also be worth thinking of a smaller premises for better location and seeing it as a stepping stone to the next level.
What about the layout?
The layout of the shop is just as important as the location of it. You want people to walk into the store and feel comfortable and able to see things clearly. This is when the shop fittings and things like shelving will be important. Of course you may need to spend a little time looking for a slatwall for sale and finding a decent shopfitter to put it all together, but the hard work will be worth it in the end as you start to see the difference between a good shop layout and ones that put off customers coming back.
Would there be a theme?
The next thing you need to think about would be whether or not your shop would have a theme. This might have a lot to do with the things that you are selling and who you market toards. For example, a woman’s clothing brand might want to make the shop and layout appeal to women. A children’s store might be bright and colourful, or an outdoors shop might have set ups of tents and gear. Think about the theme and make it part of the experience in entering into your store.
Customer service
Finally, customer service is a huge thing for customers and so you will want to ensure that the experience in your store is a positive one. That means that your staff are presented well, that they look the part and make people feel special. The store should be an inviting place and not an awkward environment.
Let’s hope these tips help you when it comes to making your retail shop a hit.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/clothing-store-984396_1280.jpg8541280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2019-04-25 16:00:002019-04-25 17:28:13Making Your New Retail Shop A Hit
A well written press release can earn plenty of valuable exposure for a business or other organization. Unfortunately, many press releases feature faults that make them less effective than they could be. Recognizing and avoiding the most common mistakes, however, is easy enough that it should never be a problem.
A Well Established Tool With Plenty of Uses
The first press release was written in 1906 to alert news organizations about a deadly accident on the Pennsylvania Railroad. It quickly became clear to journalists and others that this novel form of communication could be used for many productive purposes.
Today, businesses of all kinds rely on releases originating from Violet PR and similar agencies to get the word out about important news. A properly formulated press release can make work a lot easier for journalists and thereby improve the odds that a story will be published.
Five Press Release Mistakes the Pros Never Make
At the same time, journalism professionals get bombarded with so many releases that they have learned to be choosy. Only fairly high quality press releases have a chance of breaking through and garnering the attention that businesses hope for.
Fortunately, the kinds of mistakes that are most likely to doom a press release are easy enough to avoid. Some of the issues that are most likely to get a press release buried instead of noticed are:
Weak headlines. A journalist tasked with looking through dozens of press releases every day is not likely to spend much time on each, on average. A press release’s headline is its most important asset and should always be treated as such. Concise, informative headlines that make the main point clearly are always the best.
Excessive informality. Some press releases try to get too cute in an effort to stand out from the rest. Journalists are more likely to take notice of releases that stay neutral and impartial. It is generally better to err a bit on the side of stiffness than to indulge in informality when writing a press release.
Too much fluff. Journalism is about conveying information efficiently and effectively. Press releases that are filled with fluff make the work of journalists more difficult. Generally speaking, it will always be best to stick to the most important facts.
Overly promotional tone.Businesses most often issue press releases to spread positive news. That said, whatever positivity a release conveys ought to stem from the facts themselves. Press releases that are overtly promotional tend to put journalists off.
A lack of quotes. The idea behind the press release is to make it easy for a journalist to put a story together. Releases that lack quotes force writers to do more work than necessary. While not every press release needs a quote from a CEO, analyst, or other figure, many benefit from having them.
Almost Anyone Can Write a Press Release
Mistakes like these undermine the effectiveness of many press releases. At the same time, just about anyone who is at all comfortable with writing can put together a release that will be taken seriously.
All that it takes to do so, in the end, is to recognize the intended audience for a press release and to account for it. Since the idea behind a press release is to persuade journalists to write a desired story, keeping that fact in mind should make things fairly simple.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/business-2651346_1280.jpg8531280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2019-04-25 12:00:052019-04-25 17:22:00Promoting Your Business like a Pro: 5 Press Release Writing Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs
Most salespeople who need to prospect for a living will tell you that it’s a very proactive, immediate results-driven exercise that can be uncomfortable at times. Hard to disagree with that. This is a topic that we get involved with far too often as it’s a common point of frustration for many business owners and sales leaders regarding their selling culture. As we all know, with uncomfortableness comes excuses. Many salespeople also have what we call ‘headtrash’ about prospecting. Headtrash is the thoughts we have that affect our behavior with zero evidence that those thoughts are true. For example, “I can’t call that owner, they’re to busy for me now,” or “I’m going to bother them,” or “They don’t need what we sell.” I could go on and on about this topic. Unfortunately, it’s the slow death of many salespeople because it stifles their behavior.
The Issue
When salespeople have a behavioral problem, they will always have a technique problem. If they have a technique problem it doesn’t necessarily mean they have a behavioral issue, but behavioral issues always lead to technique issues. If you don’t practice golfing, you’re not going to be a good golfer. It’s that simple. Fortunately, salespeople have the ability to eliminate one of those two issues by doing their daily prospecting behaviors. Yes, you read that right, daily prospecting behaviors. Most salespeople prospect for job preservation. Things aren’t happening in the manner they’d like so they prospect a lot some of the time rather than a little all the time. Big difference. In my experience, the most effective business development people engage in two types of prospecting behaviors: Active and Passive. Active prospecting is what salespeople define as typical prospecting actions such as cold calling, walk ins, meeting people at networking events. The results are usually immediate, yes or no for continuing the discussion. Passive prospecting is like fishing. We cast our lines out and wait to see what bites. The two common activities for this type of business development are prospecting via email and asking for introductions to prospects you’d like to meet that you have common connections with. In LinkedIn speak, this would be a 2nd Connection.
Prospecting Tip: Leverage the Passive
I like to share with our team that a good passive prospecting goal is to send out 10 emails each working morning to prospects they’d like to meet and/or to ask for an introduction from other people they know well to someone they want to meet. If the average person works 250 days per year, that’s 2,500 passive prospecting emails that are sent that otherwise wouldn’t be sent. Trust when I say, as a witness myself, this flat out works!
The Goal
Create for yourself what we like to call a behavioral cookbook. What’s in a cookbook? Recipes. When the instructions for a recipe are followed exactly, it creates a predictable outcome. In the prospecting world, a cookbook is a recipe of prospecting behaviors, both active and passive, that lead to a predictable outcome. How does one know it’s predictable? Because it’s been followed and tweaked until the desired finished product (outcome) is achieved. Quite simply, it’s been battle tested. It’s critical to have a goal for a particular behavior as well as tracking towards the goal. You must do both! Have a goal and track the activity that leads to goal attainment in order to fine tune for success. Activity ALWAYS precedes outcome!
Losing hurts more than winning feels good so get comfortable being uncomfortable and proactively create the business life you want by actively and passively prospecting the smart way!
A VETERAN OWNED SMALL BUSINESS | Call or text now for a FREE consultation: +1 (770) 765-3692 | Website Login
Business Programs
Hosting A Corporate Awards Event
/in Talent Management/by StrategyDrivenChoosing the right venue for such an important event
The most important attribute of any successful award ceremony is the venue. Go for a typical award ceremony venue. This means those that boast high ceilings, no sound restrictions, and an extravagant appearance with seats arranged in a banquet setting. There are lots of great award ceremony venues depending on where in the world you are based. Of course, the big cities tend to have the best places. For example, in London, including; Old Billingsgate, the Auditorium at the Mermaid, the Pavilion at the Tower of London, Building Six at the O2 and Plaisterers’ Hall. In New York, some of the more unique venues include the likes of the Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, and The Museum of Modern Art. A quick search online will enlighten you to some of the best and most suitable venues for you.
Inviting your guests
Once you have booked the venue it is time to invite all of your guests. Make sure the invitations are as glamorous as the event will be. This sets the tone and gets people excited about the occasion. A great idea is to wrap the invitations in luxurious silk ribbon. This always looks fantastic. And don’t forget to state the dress code; only black tie will do when it comes to an award ceremony.
Awards and prizes
You will also need to deal with the award categories and prizes. When selecting a prize it is always recommended to go for a traditional trophy type product. You can get some specially made to suit your company. This is a great way of branding your business too. You will need to come up with a fair way of the winner being selected. Use various methods if you’d prefer. Let your customers vote for some awards, your employees vote for others and a prestigious judging panel for the rest.
Who is going to host your award show?
In addition to this, you will need to find the perfect host for the event. This can prove to be a little bit tricky. Do you go for someone who is well known at your company and so all the guests will be familiar with? This makes the occasion more personable and warm. However, not everybody is willing to partake in a bit of hosting, nor is this the applicable choice for all businesses. Therefore, you will need to hire an outside host. Make sure you take the time to seek someone who is experienced and qualified. They need to act like they know what they are talking about at all times; not merely reading off autocue.
The logistics of the event
There is no denying that hosting any sort of event can be difficult to manage. This is especially the case if you are hosting an award show that is large in size. You need to coordinate all of your staff members and services, and you have matters like security too. Good staffing software can really prove invaluable here. Or, you may want to consider looking for an outside events management company, with their own technology, to take over this for you.
Entertainment
And finally, make sure you choose some good entertainment for the evening. You can’t just give award after award after award. You need to make it more exciting than this. There are lots of fantastic entertainers to choose from. You could have a comedian for one stint, a band for the next, and then circus performers at the end. It is entirely up to you. But a diverse selection ensures everyone is kept happy.
If you follow the advice given in this article then you will have no trouble hosting the perfect award ceremony. The Oscars better watch out!
Time to Sell Your Business? An ESOP May Be the Answer
/in Entrepreneurship/by Jack OgilvieHowever, owners often assume that an exit will be as simple as selling the company. Why? Because large exit sales are often in the news. One need look no further than Inc. or Fortune magazines to see the latest Silicon Valley unicorn company selling for 4-6X annual revenues, while being unprofitable. But is it fair to assume that a privately held, profitable company can produce similar results?
Unfortunately this is not the case. What usually happens is: The owner starts the company, the company grows, and within 7-10 years, a few acquisition offers are made. These usually aren’t good deals and the owner gets a tough lesson in small company valuation. Look no further than the “entrepreneur” and “start-ups” categories to see what it takes to build a successful company.
Let’s assume you started a digital marketing agency, a realistic example, given this industry is hot. It’s easy to start out as a solo practitioner and build a company as the skills from one’s career are directly transferrable, and overhead is quite low.
Over seven years the company develops a solid client base, grows to 16 employees serving 40 clients, with revenues of $2 million annually. If acquired, this company would realistically sell for $1.2 – $1.6M, a far cry from the 10X multiples seen in Silicon Valley.
The lesson here: A company is worth what an acquirer is willing to pay; the fact of the matter is that small- to mid-sized companies have limited sales potential.
Additionally, small companies present risks to outside acquirers, who are likely to merge the company into their business, which means culture change, clients will receive notice and may terminate, and some employees will leave. The long and short story adds up to a risky business.
What if there was a way to reduce that risk, preserve the company’s culture, keep employees and clients, increase company morale and improve performance by paying employees more without costing the business more? What would this do to the company’s valuation?
Selling one’s company to an ESOP, an employee stock ownership plan, does just that. Selling to an ESOP preserves company culture and increases productivity, which generally ensures strong future performance. This reduction in risk can take the $2M digital agency that would sell for $1.2-1.6M, and enable it to sell for $3.5-4M+.
While you’re not getting the Silicon Valley exit multiples of 4-6x revenue, it is realistic to exit at 0.5-1X revenue when sold to a third party. As part of that acquisition, expect about half of the proceeds to be tied to an earn out, which is a way for the acquirer to ensure delivery of the goods.
How does an ESOP work?
The short answer is, if you own a profitable company and a culture that is worth maintaining, the company is worth owning, particularly by employees. In an ESOP transaction, owners essentially sell stock, whether some or all, to employees. Employees now participate in company profits, which can be significant financially, and the owner gets partial or full liquidity.
Often these transactions are underwritten by banks, which prefer to lend to ESOPs due to the record-low default rates.
Learning more about how ESOPs work can be explored at Legacy Press Ventures
About the Author
Making Your New Retail Shop A Hit
/in Managing Your Business/by StrategyDrivenThink about the location
One of the first things to think about would be the location of the shop. You will want a decent location to attract customers into your store and also to be easy to find, but you also need to be aware of the costs involved. A prime location on the high street might be great for business, but it will also hurt your business financially in those early days. So you will need to find a happy medium that you are comfortable with but us yet still worthwhile. It might also be worth thinking of a smaller premises for better location and seeing it as a stepping stone to the next level.
What about the layout?
The layout of the shop is just as important as the location of it. You want people to walk into the store and feel comfortable and able to see things clearly. This is when the shop fittings and things like shelving will be important. Of course you may need to spend a little time looking for a slatwall for sale and finding a decent shopfitter to put it all together, but the hard work will be worth it in the end as you start to see the difference between a good shop layout and ones that put off customers coming back.
Would there be a theme?
The next thing you need to think about would be whether or not your shop would have a theme. This might have a lot to do with the things that you are selling and who you market toards. For example, a woman’s clothing brand might want to make the shop and layout appeal to women. A children’s store might be bright and colourful, or an outdoors shop might have set ups of tents and gear. Think about the theme and make it part of the experience in entering into your store.
Customer service
Finally, customer service is a huge thing for customers and so you will want to ensure that the experience in your store is a positive one. That means that your staff are presented well, that they look the part and make people feel special. The store should be an inviting place and not an awkward environment.
Let’s hope these tips help you when it comes to making your retail shop a hit.
Promoting Your Business like a Pro: 5 Press Release Writing Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs
/in Marketing & Sales/by StrategyDrivenA Well Established Tool With Plenty of Uses
The first press release was written in 1906 to alert news organizations about a deadly accident on the Pennsylvania Railroad. It quickly became clear to journalists and others that this novel form of communication could be used for many productive purposes.
Today, businesses of all kinds rely on releases originating from Violet PR and similar agencies to get the word out about important news. A properly formulated press release can make work a lot easier for journalists and thereby improve the odds that a story will be published.
Five Press Release Mistakes the Pros Never Make
At the same time, journalism professionals get bombarded with so many releases that they have learned to be choosy. Only fairly high quality press releases have a chance of breaking through and garnering the attention that businesses hope for.
Fortunately, the kinds of mistakes that are most likely to doom a press release are easy enough to avoid. Some of the issues that are most likely to get a press release buried instead of noticed are:
Almost Anyone Can Write a Press Release
Mistakes like these undermine the effectiveness of many press releases. At the same time, just about anyone who is at all comfortable with writing can put together a release that will be taken seriously.
All that it takes to do so, in the end, is to recognize the intended audience for a press release and to account for it. Since the idea behind a press release is to persuade journalists to write a desired story, keeping that fact in mind should make things fairly simple.
The Prospecting Paradox: Maximizing the Passive
/in Marketing & Sales/by Mike JonesThe Issue
When salespeople have a behavioral problem, they will always have a technique problem. If they have a technique problem it doesn’t necessarily mean they have a behavioral issue, but behavioral issues always lead to technique issues. If you don’t practice golfing, you’re not going to be a good golfer. It’s that simple. Fortunately, salespeople have the ability to eliminate one of those two issues by doing their daily prospecting behaviors. Yes, you read that right, daily prospecting behaviors. Most salespeople prospect for job preservation. Things aren’t happening in the manner they’d like so they prospect a lot some of the time rather than a little all the time. Big difference. In my experience, the most effective business development people engage in two types of prospecting behaviors: Active and Passive. Active prospecting is what salespeople define as typical prospecting actions such as cold calling, walk ins, meeting people at networking events. The results are usually immediate, yes or no for continuing the discussion. Passive prospecting is like fishing. We cast our lines out and wait to see what bites. The two common activities for this type of business development are prospecting via email and asking for introductions to prospects you’d like to meet that you have common connections with. In LinkedIn speak, this would be a 2nd Connection.
Prospecting Tip: Leverage the Passive
I like to share with our team that a good passive prospecting goal is to send out 10 emails each working morning to prospects they’d like to meet and/or to ask for an introduction from other people they know well to someone they want to meet. If the average person works 250 days per year, that’s 2,500 passive prospecting emails that are sent that otherwise wouldn’t be sent. Trust when I say, as a witness myself, this flat out works!
The Goal
Create for yourself what we like to call a behavioral cookbook. What’s in a cookbook? Recipes. When the instructions for a recipe are followed exactly, it creates a predictable outcome. In the prospecting world, a cookbook is a recipe of prospecting behaviors, both active and passive, that lead to a predictable outcome. How does one know it’s predictable? Because it’s been followed and tweaked until the desired finished product (outcome) is achieved. Quite simply, it’s been battle tested. It’s critical to have a goal for a particular behavior as well as tracking towards the goal. You must do both! Have a goal and track the activity that leads to goal attainment in order to fine tune for success. Activity ALWAYS precedes outcome!
Losing hurts more than winning feels good so get comfortable being uncomfortable and proactively create the business life you want by actively and passively prospecting the smart way!
About the Author
For more information, please visit www.sandler.com