PROFIT Growth Planner eNewsletter

Schedule of topics: Weeks 1 to 20

Week 1: Write your mission statement (eNewsletter)

To achieve long-term, profitable growth, you have to execute with excellence. That’s a lot easier when employees understand your firm’s purpose and values.

Week 2: Craft your strategic plan (eNewsletter with podcast)

It's an essential component of efficient growth, yet too few companies take strategic planning seriously. Here’s how to get your plan off the ground.

Week 3: Join a peer-advisory group (eNewsletter)

Entrepreneurs don’t have to work in a vacuum of managerial experience. Membership in a peer-advisory group gives you access to entrepreneurs who’ve been there, done that and want to help you succeed.

Week 4: Build your banking relationship (eNewsletter with podcast)

Among an entrepreneur’s most crucial supplier relationships is banking. All businesses need the basic services of a bank and most require bank loans to operate if not grow their companies.

Week 5: Develop your customer-referral strategy (eNewsletter)

Positive endorsements from existing customers are one of the most cost-effective marketing tools available to companies of all kinds. Make sure your clients are spreading the good word.

Week 6: Brand audits (eNewsletter with podcast)

When you have a good brand, attracting new customers and employees becomes much easier — and cheaper. But how good is yours?

Week 7: Set employee goals (eNewsletter)

It’s the tool so many employers know they should use, but that so few use well: setting goals for their employees (and tracking performance thereafter). Here’s how to work set targets that will move your business forward.

Week 8: Take inventory of your personal skills (eNewsletter)

Here's an idiom tailor made for too many entrepreneurs: “Jack of all trades, master of none." To build a great business, you need to stick to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses —- if you know them, that is.

Week 9: Start cutting costs! (eNewsletter)

Think you run a lean business? Think again: most businesses could save 20% or more in key areas —- if only they put their minds to it. Here are some easy-to-use ideas for running leaner.

Week 10: Commit to an advisory board (eNewsletter)

In the first of a series of Growth Planner installments on advisory boards, College Pro Painters founder and advisory board expert Greig Clark explains the benefits of assembling and consulting a team of external advisers.

Week 11: Go for SEO (eNewsletter)

Whoever declared, “Build it and they will come!” didn’t have websites in mind. To grow your business with your Web presence, you have to do search-engine optimization —- and do it right.

Week 12: Go one-on-one with your staff (eNewsletter with podcast)

They’re so powerful, they should really be called The 30-Minute Miracle. It’s time to start weekly one-on-one meetings with each of your direct reports.

Week 13: Complete a 360-degree performance review (eNewsletter)

Smart entrepreneurs play to their strengths, avoid their weaknesses, and consider how others perceive them. But to determine the real truth about yourself, you need full-circle feedback.

Week 14: Cut your travel costs (eNewsletter)

Business travel is the second-largest controllable expense in the average company. So it stands to reason that you can add big money to your bottom line by trimming your travel budget by just a few percentage points. Here’s how.

Week 15: Develop your business-continuity plan (eNewsletter with podcast)

Disaster lurks all around your company, no matter how well it’s run. Given the potential consequences of your next crisis, it pays to be prepared.

Week 16: Blueprint your advisory board (eNewsletter)

In the second of a series of Growth Planner installments on advisory boards, College Pro Painters founder and advisory board expert Greig Clark explains how to set up your own board.

Week 17: Identify your management candidates (eNewsletter)

Grooming the right employees for leadership roles will help you fill management vacancies seamlessly and retain those employees as well. But how do you spot management potential?

Week 18: Hire a personal coach (eNewsletter with podcast)

World-class athletes need one — so why couldn’t you benefit from the services of a coach? Here’s a primer on what they do and how you’ll get ahead with one.

Week 19: Generate employee referrals (eNewsletter)

You want to hire the best and brightest, but they're already employed. How can you attract these passive job seekers to your business? An employee referral program could be just the trick.

Week 20: Develop your management candidates (eNewsletter)

Grooming the right employees for leadership roles will help you fill management vacancies seamlessly and retain those employees as well. Here are some pointers on this crucial yet often overlooked task.

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