To Twitter or Not

I’m often asked if I think people should waste time with Twitter?

I usually have a quick response.

“If you are not sure if Twitter is for you, I recommend that you read the cover article of Time magazine for the week of June 6th, 2009.  The cover title is “How Twitter will Change the Way We Live”.

I challenge people to take the 15 minutes to read the article, I believe you’ll soon be tweeting away.

You can find the article here  http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604,00.html

Enjoy!

-Ken
“Growth Consulting for Today”

5 Reasons to let T.G.C. be your Growth Consultant

Menu: Why T.G.C.?

content/5-reasons-let-tgc-be-your-growth-consultant

2008-11-11 20:59:36 -0600

5 Reasons to Let T.G.C. lead your Growth.

REASON 1.

The most important reason to consider T.G.C. is because Growth can begin immediately.

T.G.C. looks at dozens of Growth Points in your company, from Search Engine Optimization, Employee Strengths, Management Structure, Current Advertising, Current “Buzz” about your company, The Genetic Code of the company, and much more. We overlay your Growth Points on top of a working model of companies in your industry and provide feedback of 3 – 10 growth areas in the first 10 days.

REASON 2.

The second reason for letting us lead is the depth of our staff.

We come to the table with the expertise in the following as our foundation for your growth:

Strategic Thinking
S-Curve Analysis
Graphic Design
Web Design
Web Consulting
Search Engine Optimization
Mergers and Acquisition
Advertising, Programming
Expense Reduction
Corporate Identity
Branding
Media
Site Management
Strategic Planning for IT
Network Design and Implementation
Disaster Recovery and Security Planning.

Reason 3.

The 3rd reason to consider T.G.C. takes a few minutes to explain, but it’s really the centerpiece of our existence.

This would be the fact that you can’t see your own swing, and you would never edit your own book.

One of the greatest business lessons for Growth comes from Tiger Woods, some say the best golfer of all time.

Tiger was asked why he still has a coach, when he is far and away the best golfer of the decade. He explained that he can’t see his own swing.

Tiger has used 2 coaches. In each case, he asked his coach to video tape over 1000 of his shots and study the best 100 shots. After watching the 100 perfectly hit shots, countless times, the coach then had a “Working Model”, or a “Perfect Swing” in his mind.

The coach now had a “Model” for a perfect swing, or in a business sense, a “Model” for consistent Growth.

From that point forward, whenever Tiger began to slip in any area of his swing, the coach would step in immediately and tell him that he is starting to come off his “Perfect Model Swing”, like raising his head, or lifting his left foot too early.

Any of these changes, of course, drastically affect the outcome of the shot.

The same goes for a business. The ownership and management of a company knows their business, or “Their Swing”. But like Tiger, knowing your swing, and seeing your swing, are 2 completely different animals. Knowing your Business Growth Model, and “SEEING” your Business Growth Model, are again, very different.

When it comes to a Growth Consultant, one of the main reasons to bring them in is because they can not only study your business Growth Model, but they can bring in vision and wisdom from many other companies, and VERY QUICKLY fine-tune, adjust and alter the current Growth Model to one that may Grow the company faster and more efficiently.

Another way to look at the “swing” reason for bringing on a Growth Consultant, is to look at your business as a book.

The author of a book typically outsources the editing.

The reason is simple.

The author wrote the book. They have a slanted, or biased view, of the book. In essence, they see the book from the inside. An editor looks at the book objectively, and can immediately spot grammatical errors, spelling errors, and even errors in content, context and general writing judgment. An author simply can not spot these, because they are “inside” the content.

It is exactly the same in a business. Ownership and management are “Inside” the business. It is impossible to have an objective vision on Growth from the inside. Until you step outside, look at history of the industry, competition, trends, techniques, organizational structure, industry s-curves, etc., there is no way to objectively “Edit” your own Growth.

To summarize the third reason to let us lead your companies Growth is to let us study your current “Growth Swing” and provide you some honest, hard-nose feedback of how we can edit your swing. You will find that sometimes the slightest adjustments, changes and additions, lets you drive the ball twice as far.

REASON 4.

Growth, for Growth’s sake can be dangerous.

In my first business, in my 6th year in business, I was told by a very large consulting company that I nearly grew myself into bankruptcy.

When it comes to growing your company, there are 3 phases of Growth.

These are to avoid the NEGATIVE business adage:

“Ready, Fire, Aim”

1. Setting a proper foundation to support the Growth
2. The actual Growth Model
3. Ensuring Growth Continues, growing on “Auto Pilot”

At T.G.C., we take great pride in continue the old saying… “Success without Successors, is NOT Success”

We want you to Grow Today, and set Growth Strategies in motion to Grow tomorrow as well.

REASON 5.

The 5th reason to take on T.G.C. is in part similar to the first reason. We can help your company grow almost immediately, and we can do it in a way in which every person or company reading this can afford our service.

We have yet to meet a company that could not afford T.G.C..

The bulk of how we get paid is a small percentage of your companies growth.

If you don’t grow, we don’t eat.

We are a growing company, just like yours. We practice what we preach.

As you will see, one of our foundational principles of Growth is to eliminate objections and conditions that inhibit Growth.

In a very unique sense, we try not to let fees stand in our way of helping a company Grow.

Give us a call and let Today’s Growth Consultant lead your Growth.

Our Growth Consulting Foundation

Menu: Foundation

content/our-growth-consulting-foundation

2008-11-11 19:35:16 -0600

Ever thought to call a business consultant?

Today’s Growth Consultant was founded by 15 year business owner and consultant, Ken Courtright.

Here’s a few quick examples of companies and organizations Ken has impacted.

“Ken has done things in our office that nobody thought was possible. We had a sales office in Oakbrook that had great potential but was dead last in sales and accounts. Out of 33 offices nation-wide, Oakbrook was in 33rd place. Ken came in, evaluated the talent, moved some reps around, and implemented a 4 point strategic sales system. No exaggeration, 90 days later, Oakbrook was the NUMBER ONE OFFICE IN THE COUNTRY.”

The techniques Ken brings to the table are common sense, immediately effective, and most importantly, were duplicatable and sustainable after he left.”

-Steve Begg  MCIWorldcom, Oakbrook, Illinois

“Ken has definetely left an impression on some of our marketing students as to what is possible in business, and what is possible for them as individuals.”

-Depaul University, Chicago, Illinois

“Ken showed us how to go from an 8 rep company with an office in North Aurora, Illinois, to a 40 rep company with NO OFFICE.  We closed our office, let everyone work from home and saved $3,000 per week in overhead.  Most important, our gross sales increased 500% in 24 months.  We still contact Ken for growth ideas to this day.”

-Chris Theisen  M.S.P.  Batavia, Illinois

A business consultant is not a title I like to use. I am a GROWTH CONSULTANT.

For a company to grow, the people must grow. The genetic code of a company starts from the top down. If I can get “buy-in” from the leaders of a company or an organization that a companies growth is not a result of the growth of their sales division, or by landing a large account, but a byproduct of each person and each department in the company growing incrementally, then, and only then, can I bring to the table growth strategies that, once put in place, will grow roots and take a company or organization to another level.

-Ken Courtright

Social Media with great tips on how to put Twitter and Facebook to work for you.

This is a follow up to our last piece on Social Media.  Our first piece titled  “Social Media Growth”  displayed the EXPLOSIVE growth of Social Media.

In this post I’m going to offer up a few pieces we’ve been studying this past week.

This first piece gives us a glimpse of how someone is putting Social Media to use.  The key to this piece, unlike many Social Media strategies we see in use, is that this strategy is actually profitable.  Kudos to Ashton and his vision.  As the article says, if Pepsi and Kelloggs think Ashton’s on to something, there may be something with this social media “fad”.

Here’s the first piece.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/141/want-a-piece-of-this.html

This next piece is fantastic because it not only explains, in detail, some uses of twitter, but towards the end it gives great advice as to where to get simple to use, but very useful, twitter apps.

Here’s the second piece in this series.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2009/december/204084.html

Finally, with over 300 million people hanging out on Facebook, it only makes sense for you to study the playground.  Remember, there are 2 ways to market.  Create a feeding frenzy, or find an existing feeding frenzy and provide food.  Marketing on Facebook allows you to both “find a feeding frenzy” and “create a feeding frenzy”.  Facebook fanpages, as described in the article below, allow a business to slowly grow a fanbase, like a professional athlete or singer.  This article does a great job of introducing the concept of marketing on Facebook and providing great Growth Ideas on how to capitalize on Facebook.

Here’s the final piece in this series.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/business/smallbusiness/12guide.html?em?partner=newsletter_News

Why you must Master “LinkedIn”

One of the best ways to grow a business is networking.  Networking, by definition, is making use of the connections of another.  I have a leading question that I ask when speaking to groups of “Business Growers”.

It goes like this….

“When you walk into a room full of business owners, decision makers, industry peers, etc., what is your goal?”

Inevitably I get answers like…

“Make a Sale”
“Make a Contact”
“Make Connections”

All of these are good goals.  I’d like to, however, plant a different seed.  I’d like to start a paradigm shift in your thinking.
From now on, when you enter any type of network meeting, business gathering or step into any opportunity to network, I want you to ask yourself

“What would I do with that persons subscriber base, client base, sphere of influence, etc.”

A case in point.

Let’s assume I’m an insurance rep and I’m in a Chamber of Commerce luncheon.  I’m approaching every person in that meeting with an opportunity to cross-promote subscriber bases.  Let’s say I walk up to someone that owns a flower shop or a bakery.  I’d first build a little rapport and then move on to specifically why I came to the luncheon.  I would explain that I just launched a 12 month “12 business” cross promotion.

I’d explain to the flower shop owner, or the baker, that each month I’m going to send out a recommended “Local Business of the Month” in my monthly newsletter to all my clients.  I would explain that I’m looking for 12 different businesses that would like to cross-promote with me and be included in my newsletter with a short profile of their business.  They usually become very interested in the “Free” publicity and a friend and a business contact is made.  I explain that what I’m looking for in return is just a small space on their counter to set my business cards on during the month I run their “Biography” in my newsletter.

The key here is that I’m not looking at the flower shop owner to sell THEM insurance, I want to sell ALL THEIR CUSTOMERS !!!

I want access to their subscriber-base.  It’s all about subscriber base.

Amazon.com makes Billions, why?  They have the largest on-line subscriber base in the retail sector.

Why do medium sized banks buy smaller banks?
Why do big banks buy medium sized banks?
Why do huge banks buy big banks?

IT’S ALL ABOUT subscriber base, client base, customer base.
Whoever owns the largest subscriber base, WINS.

Stop looking at people as a potential sale.  Start looking at people as a “link” to a potential subscriber base.

Here’s an outstanding resource for networking into others subscriber base without leaving home.

http://www.linkedintomarketing.com/blog/tag/linkedin-statistics

I have found this to be a great resource time and again.

Hope this helps.

-Ken
Growth Consulting for Today