Bottom Line Business Insights : Maryland Business Lawyer & Attorney : Wagonheim Law Firm : Mergers & Acquisitions & Contractual Negotiation

“So, what’s your 5 year target?”

My client responded quickly: “$7,000,000 gross revenue in 5 years.”

“OK, so let’s drill down. What is your average salesperson generating now and what kind of inside staff do you need to support each outside salesperson?”

The answer was sobering. Eight new sales people, five new inside people, two more warehouse people and one administrative person – 16 new hires overall -- would be needed to reach the company’s 5 year goal. This would come close to doubling the size of my client’s company. The answer was sobering not because it couldn’t be done; but rather because he’d never actually sat down and done the math. 

Having arrived at a picture of what the company would look like in 2016, we then began to trace the steps we would need to get there. In other words, we had to figure out what 2012 would look like:

• How many people she would need to hire;
• What kind of business would have to be brought in to support them; and
• The sales and marketing effort necessary to bring in the requisite business.

This is a subject near and dear to my heart, and to explain why, I have to give you a little window into the business of practicing law.

Ask any business lawyer (any lawyer, really, other than a personal injury, bankruptcy, or tax relief attorney) and he or she will tell you that business comes in by referral. “We don’t advertise,” is the typical refrain. 

Well, that’s true. Neither do we. But at the end of 2008, I realized something. I realized that when I point to referrals as my marketing strategy, I was really doing nothing other than crossing my fingers and hoping that the phone rang the next day with the right person at the other end of the line. I had no plan. And when I asked myself how I was going to make the next year better than the one that was just ending, I had no plan other than…well…prayer.

So I changed things. I made marketing a priority and, more importantly, made a number of significant improvements to how we do things and what we offer so that we could tell the story I wanted to be able to tell. After all, what good is it to stand on a soapbox and broadcast the same, tired message? In my view, if you’re going to invest in a bullhorn, you damn well better have something to say. 

For our part, we:

• Introduced the blog you’re reading now (now in our second year) to focus on exactly what our name says – Bottom Line Business Insights;
• Started an e-mail series offering insights into business philosophy, best practices, and legal issues that now reaches over 1,200 business owners per week;
• Introduced the non-billable hour Empty Hourglass® Program to make client communications effortless, without limit, and free of charge;
• Produced the Business Owner’s Pocket Guide and the new Commercial Real Estate Pocket Guide for clients and friends of the firm…free of charge;
• Developed our first-of-its-kind interactive business diagnostic, BizRX for download on PC, iTunes, Blackberry and Android; and,
• Beginning last week, began sending weekly interactive mind map pdfs to each of our clients offering status updates and highlighting priority issues…at no charge.

While there are more changes to come, we have traveled a long road in the past 3 years to get beyond hope as our primary growth strategy. We have a plan, target numbers to hit, and initiatives we can point to as a basis for projecting growth. 

Over the next few weeks, in our e-mail series, I will be delving into key business building insights from some of the best business growth consultants in the region and in the country.  I will also be discussing this in more depth in our free upcoming webinar. If you have not yet signed up for one (or both), now’s the time. 

I’m hoping that blog posts like this one and our newest e-mail series may inspire you to do more than just jot down projections. I’m hoping that they inspire you to commit on paper to a way of attaining them. And of course, if I can be of any help, please contact me. That’s what I’m here for.

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Unlike many, I don’t see the Baltimore Grand Prix as defined by a few races and the Labor Day weekend. The Baltimore Grand Prix, if we are determined to do it right, is about the branding of a still great city. It is a step in taking back our image from Homicide and the Wire. And the success or failure of the Baltimore Grand Prix will not be determined by a tally of weekend hotel stays and restaurant tabs. It will be determined by follow up.

Much has been written about the downsides. We’ve heard from disgruntled residents, people worried about the noise, the perceived misdirection of funds, and the diversion of government from “what it should be doing.”

I get all those things…and I respectfully disagree.

Government is about larger things; and larger things do not get accomplished without ruffled feathers. But it’s more than that. Thanks to HBO, Baltimore has become known as a place where exciting things happen…but most of them are unsolved. That’s not how it should be.

The Mayor has to be Baltimore’s champion – not just its steward. And it takes more than slogans on repainted benches. It takes some excitement – something eye-catching.

Now I know that there are people out there anxious to report the verdict on the Grand Prix first thing Tuesday morning. Those people remind me of folks who step on the scale after one workout expecting to see a measurable difference. You can’t. You get results by continuous effort over a long period. And you begin to notice results in little ways. A looser collar here, a bit more energy there. Not risking collapse by walking up the steps to the third floor. 

Similarly, the Grand Prix is (or should be) part of an effort to showcase the city as a destination. A place where businesses should be. Anyone with any understanding of marketing knows that one initiative does not establish an identity – not for a company and not for a city. 

I applaud the Mayor for taking a chance; for giving Baltimore a shot to be known for something beyond the headlines.

There is an old saying that sports headlines trumpet man’s successes while news headlines only trumpet his failures. 

 

If that’s the case, can anyone argue that Baltimore needs more sports?

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Guest Blogger: Michael J. Lentz, Esquire

I’ll admit it – I used to be profoundly annoyed by, and more than a little bit uncomfortable with, the notion that Twitter could be a useful tool in the development of my commercial litigation practice. I envisioned Twitter as the latest unwelcome step in the drive-thru-ification of America, where fast and easy often replace, and are often deified at the expense of, thorough and thoughtful. I viewed Twitter as nothing more than one of many ways for the self-absorbed to tell the rest of the world about their lives - it seemed unnecessary at best, and shallow and self-aggrandizing at worst. 

Last week, though, I attended an excellent webinar on the use of Twitter for client development, presented by Kevin O’Keefe, the founder of LexBlog (full disclosure: LexBlog hosts this blog). I’m not going to attempt to reiterate Kevin’s points here – you can follow his blog or follow him on Twitter. At the start of the webinar, I was largely Twitter illiterate – I didn’t know a hashtag from a hash brown. More to the point, I literally could not fathom that Twitter could be useful to me, so I didn’t see any reason to attempt to become literate. 

An hour later, though, I had specific examples of ways in which Twitter might be useful to a busy litigator trying to develop a practice. Certainly, some of the suggestions were inapposite. Others were sensible in theory, but might be difficult for me to put in to practice, given a finite amount of time to devote to the effort. There were other suggestions, though, that made sense immediately, and that I knew I could put into place immediately. Receiving fairly simple, concrete examples of what Twitter can do for me made me change the way I thought about Twitter. I’m still not convinced that it’s the eighth wonder of the world, as some of its advocates seem to believe, and I’ll probably never use it as fully as Kevin and others like him do, but I am convinced that it has its place. 

This epiphany reminded me of an important marketing lesson: when you’re marketing, whether verbally or in writing, and whether your audience is an enormous group or a single individual, make the presentation not merely about you, and your skills and talents, but about what you can do for your audience. Leave your audience with simple, concrete examples of how your business, product or service can help them.  No matter how good your business is at what it does, prospective customers and clients will not become actual clients and customers unless and until you can explain, simply and completely, how your business will benefit them. 

Michael graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 1998. After spending five years with large Baltimore firms and three years as a solo and small firm practitioner, Michael joined Wagonheim Law in 2006, where he continues to utilize his extensive experience in commercial, bankruptcy, and appellate litigation to work with companies throughout the mid-Atlantic region.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Raise it for discussion on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

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Guest Blogger: Adam Schechtman, VP of Business Development & Marketing, Eye Catching Creative

To brand or not to brand? That is the question so many small and mid-sized businesses tend to overlook in the early phases of their development. The problem is there’s a tendency to keep shuffling this linchpin of marketing success to the dark corners of the priority list. Then one day, we read an article or hear someone talking about a competitor and cringe in uneasiness because they did something we didn’t…built a solid brand.

Like marketing in general, branding is easy to lose focus on, especially when we have experienced some degree of success. If you agree that today’s markets have changed and the way businesses DO business has changed, then it’s time to recalibrate some of your own marketing efforts. That means its back to basics! Like the “butterfly effect,” small improvements in your branding strategy can have a tremendous impact on growth over time.

We know from marketing 101 that your brand is your identity. Beyond the visual or physical makeup… name, logo, advertising, a brand is quite simply the psychological impact you have on customers. Branding is so important because people buy emotionally and then logic steps in to support their buying decision. Your brand is essentially a part of the ongoing relationship you have with customers. It is a compilation of messages that differentiate (or don’t differentiate) your business, product or service from everyone else who plays in the same space as you do. Take a second look at the competition of today. If someone stands out, why do they stand out? Who doesn’t stand out? Which category does your company fall into and who might be able to help you to improve on that position?

From your email address to your website, to how the phone is answered to the relevance of your marketing materials, your brand must be professional, consistent and CURRENT.  What the company stands for and what you’re offering should be different and clear. When is the last time you really dissected how you are perceived in the market and what your market position truly is? One easy way is to run a survey using existing customers or even some customers that you lost. Resources like SurveyMonkey.com are fantastic, free, e-survey questionnaire tools that are easy to use and easy on the budget.  So let me ask you… what perception do your customers have of your business? What does your presence in the market “feel” like to customers and professional peers (aka competitors) and more importantly… are you being felt?

Adam Schechtman is an entrepreneur and co-owner of Eye Catching Creative, providing virtual, on-call design, advertising and marketing solutions to budget-conscious small and mid-sized businesses. With more than 15 years in marketing, business development and sales, he is also the former owner of Achieve Senior Home Care and former co-owner/franchiser of Advance Realty Solutions. Adam holds an MBA in marketing from Johns Hopkins University. Visit www.eyecatchingcreative.com for more information.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Raise it for discussion on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

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If you have even a remote interest in college basketball, you know the name John Wooden.  In a society in which superlatives such as "superstar" and "awesome" are thrown around with such reckless abandon as to deprive them of meaning, John Wooden truly qualifies for the adjective so often attached to his name -- "legendary." 

In his 40 years as head coach for the UCLA men's basketball team, Wooden compiled a record that included a record 38 straight tournament wins, an NCAA record consecutive winning streak of 88 games over 4 seasons, an .813 career winning percentage, and an unprecedened 10 national championships. 

In 1976, the Los Angeles Athletic Club was looking to establish the college basketball equivalent of football's Heisman trophy -- a nationally prestigious award to be conferred upon the best basketball player in the nation.  Naturally, the LAAC chose to name the award after John Wooden.  The John R. Wooden Award quickly fulfilled the visions of its founders.  John Wooden signed over the right to use his name to the LAAC, which trademarked it as soon as the ink on the contrac was dry.

In January, 2005, Coach Wooden sought to influence another group for the better by working with a group known as Athletes for a Better World to recognize an athlete, regardless of sport, for contributions outside of the game.  The award was dubbed The Wooden Cup.  The LAAC balked, citing a violation of its trademark. 

Still able to size up the opposition after so many years removed from sport, John Wooden conceded.  He recognized the superior rights of the LAAC to his own name and walked away rather than participate in what would have been a long, expensive, draining, and ultimately demeaning legal battle.  For purposes other than submitting a passport application, John Wooden had given up rights to his name...and he's not alone.

Every day, companies sign away valuable rights to their brand, logo, products, and services, thinking only of the immediate goal of the contract, rather than about the long term implications.  Considering the marketing dollars routinely spent on building a brand, these contracts are frequently nothing short of a disaster.  To lose control of one's brand is akin to opening the door of your home to a thief.  Here, however, you will be forced to watch in the light of day as the thief legally makes off with the fruits of your labor.

More than perhaps any other contract, companies must be judicious and precise when granting licenses to their intellectual property.  Oral agreements or poorly drafted written ones can haunt a business long after the short term benefits of the deal have been exhausted. 

Just ask John Wooden.

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We all know the resolution drill. The new year marks the welcome of new beginnings and a commitment to resolutions focused toward adopting healthier lifestyles. Come the new year, gyms and fitness clubs across the country will be filled with people sweating off the holiday pounds.  Yet, by spring many of those same people are on the way to the office without a workout in sight. With one bite of a calorie-filled blueberry muffin, the resolution once made with dedication is no longer a priority.

Marketing your business can easily be compared to this all-too-common scenario. As soon as a new product is rolled out or new service offered, a business quickly plans a strategy to get the word out to consumers to increase sales and visibility to target audiences. Spending merely a few weeks working to get your business or product noticed, building your brand, and expanding your network will most likely not offer you the same results as making a constant, consistent effort.  

Think about the results you get from exercising. A few weeks of dedication at the gym may result in a pair of pants one size smaller, but months later they aren’t going to fit if you haven’t maintained a consistent workout regimen.   The same can be said for your business. You may feel good when business is busy and profits are up, but you must put yourself and your business at the forefront and keep marketing to consumers to stay visible.  It takes commitment.  It takes a plan.
 

An easy way to commit to marketing your business year-round is by creating a marketing plan. If this is your businesses’ first attempt, consider consulting a professional or start small by creating a short-term marketing plan with smaller, attainable goals that can be reached in shorter time.  Near the end of the short-term marketing plan, evaluate your goals and consider expanding to a long-term marketing plan with annual goals.
 

As daunting and time-consuming as a marketing plan may seem, the following are a few simple activities that can be done every week to help increase your brand awareness in the community: 

• Attend industry networking events
• Volunteer to lecture or speak at appropriate professional associations or community organization meetings
• Write editorial pieces based on recent news affecting your industry for your local newspaper
• Sponsor local events or charities

While a plethora of practices can be considered for use, the invariable ingredient to a successful marketing formula is consistency and rhythm.  Allotting the time for habitual marketing will help to steadily build a company’s brand visibility. Additionally, the regularity in practices will help to avoid making resolutions to get a business back in shape. Let’s face it…resolutions are tricky to keep, especially if they involve going to a gym, but if it’s better marketing you want, take the time and make the commitment to a solid marketing plan and adopt a proactive mentality. It could be as simple as turning on your computer once a week and researching opportunities online, blueberry muffin in hand.

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Not long ago, I was on a plane, giving some serious thought to the business applications of Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  I was thinking about business, but the subject I kept returning to was fish gills. 

It was my 12th grade biology teacher, Mr. Williams, who posed the question: "Why are gills deeply ridged, almost like the pages of a book, rather than smooth?"  The answer was "surface area."  A gill's sole function is to absorb as much oxygen from the water as possible -- just like lungs in a human.  The more ridges, the greater amount of surface area.  The greater amount of surface area, the greater the exposure to oxygen -- all packed into a confined space.  Which brings us back to the social networking sites.

Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter are all about exposure to the outside environment.  The greater a person's participation, the more friends, fans, followers and connections.  From a business standpoint, exposure to potential customers out there in the environment equates to one's surface area.   

But it's not just surface area that matters.  For the organism to thrive, gills must be exposed to the proper environment.  A fresh water fish will die in salt water.  Similarly, large scale exposure of a business to a community of non-buyers will result in noteriety, not success. 

And that's the question facing businesses, my own included --- how can a business ensure that its social networking initiatives gain exposure to the right environment? 

I welcome your thoughts.

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