Running a business in a saturated market if no easy feat – in fact, it’s downright tough. With more and more businesses popping up daily, entrepreneurs are facing the challenge of not only making their product or service available, but rather, making them more valuable than anyone else’s.

With this in mind, small business owners have taken to the web to build the value of their business.

Here’s what they’re doing to effectively build the value of their small business – consider doing the same for your own business!

1. Branding

Creating a recognizable profile for your company and yourself is important when building value online. Whether you run a website, a blog, a collection of social profiles, or all of the above, it’s important to create an image for your business so people will recognize it across the web.

Branding your business online is about consistency. Help your visitors recognize your profiles, blogs, and website visually by adding a simple picture of yourself – not your business logo. The first step in tapping the social sphere as a business entity is creating transparency – in other words, you need to introduce yourself and let your visitors know who you are. By spending time branding yourself first as an authoritative person in your niche, visitors are more likely to stick around and trust you.

Once you’ve successfully branded yourself online as an authoritative source, you can then proceed to brand your product or service.

This step is all about consistency and persistence. To brand your product of service, create an image and let people know it exists – in other words, remind your visitors it’s available where ever possible without spamming them.

One of the best ways to remind your visitors that you have something to sell is to post a banner in your own sidebar, header, and in the footer of your blog posts. Remember, this game is all about reminding your visitor – the more you remind them, the more likely they’re going to buy.

Why?

Because they trust you … don’t they? Wait, how do you build trust online so that you can brand yourself as an authoritative voice?

2. Building Trust

The practice of building trust with your visitors is similar to building credit – it takes time and it requires a record of good history.

To start building trust with your visitors, you need brand yourself as a transparent source of information – that is, someone interested in providing information … for free. Even if you’re helming a business and need to focus on making money to stay alive, you need to position yourself as a source of information and help that visitors can depend on. If you don’t then visitors will happily click away from your site and visit someone else’s – and there are plenty to choose from.

Becoming transparent is simple – just be you. Avoid hiding behind company logos, mystery profile pictures, and other tactics designed to shield your identity from your customers – you don’t want people to think you’re shady. Reveal yourself and give people a reason why they should trust you – it should be clear, to the point, and fast.

Giving your visitors a reason to trust you can happen in as little to one to three steps – if you’re new, chances are it will take a bit longer.

First, create something of value your visitors can use. For example, if you have a blog, create a post that your targeted visitors will find helpful. The goal at this point is to attract your future customers, hook them with helpful content, and lead them to one of two places … which leads us to the second step:

Second, provide your visitor with an impressive “about” page. Whether you’re working from a blog, a social profile, or traditional website, you need to create that “about page” so that your visitors can read more about you once you’ve impressed them with your post (the about page is one of the most popular pages visited on a site). Tell the visitor who you are, what your experience is, and what you’re doing.

It’s completely up to you whether to take the modest approach – some find it effective, others find it effective to blatantly spell out why they’re at the top of their game. Perhaps a balance of both would serve your goals best. Visitors want to be in the hands of a pro, yet too much arrogance or confidence could result in a backfire and you’ll lose the customer.

Usually at this point you will have either gained or lost a new reader, but sometimes readers will stick around undecided, which brings us to the third step … which is more of an ongoing step:

Third, continue to help your visitors with helpful information (such as blog posts, guest posts, eBooks, reports, and more). This step depends entirely on your performance either as a social media personality, blogger, or other web publisher. Your activity and production will determine whether or not your readership grows, shrinks, or flatlines, so it’s crucial to stay on top of it at all times.

Blogging and social activity can be very rewarding, but it requires dedication of time and effort. This brings us to the final method I’d like to explore …

3. Building Useful Content

With the boom of social activity online, including networking, bookmarking, commerce, and more, there’s no question that every business owner online is a hyphenate – that is, you’re a business owner – web publisher.

By publishing blog posts, submitting to article directories, updating your status, and uploading photos or videos, you’re a web publisher. How much you do is entirely up to you – there is no secrete formula or mixture that leads to success … it’s all about experimenting what works and what doesn’t. If you’re selling cameras of developing photographs, you might find more results joining photo sharing sites than video sharing sites. Likewise, you might find that your crowd prefers to follow you short updates than your drawn out blog posts.

Regardless of platform, the point is that business owners should to take advantage of the web by providing useful content for their visitors, followers, and customers.

What type of content?

Helpful, of course! Write an article that solves someone’s problem, provides a possible solution, or other helpful resource. The idea behind producing content is to feed the conversation online and help visitors in the process – those visitors will turn into your customers depending on how well you present yourself as an authoritative voice in your niche.

If you position yourself and your business as a helpful resource, you increase the chance of turning your visitors into customers – especially when you reach out and provide help with your social profiles.

Building value for your business online isn’t all that complex; it just takes time and effort, which for most business owners, isn’t an option. If you have the time and ability to create content, it’s highly recommended. Every piece of content you publish is like an active banner – the more you publish, the more likely you’ll be able to attract some visitors. That said, creating content is also an exceptional way to connect with your customer – it enables you to open a discussion with them, hear their feedback, and even track them as customers. It also happens to be one of the ways small businesses can win customers from the conglomerate giants … connection. For more on this, check out The Power of the Business Owner’s Connection with the Customer.

Brand yourself and your business, build trust with your readers through transparent presentation, and provide helpful content – just a few ways to build value for your business online.

Christopher writes about building more value, finding more customers, and making more money online at the Dapeem blog.

Gaining an understanding of strategy and its objectives is essential not only for business, but in everyday life. I teach this topic to my accounting and finance students and thought it would make a good blog post.

Competitive strategy is really about being different and selecting a different set of activities capable of delivering a unique mix of value to customers. In the process of selecting a different set of activities it boils down to the choices you make to change the rules in your favor so you create a competitive position that eliminates the competition.

Choices to change the rules should include setting the right goals. A sound strategy might be to achieve superior profitability by not becoming too big or growing too fast. It might involve becoming a technology leader. Strategy needs to have continuity and is something that can’t be constantly reinvented. It boils down the basic value you are trying to deliver to customers. It is important to maintain a strategy that is consistent in the face of a multitude of changes.

A good strategy will ensure that its components will drives competitive advantage and sustainability. There should be a simple consistency between each functional activity and the overall strategy. This will occur when activities are reinforcing and there is an optimization of effort. A good competitive strategy will grow out of the entire system of activities.

Essentially there are five steps in developing strategy which are presented as follows:
1. Formulating a strategic vision of the organization’s future business composition and the direction on where the entity is headed.
2. Setting objectives.
3. Crafting a strategy to achieve the desired outcomes.
4. Implementing and executing the selected strategy efficiently and effectively.
5. Evaluating organizational performance and making appropriate corrective adjustments wherever necessary.
These five primary tasks become a continuous loop whereby you are observing, orienting, deciding, and acting on necessary adjustments as needed. In the current economic environment, organizations need to be agile and quick in making these decisions.

Good strategy can involve a variety of approaches. This might include a variety of cost approaches ranging from low cost/low price, differentiation, to a specific market niche. Other approaches include responses to changing market conditions, moves to secure a competitive advantage, geographic market coverage, and vertical integration. In addition strategic approaches include financial approaches, human resources, R. & D., marketing, manufacturing, and collaborative partnerships and alliances. The development of the strategy will certainly consider some of these options.

In addition to various approaches, there are some fundamental components of strategy. Foremost, it will be essential to decide what product or service attributes offer the best chance to win a competitive edge. The next step is to develop the skills, expertise, and competitive capabilities that will set the business apart from rivals. Your choice of strategic components should insulate the business as much as possible from the effects of competition.

Attempt to evaluate your firm or company as to whether it is either conventional or reactive. Another way of looking at the evaluation is to determine whether your firm is distinctive and far-sighted. One way of assessing this is evaluating which issues absorb management’s time and attention. How does management’s point of view regarding the future measure up against the competition? Are you better at improving operational efficiency or at creating new businesses? Is the company’s agenda determined by actions of competitors or is it set based on your own unique vision of the future? Within the organization, what is the balance between anxiety and hope?

Finally, it is essential to assess the quality of your strategic market leadership in terms of the customers being serviced today in contrast to those you expect to service in the future. This same question can be directed to your current competitors and who you expect to compete against in the future. Where are your profits earned today and versus where they will be earned in the future? Effective strategy is dependent on resolving the key questions of what drives your business today in contrast to what will provide the competitive advantage in the future. In too many instances, organizations fail to address these issues and follow the course of plodding from day to day with not real thought of the future.

How valuable are CPAs to their clients? What do clients want their CPAs to do for them? These questions have puzzled me and frustrated me for some time. After giving this some thought I reached the conclusion that clients don’t receive value and CPAs don’t provide the value they are capable of delivering.Creating value lies in the pursuit and development of value propositions. Value propositions aren’t defined in the tax code or in generally accepted accounting principles, yet it is the secret to greater profitability which is created by providing needed and necessary services. Clients want more than taxes and accounting from CPAs. They want and need help with their businesses, especially when economic conditions are tough. This means defining customer value in terms of what services CPAs provide and how they do business with their clients. Here is where you can link price together with reliability, dependability, and convenience of the service provided.

Far too many CPAs provide a service, but miss out on providing and building client value. This occurs because they haven’t taken the time to develop the knowledge and understanding as to what clients really need. You need to ask the key questions of clients so you know what they expect of you and how they think you could help them address their challenges and opportunities. This most likely means the ability to provide them with management consulting in strategic and operational areas.

Developing a basket of services which provide value will allow you to value bill. This begins with understanding clients needs and translates into increased profitability for you relative to the hours expended. You now have a choice on what you charge because the client is receiving greater value from the services you provide.

You might end up servicing fewer clients and receiving greater revenue. Providing added value services to clients you truly want to work with ends up being a win/win situation. You can develop some ideas relative to the types of services by reviewing the list of services I offer both to clients and as resources to CPAs.

Employing a value proposition strategy to your practice is an effective way to re-engineer what you are doing by giving clients the services they need and want. Providing added value to clients puts you in the driver’s seat and lets you value bill in contrast to just being paid for the hours you charged to an engagement. It also creates a better overall client experience since it enhances the flow of communication and avoids difficulties and problems which can occur.

You can now start charging the maximum amount that a client is willing to pay which results in greater revenue and a more productive work environment. You will have happier clients since they now perceive they are receiving the value they wanted and are willing to pay for it. Your practice should grow because happy clients talk and this should translate into increased work. This is truly a way of working smarter and not harder.

What is a mission or vision statement? In brief terms, a mission statement is a description of how an organization defines success and where it is headed going down the road. In order to be successful, a mission statement needs to be more than just words or phrases. An effective mission statement needs to be a living document that provides the necessary focus for all levels of the organization.Despite the importance of defining a mission, there have been a lot of failures to create any change in organizational performance or in what people are doing to accomplish results. One of the big problems is that mission statements fail to effectively communicate to employees on where the company is headed. Mission statements also fall short on linking strategic direction with specific goals and objectives at all levels of the organization.

It is critical for organizations to define their future business direction so employees clearly understand where they are going and how they will get there. From this platform, organizations need to develop a definition of success and a process for setting goals and objectives. Together with these steps, it is critical for the entire organization to have clarity on its sources of strength and competitive advantage.

Once organizations get these step right, they need to move forward to clarify “the what, where, and how” of competitive success. This message then needs to be effectively communicated to employees and other people who have a stake in its success. A process of setting goals and objectives at all levels of the organization needs to be complete so everyone is on the same page in order to achieve a successful execution of the mission.

In many instances I think the objective setting process can be simplified. It doesn’t need to be complicated, but there needs to be buy in at all levels and everyone needs to know their role and how they fit into the plan. Defining an effective set of objectives might sound easy, but it is a tough job and is critical to achieving success.

The key to a successful mission or vision statement boils down to the following three steps:
1. Where is our business going?
2. What are our objectives?
3. How will we accomplish our objectives?
After these three questions have been answered, the key to success is to effectively convert the answers into performance objectives for employees at all levels of the organization. Organizations that commit to this process with focus and determination will be the winners.

In the current economic environment there are lots of business owners struggling to deal with issues and problems and no idea on where and how to get help. Likewise there are CPAs who are asked by their clients for assistance in areas where they lack the knowledge and experience to provide support. It is a perception that help has to be geographically accessible. The reality in many situations is that there are virtual means of accessing the necessary experience and assistance.Many services, including training, can be provided virtually using the telephone, e-mail, and conferencing tools. I selected the areas of my expertise that could be delivered virtually. It is possible to review strategy and operational situations by using my questionnaires and experience in effective ways. Another situation faced by many companies is that they lack the financial expertise to provide the financial and controllership skills required to survive the current difficult economic environment. Virtual tools are available to share financial information and in many instances an experienced financial manager can provide the needed suggestions that can make the difference between success and failure.

Internal controls represent an area where CPAs need some assistance so they can avoid reinventing the wheel. In many instances I can provide instant answers to questions and provide suggested solutions that could otherwise take hours to solve. Based on working with the COSO internal control framework and assessing audit risk, I can provide direction and advice to practitioners and even help them review their work papers to minimize their risk.

My dealings with family-owned businesses have provided me with firsthand experience in working with succession and planning issues including estate and trust planning tools. It is like having someone working in your CPA practice where you can discuss and review a problem for potential solutions.

Some other areas where virtual assistance is available are cost management, operations and supply chain management. Why struggle with these areas when help is a phone call away. I can also provide assistance with strategic planning and share checklist and questionnaires that will allow you to facilitate development of strategic thinking with your clients. If you are a business looking for assistance, I can provide virtual support and training in these and other specialized areas.

You may not have given thought to using virtual support or training, but it available and utilized all the time. It is a cost effective way to receive the assistance you need. Give me a call to discuss ways that I might be of assistance.

Why not virtual consulting and business support? Since I have always performed consulting services at client’s sites, this represents an interesting question. In the current economic environment when every dollar counts it occurred to me that I could provide companies with excellent support and advice they might not be able to access in their geographic region. I teach on-line courses for Villanova University in conjunction with Bisk Education where I facilitate live discussion session with students every week. If I could teach on line then why not consult on line?After pondering the topic and the question, the answer seems pretty straight forward. Clients could really benefit from such an approach. In one of my recent live discussion sessions we had an extensive dialogue on the transformation of communication. Virtual communication is what has evolved in today’s world. Since we communicate virtually, then consulting and business advisory support represents a logical approach.

Telephone and e-mail are logical tools that most clients understand. The part which is a mystery to them is realizing that we can conduct an on-line dialog over the internet utilizing voice in addition to sharing of presentations and other analytical tools. It isn’t quite the same as face to face communication, but it works pretty well and is a lot cheaper and more time effective. It is an approach that works well enough to help a large number of clients. Virtual consulting can save time and reduce costs so traveling to client sites is limited only to the bare essentials.

In addition to reducing costs and improving efficiency, this approach saves a lot of wear and tear and allows me to reach out to a greater audience and expand my market reach. I can now help more people access my knowledge and expertise. I think this is a good way to work especially in a tough economic environment.

It seems like economic crisis and tough times are all we hear about these days. In a recent publication of Accounting Today an article appeared talking about the need for CPAs to step forth to provide assistance to small businesses. We need to provide guidance but small business people have to make a paradigm shift and realize they need help. They have been used to going without financial assistance for far too long and CPAs have been too focused on tax returns and financial statement preparation. Change needs to happen if businesses are to survive. My web site contains a lot of information both business owners and CPAs can use to survive the recession.CFO and Controllers of larger companies are also in a survival mode. They are laser focused on cash preservation and cost reduction. The key areas of focus include the following:
1. Preserving cash
2. Reducing costs
3. Reducing risk
4. Understanding expenditure patterns
5. Plugging holes in the dike
Over emphasis and indulgence on these factors can lead to overlooking some potential opportunities.

I think small business and larger organizations are missing the boat by placing all the emphasis on cutting back and hunkering down. Risk management should include looking for opportunities in addition to potential risk events that could adversely affect the company. Risk management should include considering opportunities to do a better job of purchasing and improving visibility on spending. Cash conversion efficiency includes managing accounts payable and inventories. These two areas represent a significant source of extra cash. It deserves additional focus and effort that will produce extra cash and liquidity.

Risk management includes effective planning and development of value propositions. Reevaluation of business strategies must be addressed since the old business model has shifted. New product lines and new markets need to be evaluated. More than likely the old rules no longer apply. Survival will depend on creating new visions and new strategies. These strategies then need to be linked to new marketing and sales programs. One of my clients is now spending a significant amount of effort developing new products and markets because the streams of revenue that existed just a few months ago no longer exist.

Operations and strategic planning when combined with sound financial management concepts and methodologies represent exactly how businesses need to deal with the economic crisis. Linked to these concepts are lean accounting and value stream analysis based on the voice of the customer.

I think this back to basics approach is what is required to cope with the challenges we face and represents the road less traveled to build healthy businesses and an economy that will survive the test of time.

Management philosophy is synonymous with “tone at the top” and provides direction as to how the organization will manage its financial reporting and articulate its objectives relative to internal control. Management attitude sets the foundation for financial reporting assertions and the application of accounting principles. The philosophy and operating style of management determines how financial reporting objectives and risk mitigation practices are established and executed.
Many smaller companies have entrepreneurial management teams that don’t always understand accounting and internal control processes. Promoting the importance of risk mitigation and appropriate interaction associated with transaction processing requirements is an adjustment for management teams of smaller companies. In many instances, adjustments need to be made so that all journal entries, together with the underlying assumptions and estimates, are properly authorized and supported by sufficient documen¬tation. Management operating style trickles down to employees, so there needs to be clear communication and application of business judgment so that qualified personnel are in place to perform effectively designed controls. It is critical for smaller organizations to ensure that management communicates effectively with employees as well as external parties relative to information linked to financial reporting objectives and the necessity for accurate and fairly presented financial reporting. Management needs to take financial reporting and internal control seriously by setting a “tone from the top” that is understood at all levels of the organization. Management philosophy and operating style needs to be “do as I do” and not just “do as I say.”

Lean accounting is a mystery to most business people and accountants. They have heard of lean manufacturing but not lean accounting. Lean accounting evolved in the manufacturing environment and hasn’t made much progress into lean thinking applications. There are a number of ways lean accounting can be applied in a variety of situations. It is perfect for managing and measuring results in tough economic times.Initially lean accounting got traction because it had the capability of overcoming the problems associated with standard costing. Standard costing is driven by labor efficiency, machine utilization, and absorption of overhead. These standard cost techniques were traditionally used by managers to build excessive inventories and generate positive variances to improve GAAP profitability leading to higher management incentive bonuses.

The economic recession has created a need for lean accounting. However, since most accountants haven’t use lean tools, the application goes unused. Lean accounting deals with tracking throughput or revenue and the associated variable costs required to generate those sales. Understanding that lean contribution from sales directly improves the bottom line is critical. You don’t spend funds unless it is associated with generating revenue. Since lean accounting provides better information for decision-making it has the impact of increasing sales. In a slower economy, companies need tools like value stream costing and similar lean-decision making applications.

Lean accounting financial statements are easier to understand. Since the focus is on the value stream linked to the voice of the customer, lean encourages measurement of drivers that produce value that customers want. Based on lean thinking, we are only incurring costs to produce customer value. We know the cost of the form and features demanded by customer. Costing techniques include target costing and analysis of the life-cycle of products. These approaches utilize continuous improvement techniques focused on improving our profit margins.

Since most managers relate lean accounting to manufacturing, the tendency is to ignore the concepts of lean and lean accounting for non-manufacturing applications. These areas represent the most lucrative opportunities for lean thinking and lean measurement. There are significant opportunities to lean our administrative and other overhead areas of organizations. Service, health care, and other industry sectors are leaving money on the table by not using lean thinking and lean accounting.

There are plenty of ways to apply lean thinking to accounting and financial operations. The use of simplified financial presentation and measurement can represent significant improvement in time savings and better decision-making. One of the concepts I advocate is sales and operational planning linked to rolling forecasts that virtually eliminates the need for annual budgets. This is a process of getting the entire organization to commit to a regular process of monitoring and communicating the most up to date information available and converting it to meaningful and actionable information. Rolling forecasts provide a simplified lean measurement of the organization and where it is going on a timely basis. It becomes a real-time basis decision making tool.

These concepts are discussed and explained in my book, Dynamics of Profit Focused Accounting. A lean front office is no different than a lean shop floor manufacturing operation. It is all about process flow and eliminating the waste from the value stream. The problem lies in the lack of education and inability to shift paradigms to a new lean way of thinking.

My recent post Strategies for Recession implies that everyone understands strategy. The truth is that strategy isn’t well understood and means many things to different people. One of my students in a recent session indicated she had worked on strategy development project for a large unnamed company and the executives didn’t have a clue as to what strategy is and how to utilize it. Hopefully, we’ll shed some light on strategy and how it is crafted.I think competitive strategy is about being different and deliberately making choices relative to activities that will provide a unique value proposition to customers. One contradiction is that operational effectiveness is strategy. This is what every organization should be doing to remain competitive. Strategy is about making tough choices needed to maintain a competitive advantage. These are choices to change the rules so they work in your favor.

Having the right goals is a critical component of having a sound strategy. Setting goals and objectives represent components of effective strategies. Strategy needs to have continuity and isn’t something that can be constantly reinvented. It boils down to the basic value proposition you are trying to deliver to customers.

A good strategy includes simple consistency between all the functional activities and the overall strategy. The strategic fit drives competitive advantage and sustainability and occurs when the activities are reinforcing thus achieving optimization of effort. Competitive strategy grows out of the entire system of activities.

Thompson and Strickland in their book Crafting and Implementing Strategy define five primary tasks:
1. Formulating a strategic vision of the company’s future business composition and the direction where the entity is headed.
2. Setting objectives.
3. Crafting a strategy to achieve the desired outcomes.
4. Implementing and executing the selected strategy efficiently and effectively.
5. Evaluating organizational performance and making appropriate corrective adjustment wherever necessary.

These five primary tasks become a continuous loop whereby you are observing, orienting, deciding, and acting on necessary adjustments as needed. In the current economic environment, organizations need to be agile and quick in making these decisions.

I will provide additional insight on strategy and how to apply it effectively in the future. In the meantime some strategic terminology might be helpful. Here are some definitions that will help to remove some of the mystery.

Strategic Vision is a view of the organization’s future direction and business makeup. The organization’s mission is defining it’s the business purpose and what the business is trying to accomplish on behalf of its customers. Strategic objectives represent the targets management establishes for strengthening the organization’s overall business position and competitive vitality. So strategy represents the actions and approaches that are implemented to satisfy customers and the strategic plan is a statement outlining the mission, performance targets and strategy.

This should provide some clarity and eliminate confusion related to strategy. Hopefully this will help you navigate turbulent waters and craft your strategies for survival.