Target, Sell & Profit… A Great Learning Opportunity

July 19th, 2011 // 2:28 pm @ John D. Laslavic

By: Scott Faller

ThistleSea Business Development, LLC

Special Event: B.Y.O.B – Business Owners & Executive Series

That’s right! B.Y.O.B.! Think it is too early in the morning for that? It is never too early (or too late) to improve your business.

The Build Your Own Business Workshop will feature three of the area’s most experienced and successful business professionals

ThistleSea Marketing & Communications Intern

who will present you with the tools you need to effectively target, sell, and profit in today’s market.

Education is such an important part of successfully running a company. Many of you graduated with degrees from well-respected business programs at schools such as Pitt, Carnegie Mellon, other great schools and my alma mater, Penn State. You graduated and your education was complete; you had all of the knowledge needed to succeed in the real world, right? The truth is that the most successful business people are the ones who never stop learning.

A classroom-style environment will provide an excellent setting for you and other business professionals to learn things your professors DID NOT teach you in school. While they taught you to be a professional, we have to strive to be successful!

• Our first Workshop Professor, John D. Laslavic, LPBC – President, ThistleSea Business Development – will guide you through ways to lead a more profitable company, better understand the relationship between marketing and sales, and measure your Marketing Return-On-Investment.
• Our second Workshop Professor, Larry Lewis – President, Client Builder Sales & Marketing – will provide you with ways to generate more leads, make more sales, and manage your sales team more effectively.
• Our third Workshop Professor, Chris Maas – Vice President, Insight Marketing Solutions – will show you how to create a larger web presence, turn Fans, Followers, and Connections into revenue, and learn the TRUE capabilities of Social Media and search engine optimization.

Are you a Business Owner or Not-for-Profit Executive? You can learn and benefit!

Are you a Marketing or Sales Executive? You can learn and benefit!

Are you a Website or Social Media Coordinator? You can learn and benefit!

Responsible for all three! YOU BETTER BE HERE!

The workshop is only a month away so sign up now! Seating is limited to the first 35 registrants! The price is $299. Sign up by July 28 for $100 off!

 Date: Thursday, August 11

Time: 8:30am – 12:00pm

Location:The Pine Professional Building – Keller Williams Classroom

                         11279 Perry Highway, Suite 300

                          Wexford, PA 15090

Act today by registering in 3 convenient ways: 

REGISTRATION FORM – TARGET, SELL & PROFIT

• Call:  888.625.2477
• Email registration to BYOBregisternow@gmail.com
• FAX 925.848.3266

Can’t wait that long to improve your business? Give the experienced Pittsburgh & Tri-State Area Licensed Professional Business Coaches at ThistleSea Business Development a call today at (724) 935-1930 or email us at info@thistlesea.com. Ask for John or Wendy!

Category : Blog &Featured

Register TODAY – TARGET, SELL & PROFIT – B.Y.O.B. Workshop, August 11, 2011

July 15th, 2011 // 4:28 pm @ John D. Laslavic

Target, Sell & Profit!

Category : Blog &Featured &Uncategorized

Are you delivering great customer experiences time and time again?

July 9th, 2011 // 4:25 pm @ John D. Laslavic

By John D. Laslavic, LPBC, Business Coach / President, ThistleSea Business Development, LLC

Common sense tells us that every business needs customers.  The service your customers expect from you, your employees and your company in providing a consistent product or service that meets their requirements and fulfills their needs will determine if you gain repeat business and garner more referrals, right.  Well almost right!

Your customer service might be underperforming if you answer YES to any of these questions:

• Are your employees underperforming and cast in the wrong jobs?
• Do your managers and employees have little or no feeling of real success?
• Does your team feel underappreciated?
• Is your training inconsistent or non-existent?
• Is your company void of  industry or  the adoption of business best practices?

Sad to say, customer service is not enough today to win a customer’s repeat business or their referrals for your business.  For you and your business to earn a customer’s repeat business today, you must look beyond just delivering great products and services.  Today, you must provide customers with a great customer experience.

According to the recent studies, 60% to 80% of customers who say they are satisfied with a company’s product or service find that alone is not enough to get them to return and to obtain their repeat business.  So, in addition to offering a great product or service, you must build experiences that create loyal customers and that gain you loyal raving fans.

Where does it start?  It starts with your leadership.  Your leadership as an owner in creating a culture and the environment by setting a strong example that your employees can follow and your customers can understand.  It starts with you, the leader, communicating a strong, compelling and exciting vision that serves  all employees, stakeholders and customers.  It involves you as the leader serving your employees well and each of them serving each other well.  That’s right; it starts with employees serving each other well.

If you’re a manufacturer, professional firm, service company, not-for-profit, retailer or any other type of business, consider this carefully.   Below is an article that was recently prepared for the Western PA Hospital News.  This article talks about a customer experience of a recent, actual example of one medical practice with one patient.

Check out this article:

Is Good “CARE” Still Good Business?

Could this type of situation happen in your company?  Could you or your team drop the ball and lose focus on actually why you are there?  If so, what actions are you taking to prevent these types of situations from happening?  Do you know where to start?

A customer base that builds and returns is build through great customer experiences.  To have those experiences, you must be intentional.  Have you established the environment and are you building the systems that will lead you to inspire and astound your customers time and time again?

If you want to work on or learn more about building a business system that delivers a great customer experience time and time again, we are here to assist you.   Give ThistleSea Business Development, LLC  a call at (724) 935-1930 or email us at info@thistlesea.com.

Category : Blog &Featured

“Two” Big to Fail in Health Care?

June 21st, 2011 // 11:11 pm @ John D. Laslavic

ThistleSea selected as “Featured Business Thought Leader” for WPA Hospital News.

The business of health care continues to be one of the most important areas with a complex variety of issues facing our medical, acute & not-acute care providers, our communities, local, state and national government.

John D. Laslavic, LPBC, President, ThistleSea Business Development, LLC  was recently selected to be one of the “Featured Business Thought Leaders”, for the Western Pennsylvania Hospital News by Harvey Kart, editor / owner of the this important regional hospital, medical and health care publication.

You can see John’s first article:                “Two” Big to Fail in Health Care?

Category : Blog

GETTU or GOTTU

January 20th, 2011 // 9:13 pm @ John D. Laslavic

By:  Wendy Lydon, LPBC

As we proceed during  the year, we sometimes focus on all of the stuff we need to do to be successful.  We establish goals and sometimes do stuff and sometimes don’t do the stuff we planned to for a whole variety of reasons.  But we sometimes forget to look at our attitude to make sure we put ourselves in a position to succeed.  Let me tell you a story that might help.

At a recent networking group, the speaker asked each of the members of the audience after he had passed out stickers for each of them to wear, “So what are you?”  We all were wearing a sticker and one said Gottu and the other said Gettu.  No one knew what the heck he was talking about and that’s what made his presentation even better. Of course, he had prepped the group with some ringers to make his point and that’s OK since he went on to make his point with incredible effectiveness.

He proceeded and asked a second series of questions.  “What are you expecting to get out of today’s session? Who would like to go first?”  Then he pointed to someone (a shill) and said, “Come on Joe, why don’t we start with you?”  The expected response was, “Oh, man do I gotta go first.”  The speaker stopped him and said “No, that’s OK Joe, not to worry,” turning to another, he asked, “How about Mary, why you don’t start?”  Mary (the second shill), leaped to her feet and said with great enthusiasm, “Great, now, I gettu go first.”  Can you see the difference, and allowing for the grammatical assault, his point was made.

Quite simply put, some of us are Gottu people and some of us are Gettu.  Many of us are frequently thinking, “Oh boy, I’ve got to do this or I have to do that,” and it really colors the way we go about doing things and it makes us in almost all cases that much less effective.  Others cannot wait to sink their teeth into new or even every day projects and frequently and conversely exclaim, “YES, I gettu start working with this client, or I gettu finish up this project.”  Ask yourself, who would you want to spend any time with if given the choice?  That’s right, the gettu people every time. Do you think anyone chooses to work with those Debbie Downers of the world?  No way!!!   This relates to our personal life also.  I recently thought that I get to help my daughter clean her room (haha) and I get to drive my parents to the doctors.  I shutter to think – what if I didn’t get to do these things?!!

As you can imagine when I write this, I can’t wait to get to it!  Hopefully you’ll think about this the next time you need to do something because, here’s the beauty of all this, you GETTU choose who you are going to be each and every day in 2011. Why not make it the most effective choice you can make?

Wendy Lydon is a Licensed Professional Business Coach and Vice President of ThistleSea Business Development, LLC, located in Wexford, PA.  You can contact her at 724.935.1930 or by email at wendyo@thistlesea.biz.

Category : Blog &Featured

Wendy Lydon Receives Licensed Professional Business Coach Designation

January 5th, 2011 // 10:37 pm @ John D. Laslavic

Pittsburgh Area Woman Receives Licensed Professional Business Coach Designation

Wendy Lydon, LPBC
Wexford, PA – January 6, 2011 — Local business woman and business coach Wendy Lydon, LPBC, has completed advanced business coaching training with the Professional Business Coaches Alliance (PBCA), Canton, OH (www.pbca.com). She is vice president of ThistleSea Business Development, LLC, (www.thistlesea.com) a Pittsburgh, PA area business coaching firm where she has been assisting the firm’s clients since 2009.

The Licensed Professional Business Coaching designation requires over 50 hours of intensive classroom training covering all aspects of coaching and mentoring successful business owners in addition to nearly 100 hours of continuing education annually.

The PBCA is an alliance of the most highly trained professional business coaches across North America. Its members have helped hundreds of business owners to become more successful.

Ms. Lydon is no stranger to business. She has formal education and degrees in Business Management and Information Systems. Ms. Lydon has over twenty years of extensive background and expertise in business development, sales leadership and customer care in healthcare, group purchasing, association management, retail and distribution. She is a member of the Women’s Business Network and Pittsburgh Professional Women organizations.

“Joining forces with a group of successful and committed business coaches gives my clients not only the insights of my solid career experience, but also the expertise and talents of over 100 Licensed Professional Business Coaches across North America,” said Ms. Lydon. “In addition, I now have a range of tools and best business practices my clients can use to really enhance their business performance to move to the next level much more quickly.”

John D. Laslavic, LPBC , president of ThistleSea Business Development, commented, “We are extremely pleased to add the talents of Ms. Lydon to our ThistleSea Business Development team of licensed professional business coaches. She has a tremendous business background and the skills to help business owners reach their professional and business goals.”

Ms. Lydon’s offices are located at 7500 Brooktree Road in Wexford. She offers both one-on-one coaching and group coaching for business owners and a variety of training and business assessments. She and her family reside in Cranberry Township, PA.
###
About ThistleSea Business Development, LLC.

Established in 2006, ThistleSea Business Development, LLC is a business coaching, strategy development and training company based in the Pittsburgh area. It is the only service organization in the area comprised of a team of three Licensed Professional Business Coaches and also a certified Guerilla Marketing Firm. ThistleSea Business Development also includes the divisions of CNICUS Buying Group, providing services that help businesses increase revenue, reduce expenses and improve their performance and Ketchfire, which focuses on the design and implementation of internet, web development and social media tools and strategies.

“Because your business should lead to Abundance.”

For additional contact information:

Wendy O. Lydon, LPBC, Vice President
ThistleSea Business Development
Phone: (724) 935-1930
Cell: (724) 316-7027
Email: wendyo@thistlesea.com
Business Development Office
7500 Brooktree Rd., Suite 117
Wexford, PA 15090
Phone: 724.935.1930 Fax: 925.848.3266
thistlesea.com

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
John D. Laslavic, LPBC, President
ThistleSea Business Development, LLC
Phone: (724) 935-1930
Cell: (412) 559-3503
Email: jdl@thistlesea.com
Web Site: thistlesea.com

Category : Blog &Featured

5 Important Areas To Consider In Your 2011 Business Planning

December 21st, 2010 // 1:10 am @ John D. Laslavic

By: John D. Laslavic, LPBC

Most business owners I have met consider the New Year as a time to get a fresh start. It is usually a time to reflect on the business’s past year’s successes and failures. It is also a time to compare the planned results of the previous year’s business goals to the actual results achieved for the year. Once the evaluation is completed, new goals are usually established by the business owner with the management team and a strategic action plan is developed and deployed.

Knowing that perfection is never actually achieved but a constant state to strive for, the most successful business owners are never satisfied with the current state of the business and are constantly striving for improved results.

Here are 5 important areas for business owners to consider when establishing the Strategic Business Action Plan!

1. Decide what you want for 2011!
Have you determined what you want your business to be? Are you making the needed adjustments to help the business be the best in serving your market, prospects and clients? Are you setting realistic goals and objectives?

As a business owner you might want to consider the maturity of the business and if your desires for the business reflect what the business really needs. In your planning are you anticipating the areas that may be the weakest links in the business that could inhibit your business growth? What areas might need further developed in order for your business to continue to grow and prosper?

2. Benchmark your business!
Are you comparing your business to other similar businesses in your SIC or NAICS codes? What can you learn by the comparisons and apply to improve your business performance?

I have a successful client that had always planned for annual revenue growth of 15%. He wondered why his peers around the country were growing much faster than his business. When we benchmarked this owner’s business against his peers, we found that his peers on average were growing revenue 46% annually. Using this data and adjusting the business owner’s action plan to more aggressively pursue more aggressive business growth, the business owner with renewed confidence achieved a 39% growth the following year. A great result for a change in perspective of the owner now not satisfied with a mere 15% annual revenue growth.
ThistleSea Business Development has access to financial benchmarking tools to assist our clients in performing peer comparisons to assist in establishing realistic goals for growth and to identify actions to strengthen your business performance.

3. Find and implement the best business practices!
What business best practices can you apply to avoid making the mistakes of others? How much more efficient and effective can your business operate, not to mention driving a more profitable business by applying the best business practices available.

You might want to consider a Business Effective Evaluation by a Licensed Professional Business Coach to help you begin the process to identify your strengths and weakness to help develop your Strategic Business Action Plan.

Find what works for you and your business but avoid continuing use of those practices that might feel comfortable but through an objective evaluation are costing your business and not giving you the return needed to be successful.

4. Put your Strategic Business Action Plan in writing!
By developing your Strategic Business Action Plan for the New Year and putting it in writing, you will get closer to success than 99% of those who don’t put their plans in writing. So how do you develop the action plan for the New Year and to meet the needs of the business owner and develop a plan that will provide the business what it needs to grow strong to deliver for the business owner?

5. Envision your success and practice!
Successful business owners see the future of business success in advance of achieving the results. They understand that a lot of small parts of the business add up to achieving this successful vision. They and their team members practice the actions that lead to the success envisioned. They understand and lead their team to understand that continual training and education on a patterned basis is required to keep the organization on track and relevant. This education and training is required to maintain a leadership position with their customers.

While a business owner can successfully move their organization forward on their own, engaging a Licensed Professional Business Coach will help you, the business owner to clearly and objectively evaluation your current situation and build a Strategic Business Action Plan. The ThistleSea Licensed Professional Business Coach also provides clients with tools, best practices, an objective perspective and the accountability needed to take those action steps to achieve big results.

About the Author
John D. Laslavic is a Licensed Professional Business Coach and a Certified Guerilla Marketing Coach. John is the President of ThistleSea Business Development, LLC (www.thistlesea.com) which includes the divisions CNICUS Buying Group and Ketchfire (www.ketchfire.com).

John and his team of Licensed Professional Coaches work with successful business owners in the Greater Pittsburgh Area, Western Pennsylvania Region and across the United States. John can be contacted at ThistleSea Business Development, LLC by calling 724,935.1930 or email at info@thistlesea.com.

Contact us if you are interested in a no-cost initial meeting to discuss how a ThistleSea Business Development, LLC coach can help you achieve the success you desire for your business.

© 2010 – 2011 ThistleSea Business Development, LLC , All Rights Reserved.

Category : Blog &Featured

Marketing (Are you doing enough to stay in the game?)

October 25th, 2010 // 3:20 am @ John D. Laslavic

Have you or your staff ever complained that there is no business out there?  Complained that the political landscape is not conducive for new business, the economy can’t support new clients, potential customers are difficult and have all but disappeared, and competitors have eroded your market share. 

How important is marketing (finding qualified leads) for your business?  Is marketing your business of primary focus or is your company primarily focused on the technical work.  Do you produce high quality products or services, but can’t get the traction to fill your sales pipeline with great prospects?

If you are one of the many companies with the above mentioned symptoms and assuming that your products and services fill customers’ needs, you might want to consider a change in your perspective. If any of the above sounds familiar to you and your business colleagues, you might be interested in reading on.

I have had the pleasure of watching my three sons Jon, Tony & Nick play high and college school sports.  Two focused their energies on football and one was a soccer and track athlete.  Having watched them through their years of development, many of the lessons they learned on the field while actively participating in these sports can be applied to marketing a business.

So with that being said, let’s break it down.

Marketing your business, like team sports, requires:

1. Knowledge of the game or sport rules you’re playing,
2. Leadership abilities to communicate to inspire your team,
3. The ability to apply best practices and techniques to devise winning plays,
4. Learning and developing skills to use on the field of play,
5. Devising a winning game plan or plan of attack.

But that still is not good enough. Like competitive sports, putting your marketing game plan into action is then required at game time.  A game plan designed to score more points than your opponent to win the game.  Then, after the action, the results are measured by a score to determine a winner.  The results, game statistics, the play films are reviewed to ensure strategies and tactics are continually refined to produce an even improved result when playing the next game. 

Are you focused on measuring and replicating successful result (s)?  Do you communicate these results and look to make changes for continued improvement of your business? 

The importance of capturing, organizing and reporting data and information on marketing performance is critical for success.  By developing and refining your business systems that deliver the desired results more often, you too can have a great business and life.  As marketing is an investment, do we strive for the biggest return on our marketing investment as possible?

ThistleSea Business Development, LLC can help you determine and evaluate your current situation and get you back on the field with an action plan to double the effectiveness of your marketing.  It’s just part of the services we offer our clients.   Call us today, (724) 935-1930 for more information on how we help our clients score big. 

By: John D. Laslavic, LPBC

(c) 2010 ThistleSea Business Development, LLC, All Rights Reserved

Category : Blog &Featured

26 Reasons Business Owners Seek Help

August 8th, 2010 // 7:46 pm @ John D. Laslavic

When Might You Want To Recommend Or Seek Assistance from A Licensed Professional Business Coach?

Many life events occur that impact business owners, business partners, business investors and business executives.  When should you seek help from an experienced business coach or mentor?  And why would you look for one?

ThistleSea Business Developments’ clients come from many different skills, educational backgrounds, careers, geographic locations and types of businesses.  But are there some things they have in common?  Yes, a few include:

• A strong desire to succeed!
• Knowledge that they might not know everything!
• Some degree of lacking a completely clear vision of the future!
• Experiencing some type of frustration, failure and/or pain!
• A gradual or a sudden change of circumstances in their business or personal life!
• An unending need or desire to learn more and get it right!

So what are some of the types of circumstances you might recognize in others or in your own business that could encourage you to recommend a business coach to another or seek assistance yourself?

Below are some reasons that we see at ThistleSea Business Development that might help you:

1. Business is growing to fast for the owner to keep up with the changes needed,
2. Owner losing control,
3. Lack of business sales growth,
4. Desire to sell and/or realizing the business has little value,
5. Disputes within the business,
6. Son (s) or Daughter (s) taking over the reins of the business,
7. Family issues in the business,
8. Junior partner takes over the business,
9. Business begins to fail after 16, 32 or more years of a successful business,
10. Owner ends up in the Emergency Room because of the business pressures,
11. Not enough income to earn a profit,
12. Bank loan requirements that suggest a higher success rate when owners hire a licensed professional business coach,
13. Owner cannot find employees, who care,
14. Owner 2 years in business and the business not working,
15. A monumental mistake that puts their business at extreme risk,
16. Owner failed in one business and not wanting to fail again,
17. Looking for a new location to establish or re-establish the business,
18. Retirement of a senior owner or partner,
19. Co-owner not fulfilling their responsibilities,
20. Theft of business assets by a co-owner or employee,
21. Owner continues to self-sabotage,
22. Competition from other businesses or individuals,
23. Franchise model broken because of owner’s success,
24. Added additional locations and owner (s) are out of control,
25. Death of the owner or key employee,
26. Lose of key customer (s) severely impacting revenue / cash flow.

If you are experiencing any of these situations in your business or others, be encouraged that there is help and these situations have answers and can be resolved for business improvement.

Our staff and allies at ThistleSea Business Development can help you identify the best way to start, resolve these issues and help you gain clarity and take action.  We encourage contacting us at 724.935.1930 for a free initial consultation.

By John D. Laslavic, LPBC, President

© 2010 All Rights Reserved, ThistleSea Business Development, LLC

Category : Blog &Featured

Selling Your Business

August 3rd, 2010 // 1:33 am @ John D. Laslavic

Exit Planning – Cost of Doing Nothing!

By:  Tony McDaniel, CPA, CBI, BSN is the president of Allied Business Consultants

Most businesses simply do not sell.  And for those business owners who successfully sell their company, to either an external third party buyer or internally to family members or key employees, most do so without proper exit planning.   Under either exit scenario, the cost to the owner is often significant when compared to the benefits of implementing a successful exit strategy.

Without an exit strategy, the owner typically sells for too little…..by as much as 30% to 40% according to some industry statistics.   Additionally, when selling the business internally to family members or key employees, the cash component to the owner at closing is substantially lower than when selling to a third party buyer.

Real costs to business owners who do not properly plan for the exit of their business include the following:

• Sale Price is often lower…..by as much as 30% to 40%
• Cash at closing to the owner is often substantially less
• Likelihood of actually selling is significantly reduced.  Industry statistics show that only 10% to 30% of businesses on the market at any point in time actually sell.
• Pay more in income and estate taxes
• Owner does not control the exit process….the buyer does
• Personal and financial goals are not achieved
• Becomes a burden to the family if the owner dies
• Privacy and confidentiality can be difficult to maintain

The key to avoid or minimize the above costs is to be pro-active.  Do not be a statistic.  It is estimated that up to 70% of all privately held companies will transfer ownership over the next 5 – 10 years.  If you are a business owner, then your business will probably fall into this statistic.  If so, now is the time to take action!

Our business enhancement services are a key component to successful exit plans.  Our experts are skilled in providing guidance on increasing your annual revenues and minimizing your annual expenses.  The end result is an improved annual bottom line profit by as much as 100% – 200% and in turn, a substantially higher sale price for your company.

As a business owner, not only will you benefit, but your family will also benefit from your pro-active actions.  You will also greatly diminish the likelihood of being a statistic of forfeiting substantial money when you exit your business.  Please call us today to discuss your unique and individual objectives.

About the author: Tony McDaniel, CPA, CBI, BSN is the president of Allied Business Consultants serving Pittsburgh and surrounding areas.   Tony is a Business Sales Expert focusing on assisting owners of small to medium sized privately owned companies exit their business.   In addition to his 18 years of mergers and acquisitions experience, Tony previously practiced public accounting for 10 years, including prior employment with Ernst & Whinney, a Big 8 public accounting firm.  Tony can be reached at 412-377-0500 or tmcdaniel@ABCbizsales.com.   All discussions are kept strictly confidential.

(c) 2010 all rights reserved; ThistleSea Business Development, LLC

Category : Blog &Featured &Uncategorized