DW Consulting

I wanted to share with you the results of the 2012 Meetings Market Trends survey published by Meetings Focus Magazine.  This survey is taken directly from an estimated 800 active meeting planners.

In summary, planners are optimistic with cautious growth.  And, yes, suppliers prices are increasing, experienced planners are in demand to assist organizations to ask the challenging questions to keep their organizations on track with their goals. And, finding new methods to keep costs within their budgets - getting value.

You may find my comments are included in this survey - scroll down and click on Donna West. 

And, find my comments in "The Big Picture - How do you think 2012 will shape up for the Meetings Industry?" on page 12 of the virtual edition. You will find a PDF copy of the article on the DW Business Consulting / Meetings web page.

I am amazed at prospects - consumers and businesses - calling to buy items in January with expectations of getting discounts, better prices, and even want things waived, or for free now. Perhaps negotiating has become to visible. I am talking about businesses and consumers with money, not the unemployed, as we need to be aware of people who really cannot afford to buy. 

I know I target business to business clients, I am very careful with my vendors, or "suppliers" and "contractors" when I do research. I have learned from previous experience, these people work with me as a team. When I call or email them, I try to be considerate and genuine. Of course, we need to get quotes and prices before we buy. And, of course, you may not always buy from everyone available.

I remind myself the following items when I reach out to my suppliers with questions:

For Buyers

• Do your research, however be considerate of vendors.
• Yes, you will need to give your contact information.
• In hospitality and travel industries, be prepared to give an actual date of your plans.
  
• Give the vendors adequate time to prepare proposals.

~~ Bonus:  Remember to follow up with the people you called for information. These people may become an important  part of your future needs.

I establish long term relationships with people I do business with. An example, I continue to use one restaurant in San Francisco because of their flexibility, service, and prices. (about 8 years now)  They know how to manage groups and have easy plans to purchase. And, they accommodate additional needs on-site.  The new sales person reached out to me at the end of 2011 and met me for a cup of coffee.  And, I received a small gift of appreciation. 

Smile and be genuine.  It works.

I know many people are frustrated with searching for work and/or customers.  It is difficult to find work which satisfies our basic needs aside from making a difference during this recession. Lucky you, if you have found your career path which excites you!  How do you get hired with the work positions in this field? 

Sometimes you may find career related positons, or what a colleague of mine calls, "taxi jobs".  You will find these taxi jobs through your search for your ultimate work position.   A hint is to look at positions that use similar skills of your ultimate work position.

These are positions which utilize the same characteristics - they may be in a different industry, or with a supplier you have teamed up with.  Don't think of these as just jobs to fill the basic needs, create your own individual marketing plan to make a project happen which helps the other organization.  You may even develop new skills such as selling or setting up unusual meeting and marketing programs to promote products.  Learn how to use internal measurements that will help accomplish your original focus. And, do these on your own.

• This helps you to stay relevant within your industry.
• As you develop your own opportunity of building momentum with a program or product, remember that other people may not understand tools you first mention.  Show them real measurements after a short period of time. Example is how you helped to increase customer prospects in two months.
  
• Don't get caught in the daily grind of employee chatter.  Listen, and then stay focused on the larger picture. 
• These are opportunities to use in your own self-promotion of future work positions.
  

You may have heard this before. Try it. It is never too late to start again. Especially when it is something you enjoy doing!  Stay focused and the ultimate work position starts to appear. 

Now that you have success in gaining new clients or selling products, step back and look at the large picture of your business. Are you able to execute the new sales?  Are you providing the same excellent experiences and products with the increase of sales? 

Do not be afraid to spend dollars on labor or supplies, in advance, to stay focused with your growth. Develop the natural medium of growing both teams in your organizations. 

How do you measure your service or product experiences with your new clients?

I found this new business, TaskRabbit, using the power of groups to do tasks for people.  It is real, and the "runners" have been interviewed and verified with background checks.  Simple solution.  Use friends to help with tasks when you are over scheduled.

I have used when I have the short last minute project to do for an event and need 2 more hands to accomplish. It is an excellent source for businesses of any size or even for personal use. Perhaps it is a project that needs to be repeated every week? This may be done too. 

Are you running out of time to reconcile your bank account or set up your QuickBooks and pay your bills?  Need some shopping done?  Do you want help with promoting your specials or event?  Do you want someone to organize those expense reports? Send the task request in and receive bids from runners to help out. It gets done immediately.

For San Francisco Bay Area only:

Did you over schedule? Let TaskRabbit help you. I am sharing with you a discount to use the first time to add a task today!

Thank you!

Let TaskRabbit (discount link) do the running for you! 

I am pleased to be included in the  California 2010 Meetings West October issue.  Read for yourself!

	Look inside >
Insider Insights

Insider ideas for meeting planning around Silicon Valley ~ and grateful to be in the

Santa Clara community.

It is important to manage cash in your company. There have been many articles telling us how to do this during this recession.  Remember, it is not always good to stretch your payables too far with days outstanding of your invoices (bill paying).

This is good advice for both small and large companies. Your suppliers search for companies they may create continuing partnerships with. A simple question of what is the average days payable aging of a business will tell people three things how business is performed: 

• How stable is the business?
• Is the business organized?
• Are they are credible?

Large corporations seem to allow this to happen even more than smaller companies. Realization is that there may be many missed revenue opportunities simply because a business does not pay their bills (invoices) sooner than expected (when they are due). Do you realize suppliers may avoid working with a client that pays their invoice after the terms of the invoice are due? Or, they may set priorities of completing other projects from other businesses first; if they know a specific company has a history of not paying on time.  Reasons may not be a lack of cash, they may not be organized.

New businesses which start out want to hold on to their cash. This is natural tendency to do. Reality – this is the time you need to establish your credit. If there should ever be a period that you may need to juggle your cash flow (which does happen with new or small businesses) – suppliers will be more understanding if they have  received on-time payments from you.

Managing your cash flow is essential. To hold onto your cash and not pay your bills may have negative results for businesses – large and small. This is one area where other businesses may simply choose NOT to work with you - because you stretch your payments to 45 days.  

All businesses, even large corporations want to increase their client base and revenues. Perhaps other businesses do not want to work with you simply because they have not been paid on-time?

Remember to ask how often bills are paid when negotiating agreements - it may be a deal breaker.

A good practice to follow is to be consistent with searching for new clients and projects every week.  Make this a part of your weekly sales process. Don't forget to stay in contact with your existing clients on a regular basis for projects.

Existing clients already know your value.  Never assume that there is not any work when they do not contact you. During this crazy economy, people won't always offer opportunities to you.  You have to be visible and ready.  Your existing clients may appreciate the offer - help them decide how they may delegate projects to you.

Go ahead and accept new projects.  Learn how to schedule these projects. What if you have another project you are working on when you get a new project?  Be sure to communicate with your clients about the target date of completion.  Schedule the project the following week if you are able to do this.

If the project needs to be done ASAP, approach your client with the solution that you have a great subcontractor you work with and that you would like to use them on this project.  Be sure to let your client know that you will review the work before you forward to them. They are important.  If the project is a priority, you may need to negotiate a higher rate for services (to pay your subcontractor).  Existing clients already know your value. Let the client decide if they need the fast turnaround or wait.  You still save the clients time because they didn't have to search for someone new. You both win.  This procedure will soon become invisible for you.  

Remember to include in your sales plan to stay visible with your existing clients.  Always follow up - email, coffee, or telephone call.  This is something we easily forget to do. It does pay!   

DW Consulting

Yes, we must enter transactions (information) into our databases correctly to get the output we need.  And I advise not to take short cuts to do this.  It does return to haunt a business in many ways. 

How do you get the correct information out of this database?  A business needs to measure what they are doing. This is a continued measurement and does not stop.  Accounting Professionals have always been a part of the overhead expense in the past.  Yet, the information measurements created may be used by Sales/Marketing Teams. 

How long will the cash last? How is the cash used? How do you create more? Where are the sales coming from? What should we target in the future?

This process is a science of itself.  Each step is valued along the way and should not be taken lightly.  I saw a Twitter post by Sean Murphy, SKMurphy which focused my own thoughts on Accounting. Sean quoted Rick Munden, "At a distance big companies look like aircraft carriers, but close up you see they are really a thousand canoes."

Accounting operates like this.  It is those thousand canoes that track and measure results which Executives value. If one of the canoes turn the wrong way or capsizes, (employee/contractor terminates - sick, disabliltiy or leaves), negative results may happen. 

It takes time and expertise to build a valuable accounting database. One may learn to enter one transaction in an hour, it is the complete process which assists your business with measurements.

~ DW Business Consulting, One on One Training with patience ~ 

I receive many questions of what are the differences between these two positions.  I do make a choice of using the political correct choice of words. 

I even hear statements like, "Oh, you are a bookkkeeper."  I actually hold value and respect for excellent full charge bookkeepers.   And, there may be a gray line between the two - one is to use the political correct term of Accounting Professionals. 

Accounting Professionals may offer more services to clients.  Using myself as an example, I am hands on and will actually work on the daily tasks of general accounting with clients.   I will also look at the 'inside' of your accounting system to ensure this resource is being used in ways to save time with your business.  I have the patience for training you with simple tasks to do quickly and efficiently.  I ask questions like:

• Are the accounts mapped correctly inside the software?  
• What type of controls are established with your processes?

Many small business people don't pay attention to items in this area upfront. By setting up a system correctly and letting it work with you and not against you - headaches seem to disappear.  I do work directly with CPA Accountants - preparing files for them which they may examine quickly and help small businesses make quality decisions of what to do.

The term of bookkeeping is slowly disappearing as a political correct word.  It surprises me how many times I still hear this word mentioned.  It is unfortunate the use is often associated with a dollar value now.

Remember:  Accounting made simple.  I want to direct my focus of building sales with you, by helping make presentations clear and concise (massaging your words).