Just a quick reminder – you should declare all of your business entities to your insurance broker.   You need to let them know all of your company, trust, registered trading and domain names that are associated with your business.

Don’t take a punt on the policy wording picking up all your entities.

Remember to declare all previous activities on your Professional Indemnity and other liability policies to ensure that you have protection in the unfortunate event of a claim.  Some policies require all of your activities, past, current and possible future ones to ensure the policy is correct and responds to a potential claim.

If you would like to discuss this, please let me know and I can introduce you to some great professionals in that field.

Does your business structure support your long term business goals?

Do you really understand the use of Companies and Trusts in achieving these goals and ultimately achieving your exit or succession plans?

Start with the end in mind! Realistically nearly all of us get into business because we are great at what we do…  When reality strikes, we are usually not that great at the non “my stuff” functions of business.  It is never too late to align your business structure with your long term personal and business goals.

If you would like to discuss this, please let me know and I can introduce you to some great professionals in that field.

The answer is a resounding YES! As an example, a good coaching colleague has just released her debut album with a distinct Folk/Pop feel.

Stephanie is a great coach and her heart is with supporting charity as below:

“In February 2008, I determined that my purpose in life is to “sing a song in my heart”. I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant when it came to me.  I used it as a metaphor for what I do as a coach.  Interestingly, since then it has all become more literal, and led me to writing and recording my own songs.   As a result, I have just finished recording my first original music EP called “Resilient Soul”.

JUNE TARGET

Just like most of us, I have had family and friends who have died from cancer, including, my dad, who died from pancreatic cancer in 2004.  I wanted to come up with a way to contribute to the Queensland Cancer Council on a bigger scale and so I have set a target to sell 200 of my CDs in June & am donating $2 from the sale of each EP in June to the Queensland Cancer Council… this target won’t be bringing me any profit – it’s going to take a few more than that to break even!

I am asking people to buy at least one EP to help me hit my $400 donation target for the Queensland Cancer Council.  I would also appreciate your help in spreading the word to anyone who could do with feeling a little more “resilient” and would appreciate the gesture of giving to the Cancer Council.”

For more information, to listen to some songs from the CD (follow the link on the “Music” page) to:  www.stephaniegill.wordpress.com.  You will find the whole story behind the EP there.

So yes, Coaches do set goals and do achieve them.

Goals are crucial in moving forward in the long term.

Cheers John B

Do you have a quiet place to relax? A place where you can be just yourself without the mask imposed on you by society?  Increasing in coaching we come across not only the lack of balance in our life/work but also the lack of balance in our relationships within both areas and the realization that we need to enhance that to better the relationship.

Some strategies we help implement are:

Time management – helping you learn and apply decision making, prioritizing and effective tracking and planning of your limited tool – Time!

Blocking out quiet time – in either your business or personal time to be just you and to do the things you want to do.  A time used for enjoyment, reflection and spiritual interaction.

Communication Profiling – participating in a fun communication tool which easily and effectively helps you recognise your communication type and also become clearer in identifying how others you communicate with regularly are wired and want to partake in communication.  Get a free communication profile at www.facematrix.com.au and let me know what you think via email. (P.S. also enter in the facilitators’ code of FF001AU.

Getting into a Support Triage – Have you got a support structure for your own sanity?  Do you have regular meetings with business colleagues’ or friends where you can get impartial input into your challenges and decisions knowing that they will be open, honest and share willingly whilst respecting your privacy and confidentiality?

The implementation of these strategies is to get you walking in the sunshine enjoying your life as it was intended.

I found a book at QBD for $6.99 called Creating Magic by Lee Cockerell, based on the principles taught at the world-renowned Disney Institute.

It is a bargain at this price!  I have just finished reading the first couple of chapters but already it has great insights on leadership and how different methods affect your results in relating to people.

Well worth the time to go and get it!

Recently I volunteered to present a short overview of Organisational Planning to a local business group.

I love this type of analytical business stuff, but was looking for a worthy quote which would reflect the need to plan organisations.

Well I found it reading the Peter Sinclair book “Memories, Thoughts and Photographs”.  A book written by him as a father to leave a legacy to his 3 children.

Quote ” Children, my desire is to help build into your lives some solid foundations.  The two most important things I can help you discover are wisdom and understanding.  Many lives look alright on the outside, but true strength of character is unveiled when a tragedy or a challenge strikes.  It is much easier to prepare, than it is to repair.   It is so much better to build, then it is to rebuild.”

The great thing about this quote is that it explains first the reason for planning to achieve solid foundations.

Reread the quote and look at some of the key words: build, solid foundations, important, discover, wisdom and understanding, strength, character, prepare.

What inspired me about this quote was the need to constantly look at what our “legacy” will be.  Is this what drives you in life?

The whole process of Organizational Planning evolves around the organisational goal and its reason to exist.  This is mostly the realization of someones dreams and goals.  This is then reflected through the plan to ensure that the underlying ethos, values and purpose for the organisation are intertwined through out everything that the organisation does.

The process gets much easier as it moves on and like most things, the first time is always the longest and most difficult to endure.  After that key learning and passion takes over.

The process then underpins all of the strategic movement of people, resources, systems design and implementation and much more!

There are so many worthy books out there, do yourself a favour and explore something a little different.

P.S. The Amplio Business Solutions website is about to have a major makeover.

John Burkhardt – Amplio

I have had the pleasure of working with some great people this week.  Part of this journey was working on Goal Setting and yes my mind immediately switched to SMART goals and how they have helped me along in life to achieve certain things.  But there was something missing!

I was focusing on the detail of the goal. The when, how, by whom etc and basically I just turned it into a glorified task list.

I was forgetting something important.  These are my goals and they have to inspire me.

The most important thing was getting rid of all the smart goal thinking until I got to the nuts and bolts of my goal.  When I concentrated on the Vision behind the goal, my goal changed.  It went from being all fluffy to being a feeling to being an emotion that I wanted to embrace.  The details didn’t matter at this stage, it was all about something I could see, feel and get emotional about.  Something that every time I read it just transported me to a place of seeing, feeling and getting emotional about it.

As an example one of my goals (so I thought) started out as:

Cruise, family time, fun together.

This quickly moved with the technique to exploring what they looked like and what they were.

Fun together, cruise/holidays, interesting, regular, different, adventurous, away, 2-3 days minimum, exciting, challenging.

The visualization that came with that included thinking of the types of activities and what the feeling was of doing these.

This identified carefree, exciting, different, spontaneous, adventurous and moved into liberating, no confinement, life changing experiences.

My goal statement after this became:

Our Family Holidays are Life Changing Experiences.

Later I will discuss moving this goal headline into your action list.

What is exciting is every time I see this goal headline, I own it, I can feel it and it excites me!

Good luck reconsidering how you approach your Goals.

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions.

Last week I attended an International Coaching Federation meeting whose guest speaker discussed and helped us assess our own Genius.

What an extraordinary exercise.

With the methodology used, it crystallized who I was and what I was meant to be doing (this of course), but it allowed me to think of the other opportunities that aligned with who I am.

Even for us in the coaching industry, we need to constantly stop, rethink , realign ourselves and our mindset with who we are and what our passion is and move forward.

Everyday my focus is living my genius so that I fulfill my destiny assigned to me by God.

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

Activity is vital to achieving goals, however the right activities are required for you to achieve your goals.

So what should we as Christian Business owners be sowing?

Invest in your mind, turn yourself into a living, breathing knowledge base (an information library)

Associate with successful people and business’s

Learn why the other people and business’s are successful and model their strategies and results.

Make sure you invest in your people with time, money and training.

Monitor your expenses and treat each as an investment in your business.  Invest wisely.

Planning time outweighs designing strategies.

Keep strategies simple, measurable and able to be monitored.

Implement test and measure.

Learn when to respond and when to react.

The seeds you sow across each aspect of your business will influence how people deal with you and your business.

“You may make plans, but God directs your actions”

Proverbs 16:9

John Burkhardt - Amplio Business Solutions

Ever noticed that as habitual people, we don’t step outside of our comfort zones to enable us to move forward?

Then complain when we don’t get what we deserved!

How often do we a Christians in business or our personal life, fall into the trap of blaming God or satan for our misfortunes, without having a good hard look at what we have done to get those results.

I listened to a great short video today which talked of the process (or law) of cause and effect.  If you are not happy with the result you have, then look at what you did to influence the cause.  The result is always an action of what we have done with our thinking, feelings and actions that precede the results we have achieved (or not achieved).

Start learning how to change the cause.  If you don’t like the fruit on the tree, don’t get upset with the fruit or the tree; Plant a different seed!

What seed are you planting?

Set a goal.

Work backwards: what do I have to do to think, feel and action to achieve this goal.

Organize the information in the correct order and then focus on this thinking, feeling and actions required.

No amount of cussing will change the fact that the orange tree has oranges on it.  If you want apples, plant an apple seed!

And finally be patient about it.  We don’t learn everything overnight and we sow what we reap.

“Let us run with patience the race that is set before us”

Hebrews 46:10

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

However, if you ask the owners why they originally started the business and what motivated them, money usually if very low on the list.

Most will describe to you phrases similar to:

I had an idea for a product and was so passionate about it I turned it into a business.

I needed freedom from my job and by starting my own business, I was able to control my time more (give time to my family, spouse etc)

I couldn’t get anyone to come into business with me, so I did myself.

I knew I could give better service with this product than what the other business’s were giving.

I was able to help people and the money was a bonus.

I needed so much to do something for myself and my family.  This gave me the opportunity to prove myself.

The list goes on……….

Most will not mention money.  The focus on money is well down the list and usually the only consideration was that they had enough to pay the business bills and provide for their family.

I will talk further about balance in my posts, but this Proverb from the Bible is a healthy reminder to us all:

“Be wise enough not to wear yourself out trying to get rich.  Your money can be gone in a flash, as if it had grown wings and flown away like an eagle”

Proverbs 23:4

Have fun out there!

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

One of the most common queries regards when we start to talk with clients about what platform their business has and how they manage the business systems to get the most out of that platform.

All too often there is a blank look and I have found the best explanation comes in a visual form.

All businesses have a platform which operates holding the business together.  This governs the amount of clients and work a business can handle and all too often is unstructured and not recorded.  The platform is the people, the equipment, the marketing and all the things that hold a business together.  This platform can only handle so much work before it breaks, bends or just gives up.  Depending on where the strains are this can be in your equipment, your people or other aspects of your business.

The way you operate currently will define a turnover platform. i.e. without changing any thing you are doing at the moment, your business can only handle a certain amount of customers and work flow.  This eventually will put a ceiling on your income before it starts to decrease (by not changing and keeping up with cultural and economic changes)

This image best describes the above comment.

Platforming systems 1

This is the current situation and all too often the current expenses looks like the following image.  Keeping up with the business growth and turnover and taking up 80% or more of the current platform.

Platforming systems 2

Graph 2

These expenses have their own platform. i.e. there is a certain amount of work that can be put through that same platform with little or no increase in the corresponding expenses.  e.g. ADSL monthly costs remain the same until you use your quota for the month.  So that expense for the time being is fixed. (in true accounting and insurance terms it is viable)

Part II will go into systemizing this platform to maximize your resources.

John B. – Amplio Business Solutions

]]> http://www.ampliobusinesssolutions.com/business/organization/business-planning-platforming-systems-for-growth-part-i/feed/ 0 http://www.ampliobusinesssolutions.com/business/organization/business-planning-using-software/ http://www.ampliobusinesssolutions.com/business/organization/business-planning-using-software/#comments Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:06:55 +0000 John Burkhardt http://ampliobusinesssolutions.com/businessblog/?p=195 Using Business Planning Software for planning your business and organization.

There are several business planning software packages out there and available for immediate download on the internet.  What you need to establish in researching them is what do you want from these packages?

Doing a internet search on this term will reveal an array of options, both paid and free versions.

What are you expecting from your business planning software? A full plan including cash flow projections, marketing plans, KPI tracking, ability to view as charts/graphs?

Also be careful with cash flow projections as to what currency the software is based in and if you are able to change it to your local currency format.

Does the software handle start up costs such as assets acquisition, expenses and financing? Is there fields to enter contingency funding (for acquisitions etc)?  Does the software integrate into your existing financial software (or does your existing software have this function and you haven’t used it yet).

Start to do some research and work out what you expect the software to do.

Some links that I found via an internet search are:

http://www.businessplanpro.com/ppc/business_plan_software.cfm?gclid=CLfxj-mvi5wCFZcwpAodWgxWWw

http://www.bplans.com/

http://www.ebc.com.au/

http://www.businessplans.org/

Pick a product and go for it.  It does save time, asks questions you had not yet thought of and makes it easy to change and implement.  You are not after a 100 page plain, but rather a short concise, clear and workable business plan.

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions.

This is the first step to starting to organize and arrange all that information that is floating around in your brain.   Sometimes what happens next is that this generates a whole new drive on thinking about that project and getting more ideas onto paper.

At other times, by just getting that out of the brain and onto paper, the brain rests and you may not do anything with this anymore for awhile.

The most common challenge that next comes up is “it’s a mess, I have bits of paper everywhere”.  In addressing this is it important to look at how this project fits in with your current business and personal life and what priority is to be given to it.  This will drive how much time you contribute to the project, research and how to timetable it into your life.

How critical the project is a combination of emotional and physical restraints.  The emotional component drives the passion for the project.  The physical restraints are our own use of time, money etc.

The most common example is someone who is currently employed and is looking to create a second income stream in conjunction with their paid job with a view for extra income or to create a business to move into later.  How critical the project becomes depends on the difference between where they are now and the need for where they want to be.  i.e.  the project becomes driven by the clarification of your goals and the formalization of your business plan.

Different people use different methods of sorting out their concept into a logical sequence (the draft of a business plan). This ranges from inserting their existing information into a business plan template, cut and paste (literally) onto a large chart, doing the same thing on computer software etc.  Which ever method you use, it needs to be something that you can relate to and use (or delegate someone to do).  There is no point using a Word based business plan when you are a creative visual arts based person.

Choose a method that works for you.  If you don’t know where to go, ask someone who is “wired” similarly to you and see what method they use.

More information on business planning in the next blog.

John B. – Amplio Business Solutions