It doesn’t matter how good you are, without a coach or mentor you can only go so far in this world. Everyone needs motivation and a little constructive criticism – some honest feedback from a few hundred feet up.

In business, it’s especially important to have someone you trust you can go to for advice. It can be hard to see what’s really happening, even if it’s happening right in front of you.

Especially when you’re busy; you have customers, staff, a space (or spaces) to maintain, bills to pay, orders to take, an inventory to keep your eye on and a hundred other little details to take care of every single day. It’s easy to miss the little things that could add up to big problems if they’re not caught early enough. It’s easy to get off track and lose sight of your goals.

When things are good it’s even harder to be objective – why fix it if it ain’t broke? But things can always be better. And if things take a turn for the worse, how can you even begin to fix the problem if you have no idea where things went wrong?

The answer is coaching, and finding a mentor — someone who can look at your business objectively and point out things you’ve missed, remind you of things you’ve forgotten, help you stay on track and focus on long-term goals instead of just getting through the next day.

Just remember this formula:

We’ll get into the Measurement Tools in another post. Check AVIDWORX Knowledgebase for details, or Like our Facebook page.

So how do you find a coach/mentor?

A good place to start is to find someone who has what you want and who is already a success – preferably in a similar industry, but it’s not completely essential; at the core, all business have some fundamentals in common.

But don’t just look at financial success and net worth. Do they have the lifestyle that you want, or are they working 16 hours a day, seven days a week? Do they have a family life that matches up to what you want from your own family life? It’s critical to find someone who has the life you want, plus success.

Another good rule of thumb is to find someone who is at least 15 years older, and has both wisdom and experience. You know that they didn’t just strike it lucky, or were maybe in the right place at the right time – they’ve been through changes, the ups and downs in the economy and the industry, and can help you do the same. You need that long-term perspective, something you don’t have. “Too close to the project, you are.”

Another great media for coaching is an advisory board or advisory peer group. Below are a few resources for finding a forum group to join:

www.virtusinc.com (non revenue specific)

www.eo.org (must have revenue over $1 Million)

www.yeo.org (must have revenue over $10 Million)

www.ypo.org (must have revenue over $100 Million)

In January at the Consumer Electronics Show, AVIDWORX will be picking the second recipient of our Pay It Forward promotion. If your store is the winner you’ll get a free makeover with all-new electronic showcases.

There’s really no catch. Our goal is to raise the profile and professionalism of mobile audio and electronics retailers everywhere. AVIDWORX interactive showcases and retail systems are the best and most cost-effective way to move products, and we have the numbers to prove it.

Last year’s Pay It Forward winner was Lance Putnam of Audio Center in Richmond, Kentucky, who received a selection of IMAGEWORX displays valued at $16,000. A young guy looking to update his retail space and image, Putnam said the AVIDWORX showcases had an immediate impact on his business:

“We have had our new displays for a couple of months now, and the customer response has been wonderful. People naturally gravitate towards the interactive display and comment regularly on how “Clean” they look. We have seen an increase in remote start/security upgrades on about 20 percent of our tickets to the tune of $150 to $250. With no sales pressure, people see it, play with and say I WANT IT. My favorite display is the back-up camera and monitors. This is becoming a bigger and bigger part of our business. Selling Back-up cameras with this display is like selling Snickers at a Weight Watchers convention.”

In exchange for the free showcases, the Pay It Forward winner must agree to pay a portion of the profits back into our Pay It Forward fund to finance the next makeover.

Right now you’re probably thinking two things: The first is, has AVIDWORX gone crazy? Maybe a little. But we’re excited about what we’re doing. To date, we’ve worked with over 500 retailers, from small, independent shops to some of the biggest chains in North America. (Check out our client Success Stories for the short version.) We have installations in Europe and Australia, and the Asian market is coming around quickly as well.

AVIDWORX, for lack of a better word, works. Avidly. Our customers sell more products using our interactive showcases, and attract a wider — and more high-end — clientele. We also make bar code comparison shopping, one of the biggest issues impacting retailers today, a thing of the past.

We’re confident that whoever wins the next Pay It Forward prize will increase profits and have more than enough left over to pay some of their revenues forward to help the next shop take a step into the future.In a few years our goal is to ensure that the Pay It Forward fund is self-sustaining.

The other thing you’re probably thinking is that by liking our Facebook page, we’re going to bury you with posts. We ask you to visit our page and and have a look for yourself. We only share a few things on Facebook: links to photos and videos of recent AVIDWORX installations, links to articles and blog entries to help business owners and operators, information on upcoming conferences and industry events, and the odd business announcement.

CONTEST RULES: All we’re asking is for you to Like us Facebookishly, and write a post tell us a little about your business. Get your Mojo back in 2013 through Pay It Forward.

The contest is open immediately and AVIDWORX will be accepting applications until the end of CES in January 2013. We will reviewing the entries as they come in and drawing a final winner on the last day of CES on Jan. 11. The value of the prize showcase package will depend on our analysis of your store’s needs and where we feel we can make the biggest difference.

Get a Coach/Mentor

Tiger Woods is quite possibly the greatest golfer in history. He also has a golf coach. (And in retrospect he probably could have used a life coach as well.)

NFL teams have coaches for quarterbacks and receivers, linemen and kickers. Baseball teams have pitching coaches and batting coaches. That’s because no matter how good you are, how much experience you might have, we all need someone to watch us and point out the things we’re doing wrong, the things we’re doing right, the areas we could improve and where we’re getting sloppy.

Where do you go for day-to-day advice? Staff? Friends? Family? While the advice you get is probably good, everyone you know personally is going to pull punches. To get expert advice, objective and honest (brutally so), you have to go to an expert – preferably someone who knows your industry and has proven success.

To get started, AVIDWORX offers some of that expert advice as part of our product and services packages, and through our SALESWORX program we can provide you and your staff with training from Del Ellis. Del has over two decades experience in car audio sales and is regarded as a foremost expert in the industry.

As well as taking a workshop, you’re going to want to get regular advice. One place to get it is online, from articles written by experts and forums you can join to discuss business. Here are a few of the online forums we like:

www.virtusinc.com

www.eo.org (Must have revenue over $1M)

www.yeo.org (Must have revenue over $10M)

www.ypo.org (Must have revenue over $100M)

Measurement Tools

The difference between your expectations and reality has a name, and that’s “gap” — your budget vs. your actuals. But while it’s primarily a financial measure, the same principles can be applied to every single aspect of your business.

For example, did the sale of one type of product meet your expectations? If so, what did you do to help it along? And if not, where did you go wrong?

Is the product in a little traveled area of your store where there’s a burned-out light that you haven’t gotten around to replacing? Is there a test model that your customers can see, hear and touch, or was it stuffed into a glass case? Did you leave the box out on the showroom floor where customers can scan it with their phones and buy it online for a few dollars less? Did you train your staff how to use it, teach them the benefits of the product and suggest how best to sell it to customers? Did you surround it with other cheaper products? Did you promote it with signs and ads, on your website and through your social network?

In the example above, you can use a financial measure – budget vs. actual sales – to measure your level of product support and the effectiveness of your approach to sales.

Products very rarely sell themselves without a little assistance, no matter how cool they are. If the iPad showed up in stores tomorrow without all the print, web and television ads, media coverage and positive advance reviews from hundreds of tech sites, how well do you think it would sell next to a competing tablet that had all of those things?

For more, read this post on how to find a coach. Coming soon: a post on how to create your measurement tools.

Please excuse the book that I am about to write here, hopefully I do not sound too much like a banker.

First things, first, you are always going to get a better interest rate with your own bank on financing. However, it is a wise business decision to keep acquisitions like showcases and other tools and equipment away from your regular operating line of credit. “Hope for the best, plan for the worst”. As business has its ups and downs, as a business owner, I need to keep my main operating line of credit open and free as possible. If the credit line is at its limit, my business STOPS. My frozen line of credit will keep me from doing the things that I need to keep the doors open, buy inventory, pay basic operational bills and payroll. A third party lender is often preferred in a equipment purchase, as an external lender, they cannot put a STOP on my business in tough times, and often they are much more flexible to work with if the time comes.

Second, what do I need to qualify for financing. We work with stores that range from $250K in revenue per year, to $800K in revenue and beyond. Each STOREWORX package is designed so the store can experience an overwhelming return on their investment on new Showcases.

Credit approval for companies in business for more than 2 years: The creditors will always be looking at the principles credit first and the business credit second. If both your personal credit and company credit are in good standing, credit approval is easy. And preliminary approval can be done in 48 – 72 hours.

Credit approval for companies in business for less than 2 years: The creditors will always be solely looking at the principles personal credit. The typical approval is still 48 – 72 hours and start-ups are usually limited to between $25K or $35K (typically: $675/mth to $945/mth) with a much stronger look at the principles personal credit rating. Don’t worry you can still do an amazing store for $675/month

For how long? Most finance packages are amortized over 48 to 60 months. For store owners with an amazing credit rating of 700+, you can qualify for a SBA (small business assistance) loan for up to $25K over 10 years. The good thing is that it is only $300/mth and you can pay it down whenever you want. If you can get into the SBA program, you can pay off your loan quick and then re-borrow to take your business to the next phase.

Why finance when I can pay cash! Many stores owners are afraid of debt and often want to pay cash. Every business owner has the right to do whatever they want with their finances. Here is what I believe and what I practice in my own business. The business is for me! It is a vehicle for me to enjoy my passion, fuel my life and my life expenses. As an entrepreneur there is no pension fund, no retirement plan. The only exit plan, is the plan I make. So, if I have capital (cash) in my business I should be using it toward my exit plan (my retirement plan). For myself it is real estate, and I hope it is some form of investment outside of your business for you. Whatever it is, use your cash for you. There are many benefits for financing equipment through the business from a tax and balance sheet perspective (for another post perhaps). The bottom line is to get your business working for you, and not you working for your business.

Third, over the last two years getting financing in the United States has been a challenge because of the financial crash. I can think of one client that had a real hard time with it in 2010. The good news is that we have been working hard to continue to streamline the financing process and create new lender partnerships. When I start AVIDWORX one of my first intentions was to never see an AVIDWORX showcase online on Craigslist or Ebay because someone over invested and went out of business. So, far our track record has been pretty good. When you decide to work with AVIDWORX to transform your store, I get so in tune with your business that I make sure that your STOREWORX package is the right fit for your growth plan. And I make sure that you do not over invest, because if you do, I am obligated to buy back your fixtures from the lenders. My success cannot be realised until your success is. So really, we are in business together.

I hope this answers your questions, and I am sure that it may inspire more questions.

Thank you for your interest and thanks for reading.

A great place to begin is the Car Audio Retail Solutions Show (CARSS) at the Palms Las Vegas from January 10 to 12 — the same weekend as the must-see Consumer Electronics Show (CES).                                   

AVIDWORX is co-hosting CARSS along with partners Hushmat, Atrend and Audiomobile.

CARSS is the only event in CES weekend that’s dedicated to shops and distributors in car audio. AVIDWORX will be there to show off our new  IMAGEWORX sound stages and answer all your questions about our custom and modular kiosks and sound stages, our new portable audio displays, our whole store solutions and our support for everything from sales training to the presentation of your products.                                   

This is a new event for us, and we couldn’t be more excited. Hey, it’s Vegas, it’s CES and it’s the Palms, home of the Playboy Club and the $40,000 Hugh Hefner suite… what’s not to like?

CARSS runs 11am to 8pm daily, and there are free shuttles 11am to 6pm between the Palms and the Renaissance Hotel, adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center. The atmosphere will be festive with complimentary cocktails and prize giveaways from AVIDWORX and others.

What happens in Vegas doesn’t have to stay there. We know you’re going to want to bring everything you learn at CARSS home with you.                                   

Retail Resolutions                                   

New Year’s Resolutions are not just for people with a few extra pounds to shed. You can make resolutions for your business by setting milestones for the upcoming year:   

• Do some easy market research. Make a resolution to call back one of your customers every month for a quick survey — what did they think of your selection of products, the customer service, the installation, the price? Are they happy? Do they feel they knew enough about the product before buying? Do they have any questions about how it works? Would they recommend your store to others?
• Do one thing for your store every month. Is there a light out that you never get around to replacing? Does your sign need new paint? Your floor a new carpet? Make a hit list and start knocking things off.
• Book some professional development time for yourself and your staff. AVIDWORX can help out through our SALESWORX program, but you can also read books, attend workshops and seminars, or just hold a few meetings where your staff can talk about the newest products and what techniques are successful in closing sales.
  Set a target for end of year 2012, whether it’s to increase sales by 10 per cent, to expand your business or to upgrade your space.
• Do some marketing in your community, such as an ad, an event or an in-store promotion. Figure out who your customers are and make 2012 the year where you embrace technology and social networking.   
• Stay current. Familiarize yourself with your products and the latest technology, subscribe to magazines and newsletters, make the rounds of technology websites, book some time with your distributors to demo their products, make a list of online review sites to see what people are saying… know all about the next big thing before it becomes the next big thing.