Now, people who used to recommend a product or service to their friends can click away to send the same referral to literally hundreds of people in an instant, and they’re doing it.

Take a look at sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. It’s the fastest, greatest, and in many cases, cheapest way to get your company noticed that exists today. Viral emails and videos are flooding the in boxes of literally millions of your prospective customers every day.

And, where word-of-mouth used to take weeks, months and years to really penetrate a market place, word of mouse can do it in hours. And the best part, small business can actually do it better than most big companies because they can adapt more quickly to the technology and ideas.

So, let’s get to the basics first. Content is king now on the net. And content is taking the form of everything from blogs. Libraries of articles, Press Rooms, videos, audios and as much information as you can about your products and services as well as how to buy them, how to choose them and how to differentiate the good suppliers from the bad.

We’ll take a look at each one separately, but suffice to say the more you can upload, the more places customers, researchers, buyers and journalists can find you.

Blogs – These started in about 2004 in any form or reasonable volume and today you can very cheaply and easily build your own blog into your site. Essentially it’s a way that every day, week or two weeks or you can upload a new article, point of view, story or even journal of your day-to-day business.

Many companies are using blogs to communicate with their customers, gain feedback, or even build a volume of searchable content on their site. Remember, the web is building every day and the more you have on your site that is both targeted at your potential customers and Search Engine Optimised the better your results will be.

Press Room – This is where every day, every week or every fortnight you can submit a press release about your company, one where you control the message as you are the journalist. Think about this: an article in a newspaper is what we pay PR people big money for and may reach tens of thousands of people. Well, if an article is placed on the web, how long will it be there and how many people may find it over the next ten years?

Put in the time and energy to build a solid Press Room filled with everything from an online press kit to copies of articles that have been published, but also every single release you have ever written. Remember, the Press Room is as much for your customers as it is for journalists.

Article Libraries – If you provide a service this should be a large part of your online marketing. Scientists, for example, can upload and everyone can write articles about their products, their industry, and advice for their customers.

Imagine a real estate agency with literally hundreds of articles on how to buy, how to sell and how to invest in real estate.

Video and audio – Let’s first look at the Social Network sites of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Each site is massively big, as well as cheap and powerful to use. Again, content is king. The more video, the more pictures and the more you write about yourself and with others, the better. You can even have every employee in your company build their own @work page showing what they do every day, who they work for, and the products etc.

This is obviously where the power of ‘word of mouse’ really starts to show up easily. I’m sure you’ve been sent a video or two, a funny picture and so on. Today when you make a video, it doesn’t need the world’s best production techniques or massive camera expense, just a regular digital home video camera and a whole bunch of imagination…

Just think of how many people started to buy Mentos, after the diet coke and Mentos fountains were posted and then emailed globally. Put simply, there is a massive benefit for a few hours learning and a few days site designing here. Time to get into ActionCOACH!

Article reprinted courtesy of My Business Magazine

So, why learn this? In truth, before I understood this I worked 16-hour days, traveled too much and, for two years running spent more than 200 nights a year in hotels… for work that is, not pleasure. Now, I work maybe two or three hours a day, have four months a year on vacation and run a company with almost 1000 offices in 39 countries…

The concept of leverage is all about achieving ever more with ever less.  It’s about getting your people to achieve more with less effort, getting your advertising to return more sales with fewer dollars. It’s about getting better results with less and less effort, time after time.

So, how do you do it? Well, first you need to think in terms of the formula for leverage: divide to multiply. It is truly important to grasp this view of business thinking.

Think about divide to multiply in terms of day-to-day life, say, a tree cutting. You take a cutting from one plant, but don’t end up with half a tree, you end up with two trees. In terms of business, franchising is the easiest way to describe divide to multiply, but there are hundreds more ways to apply it.

Leverage is your key to business success, and my definition of this is… Do the work once and get paid forever.

And the exact opposite of that is: Do the work once and get paid once. I aim every day to do work that will pay me forever, or at the very least, for several years to come. Here’s an example: I have written 14 books, I write the book once and I get paid on it for the rest of my life. So, here are the five areas of business you want to use leverage, everyday…

• Leverage through people – Train your people once and have them work for you long-term. Too many business owners try to save a dollar by doing it themselves.

• Leverage through systems – If the only person who knows the system for doing a task in your business is you, then you have to do it. Write it down, photograph it, record it, make a video of how to do it and then, you have a basic system so anyone can do it. Systems are key to leverage in business. Save Yourself Time Energy and Money is what SYSTEM stands for…

• Leverage through marketing – An advertisement or a write-up in a magazine about you and your company is achieving far more with far less. Imagine if you had to see every one of those people one at a time? With marketing you need to understand how to test and measure, but put simply, you can reach far more new customers far more profitably than doing it one at a time. And, once you’ve found a marketing strategy that works, you can just keep running it forever…

• Leverage through finance – This is one area where people usually successfully leverage. You use other people’s money to gain leverage in your purchases. If you can use other people’s money, why use your own? An example about investments makes this so easy to understand. You buy an investment property, you leverage other people’s money, but more importantly, you only have to work once when buying it, it then pays you for the rest of time with both rental income and capital growth.

• Leverage through customers – This is the one I really want you to focus on for a moment. Do the work once (get a customer once) and get paid forever (keep them as your client for life). If your business is set up right you will keep customers coming back again and again. Profit in business is built on past customers. As you build a company, new customers are essential (just ask any company where revenues have remained stable about how their profits keep declining), but it’s the repeat business that builds in profit. It’s like filling a bathtub – no use putting in more and more water if you don’t plug the holes. Leverage is crucial to your long-term wealth in business and life. Whenever you as the owner do a task, ask yourself, “Am I being paid once for this task, or forever?”

Use leverage… see, I only wrote this article once, and tens of thousands of people have read it just like you.

Article reprinted courtesy of My Business Magazine

The Business Excellence Awards are free to enter and your status as a Finalist or Winner will ensure your business is noticed by the public all over the world.

But time is short. The deadline to enter the Americas and EMEA Business Excellence Awards is December 15,2011, so if you haven’t submitted your entries yet, be sure to click on the link and submit those entries today at http://www.actioncoach.com/businessforum2012-awards.

The Business Excellence Awards are awarded on the last night of the Business Excellence Forum and each of the three Awards Ceremonies will focus on businesses that are the “Best of the Best” within their region.

The 2012 Americas Business Excellence Forum will be held at the Hilton Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee on January 13 and 14. The EAMA Business Excellence Forum will take place at the De Vere Wokefield Park, Berkshire, England on January 20-21, 2012 and the Asia Pacific Business Excellence Forum will happen at the Sofitel Hotel located on the Gold Coast, in Australia on February 17-18, 2012. The deadline to enter the Asia Pacific Business Excellence Awards is January 13, 2012.

“We are thrilled to once again sponsor the Business Excellence Forum and Awards,” ActionCOACH Founder and Chairman Brad Sugars said. “A big part of our company’s culture is to celebrate our victories and the Business Excellence Awards are a great way to do that, while also celebrating the victories of our clients and other small businesses that have succeeded despite the challenges facing them.”

As he did at the 2011 Business Excellence Awards, Sugars will present each winner with their statue.

“There’s nothing like seeing the looks on the faces of winners,” Sugars said, “So many people give everything they have to their business and never get noticed for it. We felt it was time to recognize these people and all their hard work and that why I see it as an honor to announce the winners of these awards.”

So if you’re ready to get the recognition you deserve, register your business for the 2012 Business Excellence Forum and  Awards before time run out.

In 2012, ActionCOACH will sponsor three Business Excellence Forums. The first will take place in Memphis, Tennessee on January 13 and 14, 2012. The following week, January 20 and 21, the EMEA (Europe/Middle East/Africa) Business Excellence Forum will take place at Wokefield Park, Berkshire in the United Kingdome and the third and last 2012 Business Excellence Forum will take place on the Gold Coast in Australia on February 17 and 18.

Each event is tailored for its particular region and will feature outstanding speakers with expertise in the world of small business, in addition to networking events, workshops seminars and breakout sessions.

Each forum will conclude with its own Business Excellence Awards, designed to recognize the “Best of the Best” in the world of small business from that region.

The Business Excellence Awards are meant to honor those business owners and their companies who have taken their results to “the next level” of success and will be given in 16 categories, so visit the site to enter your business in this year’s awards.

Registering is free and takes just a few minutes. Finalists and award-winners will be able to promote their business extensively, both in their particular region of the globe and around the world, as the winner of one of the most prestigious awards in the small business industry.

These events are right around the corner, and there isn’t a lot of time to register, so don’t wait another minute. Sign up for the Business Excellence Forum and don’t forget to register your company in one of 18 categories for the Business Excellence Awards today to make sure your company is recognized for all you do.

ActionCOACH took its place among some of the top companies in the world, including Siemans AG, Ross and British Sky Broadcasting, on September 13 as it was voted the favorite Business Services organization in the first People’s Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Companies.

The worldwide public vote was conducted as part of the 8th Annual International Business Awards, the only global, all-encompassing business awards program honoring great performances in business.

In all, more than 35,000 people cast their votes and ActionCOACH was the clear winner in the Business Services category.

“One of the reasons that people decide to become an ActionCOACH is because they can make a positive difference in their community,” ActionCOACH CEO of USA and Canada Jodie Shaw said. “Winning this award through a public vote shows just how much of an impact we have around the world, helping small and medium sized businesses of every kind.”

It is clear why ActionCOACH would have such a positive impact and is also one of the fastest growing franchises in the world: Results.

A recent U.S. study in South Florida showed that, despite the recession, coached companies had grown revenues by more than $12 million. That study also showed coached businesses saw a return on investment (ROI) of 7.5-to-1, or $7.50 in return for every $1 invested in coaching.

Another study, in the United Kingdom found 74% of ActionCOACH coached businesses increased sales last year compared to only 43% of non-coached businesses and while 53% of ActionCOACH coached businesses increased profits last year, while only 35% of non-coached businesses increased profits.

As business coaching becomes more “mainstream” to the success of conventional businesses, recognition for ActionCOACH, will only continue to grow. And when it comes to being the People’s Choice, it’s the results that make the real difference, just like such world leaders as Ross and British Sky Broadcasting.

But, recently another exciting bit of news was announced as ActionCOACH was recently named by Franchise Direct as one of the “Top 100 Global Franchises” in the world.

The “Top 100” list is populated by large franchisors that include Subway, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and H&R Block and ActionCOACH was one of the few truly “white collar” professional services franchises to make the list.

“Franchise Direct ranks the best franchises from around the globe, and focuses on those that perform best on an international level,” ActionCOACH CEO of U.S. and Canada Jodie Shaw said.

The Franchise Direct “Top 100” list is selected from thousands of franchises that have invested in international expansion strategies and have been ranked using objective and measurable criteria, including:

•    System size based on numbers of units
•    Sales revenue for the system
•    Stability and growth
•    Number of years in operation
•    Market expansion

The list was also finalized using an objective, detailed methodology that considered a host of factors including financial performance and corporate citizenship based on information gathered from Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDDs), email surveys, telephone interviews and published industry sources, including:

•    Best practice in the areas of franchisee support and training
•    Environmental policy
•    Social responsibility

“It’s great to see a true ‘business-to-business’ franchise recognized in the list,” Shaw said. “We’re unique in that successful business people and entrepreneurs can leverage their current skills to help other owners be more successful.”

According to Franchise Direct, each franchise which appears in the “Top 100” list has excelled at international expansion and has invested time and resources to acquire linguistic capabilities while combining them with cultural sensitivities. Franchise Direct also notes that, “Due to globalization and the dismantling of trade barriers, (these) franchises have achieved better economies of scale which allow them to grow and develop in foreign markets.”

Shaw notes that the company’s recent expansion into China, India and Germany is evidence of the adaptability and scalability of the ActionCOACH system, tools and strategies to continued international expansion.

“Our system is great because it has been proven to work over the past two decades in any country, and any business category,” she said. “It’s the perfect business for those skilled business or corporate professionals who want to own their own company without having to deal with food service, huge inventory or a conventional ‘brick and mortar’ franchise, regardless of their location.”

One of the best ways to become an entrepreneur is to start a local branch of an already established business, or franchising.

While many legitimate opportunities exist in the world of franchising, there are many that either produce very little profit or even worse, are scams. To start, there are three important questions to ask to avoid being scammed.

First of all, you need to look at the overall track record of the franchise. How long has it been around? How many units or franchisees does it have? What’s the overall satisfaction of the current franchisees?

But the research should not stop there. A franchise is going to require a large amount of time and money and the potential entrepreneur must delve even deeper in to the company.

You should look at all the company’s legal disclosures, as well as the people now running the company in addition to the management team that originally founded the company.

The current key executives are important because their industry experience and knowledge is guiding the company into the future and the original management team is important to see how the company is staying true to its original vision and mission.

Finally, if the company still looks like it may fit you and your goals, attend a “Discovery Day” and talk to as many current franchisees as possible.

Nothing is more valuable than face to face conversation where honest peer reviews can be evaluated. In addition, business is about forming relationships and what better place to do that than in a room full of people who are or may be fellow owners of the same business as you.

And a special word of advice for those looking for work at home opportunities: it is very difficult to find legitimate “work at home” opportunities because those opportunities are generally unregulated and it is very hard to do good due diligence on an unregulated industry.

The best way to start a work at home business is by going through the same franchise evaluation model as he laid out with those franchises that are based out of the home.

This allows the potential work at home entrepreneur to go through the steps of due diligence and avoid being scammed.

Remember that you don’t have to have your business up and running tomorrow.

Reading best-selling business books will reveal a powerful truths during this process.

Developing a strong plan will set you up for success. Rushing your research may prove costly in the end.

In the world of investing, if we were to read that we have an 80% chance of losing our investment, we wouldn’t give that investment a second thought.  The risk of losing it all doesn’t justify the investment.

For every business that starts today, 80% will close their doors not far in to the future. Yet the allure of being an entrepreneur drives those to ignore the odds.

Our ultimate goal is to reverse those figures so that 80% succeed – and we believe that can happen when owners have better information and are equipped with better knowledge and tools to develop their teams and sales and operational systems.

When business owners open their doors with the knowledge needed to succeed, those figures dramatically decrease.

Some of the best business minds in the world believe that emotion has no place in business decisions.  Whether you believe that or not, one truth is hard to argue:  business owners sometimes allow their dream of being an entrepreneur to get in the way of being a well informed business professional.

They open their doors without the essentials of business success. The top reasons businesses fail are lack of knowledge, lack of a plan, the lack of accountability to a plan and lack of cash or capital.

While some expenses can be budgeted, those that the inexperienced business owner didn’t foresee are what can be the downfall of a startup.

Often, though, nothing is more important than the vision. A clear vision and mission and system act as a guiding light, or a “North Star” for an owner, and helps bring back focus when the desire is to diversify or go off into a business or market that isn’t aligned with the original focus and mission.

That doesn’t mean that a company will never stray. It’s like keeping a rocket on course.

There will be fluctuations in trajectory but the overall destination should not change. Knowing where the business is going is pivotal to plotting the course.

But for first-time franchise owners, as well as most first time business owners, there are many growing pains associated with actually operating and successfully running a business.

Personally, I’ve known many of these growing pains from my own experience of running a franchise.

The bad news is that are growing pains no matter what business you are in.

The good news, at least for franchisees, is that they can rely on a system and a network of other franchise owners who can guide and mentor you to overcome any issue or challenge you may have.

This is in good contrast to the single, non-franchise business owner, who is pretty much on his or her own.

What’s the biggest growing pain in owning a franchise?

Number one, I would say, is actually mastering the franchise system and applying it in the real world on a day-to-day basis.

Why?

A lot of franchisees think they have a better way to run things or they try to short-cut the system, which really hampers their efforts and success.

Remember, there is a reason the franchise system costs something, and that’s because it is a proven system that has been duplicated and that works.

A new franchisee has to trust that, and simply follow the system. Following the system is a simple concept, but my experience is that simple is not always easy.

Second, getting and keeping customers is vital to your success, so marketing can be a real issue for new franchisees, especially if they are used to working on the operational side of a business.

Marketing is especially a challenge for the former accountants (a fraternity in which I used to belong). But once you see marketing as an investment – and you start to run it as an investment that buys you leads and gets you repeat business – then you should see the true benefits of marketing as the key to your long-term survival and success.

A third “growing pain” for a franchisee is on-going training and support from the franchisor. Too frequent or too infrequent trainings can be challenging, and a staggered follow-up training program can be ineffective, especially if the initial training was not as educational, informational and supportive as it could have been.

So if you are looking at a franchise, pay a lot of specific attention to the structure and the details about training and support. Educate and prepare yourself and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

If you don’t you might regret it later.

Fourth, learning how to be a business generalist versus acting as a business specialist can be a challenge for new franchisees, especially if you were a superstar specialist in your previous career.

As an owner, you have to learn to do a lot of things all at the same time. That means and includes managing, marketing, selling, recruiting and pricing. For specialists, those functions can be hard to manage all at once.

Fifth, cash flow is an issue for new franchisees, especially in the retail category because it can take some time to create store traffic and build consistent sales.

However, in a professional services franchise, the issue is the same. It simply takes a period of weeks and months to build up and keep a consistent and predictable client base.

Finally, the sixth biggest growing pain for a franchisee is managing a team. Management can be especially challenging for those who were sales superstars, but who had limited experience doing other things such as managing or leading teams. As those people soon discover, sales and sales management are two totally different aspects of business.

What’s the best way to overcome these challenges?

Hire a good Business Coach.

But if you’re not ready or willing to be coached, get as much knowledge as possible in the areas you are weakest in, and be prepared to be uncomfortable as you apply your new knowledge in those areas.

Remember, wisdom only comes from applied knowledge. And if you can learn from your mistakes, you’ll be far more successful in the long run – and be at or near the top of your chosen franchise system.

Since 1993, ActionCOACH has helped small and medium sized businesses develop into commercial, profitable enterprises that work, earning loads of recognition and awards along the way.

Thanks to the outstanding systems and people who make up ActionCOACH, the world’s largest business coaching company has made a tremendous impact on businesses all over the world.

In fact, recent studies have shown that businesses coached by an ActionCOACH Business Coach have a return of $7.50 for every dollar spent. In addition 74 percent of ActionCOACH coached businesses increased sales over the last year compared to only 43% of non-coached businesses.

Every week, 15,000 businesses around the world are coached by an ActionCOACH Business Coach because business owners that hire an ActionCOACH get results.

Because of those results, ActionCOACH has been named a Finalist for this year’s People’s Choice Stevie Award for Favorite Companies in the Business Services category.

But the nomination was just the first step.

The next step is actually voting.

You can vote for ActionCOACH in the “Business Services” category and with your vote and support we can win this coveted award.

To vote for ActionCOACH, just visit the “People’s Choice Awards” page by clicking on the button at the top of this blog. Once you’ve been directed to the voting page, click on “Business Services” and then vote for ActionCOACH.

Winners of the “People’s Choice” Stevie Award will be announced the week of 12 September and presented their awards at the International Business Awards event in Abu Dhabi on 11 October.

We would love to be there accepting the award in person, so click on the link provided and vote for the entire ActionCOACH team today!