This is a presentation I did to a group in Norman, OK - I shared the five biggest reasons for business failure and ways to avoid it.

1. The Top 5Reasons Businesses Fail and how you can prevent it from happening to your business!

2. Agenda 1 Failure IS an Option 2 The Mess We Find Ourselves In 3 The Top 5 Reasons Businesses Fail 4 7 Steps to Standing Out 5 Wrap Up www.OneSOURCEOK.com

3. Who would have thought… www.OneSOURCEOK.com

4. …would have failed? www.OneSOURCEOK.com

5. Small Business: America’s Engine www.OneSOURCEOK.com

6. The Impact on the Economy Employ just over half of the country’s private sector workforce Hire 40% of high tech workers, such as scientists, engineers and computer workers Include 52% home-based businesses and two percent franchises Represent 97.3% of all the exporters of goods Represent 99.7% of all employer firms Generate a majority of the innovations that come from US companies www.OneSOURCEOK.com

7. Small Business Survival In 2008… There were 627,200 new businesses 595,600 business closures 43,546 bankruptcies 69% of new businesses born in 2000 survived at least two years 51% of similar businesses survived five or more years Source: U.S. Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration www.OneSOURCEOK.com

8. And How to avoid it Why Businesses Fail www.OneSOURCEOK.com

9. Reason #1: Poor Customer Service June 21, 2005 Dell lies. Dell sucks I just got a new Dell laptop and paid a fortune for the four-year, in-home service. The machine is a lemon and the service is a lie. I'm having all kinds of trouble with the hardware: overheats, network doesn't work, maxes out on CPU usage. It's a lemon. But what really irks me is that they say if they sent someone to my home -- which I paid for -- he wouldn't have the parts, so I might as well just send the machine in and lose it for 7-10 days -- plus the time going through this crap. So I have this new machine and paid for them to ******* FIX IT IN MY HOUSE and they don't and I lose it for two weeks. DELL SUCKS. DELL LIES. Put that in your Google and smoke it, Dell. www.OneSOURCEOK.com

10. What did Dell do to fix this? Increased service spending 35% Cut outsourcing partners from 14 to 6 with a goal to reach just 3 Retrained staff to take on more problems and responsibility Traditional phone scripts were scrapped Techs in other countries were taught to be empathetic Stopped counting “handle time” per call At Dell’s worst, more than 7k of 400k suffered an average of seven transfers per call The transfer rate has fallen from 45% t0 18% They now resolve 90% of problems in the first call Read Jeff Jarvis’ article: http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/oct2007/db20071017_277576.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_top+story www.OneSOURCEOK.com

11. Tips for Improving Customer Service Answer your phone Under-Promise and Over-Deliver Listen to your customers Create a Twitter account and listen to the buzz Create Google Alerts for mentions of your company or your products Take the extra step Do more than requested of you Train your staff…regularly and often www.OneSOURCEOK.com

12. Reason #2: Failure to Communicate with Your Employees www.OneSOURCEOK.com “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”

13. Reason #2: Failure to Communicate with Your Employees 80% of companies acknowledge they are not doing their best to communicate strategy through the organization Only 18% are good at converting corporate strategy into priorities and goals Just 15% are very good at aligning employee activities to corporate strategy Only 17% of organizations know all of its top performing employees and are looking to develop them for future roles www.OneSOURCEOK.com

14. Why we don’t communicate Why do business leaders fail to communicate effectively, if at all? They don’t think about it. Too often it’s an afterthought. They make assumptions. They think employees have little interest. They don’t care. Those with big egos care little for their organizations and are the ones who don’t last long. They are afraid of conflict. They don’t communicate well. Failure to prepare and carefully craft their message, leaders often fail on this point. www.OneSOURCEOK.com

15. Tips for Communication Hold quarterly business meetings Update employees on the actual results against your business plan Offer encouragement Listen to your employees – really listen Ask questions and listen to their honest feedback Don’t judge or pre-judge Honor employees Recognize every worker once in a while Break bread with your employees Once a month, take a different group of employees to lunch and learn about them www.OneSOURCEOK.com

16. Reason #3: Failure to Market Effectively Examples of marketing mistakes… www.OneSOURCEOK.com Where? Yass, Australia

17. Reason #3: Failure to Market Effectively Examples of marketing mistakes… April 23, 1985 – the launch of New Coke …only to remove it from the shelves on July 11th. www.OneSOURCEOK.com

18. Missing the Importance of Marketing 64% of business surveyed failed because of owners minimizing the importance of properly promoting their business --Report by US Bank www.OneSOURCEOK.com

19. Push Marketing v. Pull Marketing Push Marketing: Using push marketing, you actively push your product toward a targeted audience. In some cases, you literally create a market for your product. Pull Marketing: Pull marketing involves creating a demand for your product. A good example of this would be the infamous Tickle Me Elmo a few years ago, or the Zhu Zhu pets this past holiday season. Kids saw these toys on TV and wanted them. Usually, you sink a considerable sum of money in pull marketing because you must actively build a demand a desire for the product, which generally takes a lot of advertising! www.OneSOURCEOK.com

20. Examples of Ways to Use Both Forms Pull: You create an online community associated with your online business. As more members join and participate in the forum, they become involved with your website and your product/s. In this way, interest is translated into buying, and buying into customer loyalty. Pull: Start a blog for your business and consistently post good quality, well written and informative articles relevant to your industry in some way. By delivering information that is of value to readers, you attract attention to your business and products through people who read your blog. www.OneSOURCEOK.com

21. Examples of Ways to Use Both Forms Push: eMail marketing is a prime example of push marketing. Sending out email newsletters and emails telling subscribers about sales, specials, promotions, contests or other noteworthy happenings on your website that might benefit the reader is a great way to use push marketing without spending much money. Push: Paid advertising such as pay Per Click and banner display ads is an example of push marketing, although not inexpensive. Note: Look for the “Stand Out” report that provides a wide range of ideas on this. www.OneSOURCEOK.com

22. Reason #4: Failure to Use a Business Plan 78% of businesses fail due to lack of a well-developed business plan --Report published by US Bank www.OneSOURCEOK.com

23. Planning for Success Establish SMART Goals S= Specific M= Measurable A= Attainable R= Realistic T= Timely www.OneSOURCEOK.com

24. Planning for Success Develop an annual business plan including: an outline of changes that you want to make to your business potential changes to your market, customers and competition your objectives and goals for the year your key performance indicators (KPIs) any issues or problems any operational changes information about your management and people your financial performance and forecasts details of investment in the business www.OneSOURCEOK.com

25. Planning for Success Business Planning Cycle review your current performance against last year/current year targets work out your opportunities and threats analyze your successes and failures during the previous year look at your key objectives for the coming year and change or re-establish your longer-term planning identify and refine the resource implications of your review and build a budget define the new financial year's profit-and-loss and balance-sheet targets conclude the plan review it regularly - for example, on a monthly basis - by monitoring performance, reviewing progress and achieving objectives go back to step 1 www.OneSOURCEOK.com

26. Reason #5: Failure to Manage Hidden Costs www.OneSOURCEOK.com Where are the leaks in your organization?

27. What leaks do you have? Lost customers Increasing costs Hidden costs Low productivity among employees Low profit sales www.OneSOURCEOK.com

28. Two Ways to Address the Leaks To increase profitability or replace $1 of lost profit… Option One: Increase sales 7 times Option Two: Save $1 www.OneSOURCEOK.com

29. Most Dangerous Leak Hidden costs are your most dangerous leak Example of a hidden cost… www.OneSOURCEOK.com

30. The Problem “90% of companies do not know how many output devices they have, or if they are properly utilizing their print assets.” --Source: HP www.OneSOURCEOK.com

32. Annual printer volumes are increasing: 9% (B&W), 19% (color) (11% total overall)

33. 60%of all paper documents originate at the printer

34. 70%of copied documents originate as printed duplicates of an existing electronic document

35. The average employee spends$15,000/year in document outputwww.OneSOURCEOK.com

36. The Typical Office The Office with MPS Multiple vendors Copiers, desktop printers, fax machines, etc. Multiple supplies Multiple cartridges for various models Multiple invoices Invoice for the lease Invoice for the supplies Multiple vendors – multiple invoices Replacement costs Single Vendor One vendor to manage all print-related devices Minimize the number of different cartridges Standardization of devices Single Invoice One invoice that covers everything except for paper No Capital Expenditures If it can’t be fixed, it’s replaced at no charge The Solution www.OneSOURCEOK.com

37. The Result… An average monthly savings of 15% to 20% www.OneSOURCEOK.com

38. Closing Bonus www.OneSOURCEOK.com

39. Thank You ! www.OneSOURCEOK.com