What Should You Do With Your Cash?

I know...this is a trick question or at least one with a multitude of answers. But what I am talking about is a business that has a significant amount of cash sitting on the sidelines. You can probably tell by my use of the word "sidelines" that I don't think that is where it should be.

It is one thing if you only have enough cash to make your next payroll, but if you have considerably more than that then you should be considering how to best leverage that cash. Here are some things to think about:

Is it time to acquire another business? This could be a direct competitor or a complementary business that over time will help increase your revenue and profitability.

What about stepping up your marketing efforts. We all know that marketing happens over time and in many cases takes some money to make it happen. Marketing when business is slow will help fuel future growth. Marketing when business is booming will help to sustain the boom times.

Adding a salesperson is another great idea. There are a number of excellent sales professionals out in the market today. If you have the cash, you will likely give your new hire an adequate amount of runway to become successful.

The point is don't have your money sitting out of the game when utilizing it will provide your company with the needed growth to flourish during these difficult economic times.

Outstanding Customer Service - Golf Galaxy

I know I just wrote about not playing too much golf this season, but I didn't say NO golf! Long story, short. I own a Taylor Made R7 SuperQuad driver. This is the one that has four removable weights in the back of the head. Well, I've had it for two years with no perceived need to change the weights until Monday night. So, I got the weight removal tool out and started to switch out a couple of weights to alter my tee shot just a bit. The last weight that I inserted wouldn't go in all the way, which allowed the weight to rattle whenever the club moved. Pretty annoying and most likely, unsafe.

On Tuesday I went into my local Golf Galaxy store and went to the club repair area. Now, I must mention that I didn't get the club at Golf Galaxy. Without hesitancy, the club repairer started working on the driver. He was not able to fix it with the weights that I had with the club, but he went to their used club rack and found a similar club and removed the weights with the sole purpose of fixing my club. He solved my problem without ever asking if I bought the club there or not. I need to add that there was NO CHARGE for his work.

Do you think that I'll be back to buy from Golf Galaxy...you bet I will and I hope you shop there, too!

Great service is alive and well, you just have to look hard for it.

I Hope That Your Golf Game Suffers This Summer

It would be a good thing if your handicap when from 15 to 20 this summer, it would mean that you were working and not playing golf. I love golf, I really do. But I love a productive society even more. If you are working more on your business and less on your golf game this summer, that's a good thing. Remember not too long ago when you had very little work to do and plenty of time to work on your short game? Well, from the indicators that we are seeing, those days are over.

Now I'm not saying not to play golf. I just think that this summer will prove to be a time to get your business moving forward and invigorate all of your employees to do the same. This is a time for optimism, perhaps guarded, but nonetheless optimism. Share your optimism with your people. It will become infectious and will help to propel your company forward. The time for hunkering down is over.

So dust off or create your strategic plan. Get your people involved with the execution of your plan and make it happen. If you need help with the creation or execution of your plan, please feel free to contact us. This is what we do for our clients.

Are you recovering?

If you're tired of all the doom and gloom, then jump on our bus! I can tell you that the glass is (more than) half full at Results Technology Group. I hope that it is where you are, too. While we are certainly not a huge economic indicator, we do have clients that are doing better in 2010 than they did in 2009. Now I know what you're thinking...2009 was dismal, so big deal if they are doing better than that lousy year. Good point, but they are doing better! They made some difficult decisions focusing on the survival of their organizations in 2009. Now they are investing in growth. Let me hear about your growth prospects. The more people we can get on the bus, the better. 

Do you have goals for 2010?

You're probably nodding your head, which means that you either have already created meaningful, measurable goals or you know that you should.

We help people within our clients' organizations create SMART goals. These are goals that have certain important characteristics. SMART is actually an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reasonable, and Time-based. While we know that it is not possible to create every goals with these characteristics, if you approach your goals with these key elements in mind, you should get closer to creating goals that can be achieved.

As 2009 comes to a close, we believe that it is critical to every person's future success to create written goals. Don't be like the majority of people each year who toss out new year resolutions like they are confetti. Take your resolutions to the next level and create solid goals. You'll be amazed what you can achieve.

We wish all of you a healthy and goal-filled 2010.