Small Business Consulting and Internet Marketing

Home Small Business Consulting and Internet Marketing Doug Williams and Associates is a small business consulting firm specializing in helping owners to grow their businesses and their bottom line. From Vancouver, Washington, DWA works with businesses nationwide. We work with companies from startup to 150 employees and up to $20 million in sales. We design business plans, develop marketing strategies and create marketing plans. By providing a full range of Internet services such as web design, hosting, search engine optimization and custom programming DWA is your web outsource solution. We specialize business consulting for both small business startups as well as mature companies. Our focus is providing the support and infrastructure to companies that do not yet have or want a large internal staff Our focus is on working with smaller organizations which are lean, fast paced and flexible to the needs of their customers. They have the ability to react quickly to changes in the market and exploit these opportunities. More about small business consulting Using DWA is a cost effective solution that allows you to implement change quickly. We are there when you need us to get the project done quickly. You don't need to invest in permanent staff when you can use us as your virtual staff. DWA understands your need to reduce costs and are there with ideas and business advice to help. Services range from startup plans to helping mature businesses prepare for their next phase of growth. Some of the services that we offer are:       Developing a marketing program Improving web site rankings Preparing a business plan Analysis of business operations Internet Marketing Strategies Corporate Identity You will find us a continual source of new ideas for controlling costs, improving profits and helping you build a stronger more effective management team. We offer a complete range of website services including design, SEO, Internet Marketing, and reciprocal linking services. Our programmers can create custom web application for your company. We integrate your marketing plans and goals into your website. Our graphic designers can create a logo for your corporate identity and branding. Do you have a project in mind? Contact us by phone or email to set up a meeting. Phone (360) 695-8100 Email info@dwassoc.com Small Business Consulting Small Business Consulting Services include advice on starting a small business, writing marketing plans, writing business plans, business operations analysis, management consulting, marketing and business operations consulting and manufacturing consulting.More on small business consulting Small Business Consulting Approach We focus on small businesses. They are lean, fast paced and flexible to the needs of their customers. They have the ability to react quickly to changes in the market and exploit these opportunities. We take the same approach in dealing with you, our client. Why Hire Doug Williams and Associates? Faster We focus on your project and we get it done quickly. Your staff has day-to-day responsibilities and can’t work on your project full time. We understand that as a small business you need to get things done right now to meet your commitments to your customers. We are there to meet your deadlines. Experienced Because we work across many companies and industries, we bring the knowledge and experience in all areas of business including management, marketing plans and operations. Many times we bring specialized skills that don’t exist in your organization. We can solve your current problem or help you grow to the next level. We can be your source of new ideas. Cost effective solution We are there when you need us, we get the project done and then we are out. We become your virtual staff without investing in permanent staff. We can set-up easy payment plans to spread the cost of your project over time to help your cash flow. We understand your need to reduce costs and we are there with ideas to help. Contact us by phone or email to set up a meeting. The initial meeting is free so we can best understand your needs and you can get to know us and how we work. Writing a Business Plan Writing a business plan should be thought of as creating a blueprint for success for your business. An effective business plan tells a great story, weaving an exciting plot that captivates the reader. You want 50 pages of brilliant strategies and dazzling statistics. This gives a guide for your management team to follow and effectively communicates the company direction to your staff. The business plan provides a considered and logical framework within which a company can develop and pursue its strategies over the next 3-5 years. If you are trying to obtain financing for a business startup or growing your existing business, it is even more important to have a professionally written plan. This is a very important document that often serves as the company's first introduction to investors. We can act as your business startup consultant and help you thru the process. The document should be 50 pages or less. It needs to be written in a concise and focused manner. Appropriate color graphics and an attractive cover always set a positive tone. Usually, less is more. Utilize charts, graphs, tables, and pictures to convey information. Marketing Plan Your marketing plan is your plan to bring your product or service to the market place. Marketing strategies match or transform your product or services to the needs of your customers. Good market research will uncover marketing ideas for new products or services that are not presently being met. The first step is a market analysis. This analyzes the market size, growth characteristics, buying trends and trends for the future. It profiles the competitors in the market you want to compete in. What are their strengths, weaknesses and unique selling proposition. What are opportunities are there that are not being satisfied? Profile your current and potential customers. How do they make their buy decision? What are they looking for that isn't available today? Marketing strategies and tactics are your plans to capture a niche or an entire market segment based on your company capabilities and the needs of the market. Marketing strategies should include product positioning strategies, pricing, distribution, channel penetration, advertising, Internet, public relations, tradeshows, use of reps, telemarketing, direct mail, etc. Introducing new products or services to the market is a major stumbling block for most small businesses. Frequently an aggressive marketing manager will commit to a new product before it has ever been prototyped. The new product development process should not be based only on technology and process capabilities (engineering driven). The new product launch that is based only on satisfying an un-met market need without taking into account company capabilities is equally bad (marketing driven). New product introductions need to be a joint venture between marketing and engineering to be effective. A well thought out marketing plan is needed in today's world. Doug Williams and Associates can help develop the right plan for your business. We work with you and your staff to create your own blueprint for success. We work with startup organizations as well as mature organizations. Free Business Analysis Analyze-Your-Business ™ is a free business analysis tool that helps you determine the strengths and weaknesses of your organization. This is a great tool to get a quick analysis of your business systems to determine your organizational effectiveness. This to be amazingly accurate for both small businesses and divisions of much larger organizations. The first step in the consulting process is to perform a business operations analysis. This is done by making observations and interviewing the key management people. Analyze-Your-Business ? contains many of our interview questions that we use. This is a self-assessment survey that involves answering 100 questions about your organization. The questions are centered around 10 major business systems: Business Planning, Financial, Management & Leadership, Marketing, Sales, Quality Systems, Engineering, People Systems, Operations & Manufacturing, and Measurement and feedback. Just answering the questions will give you great insight into your business. This business analysis can be completed in about 15-20 minutes. This is an excellent way to start an improvement program for your organization or as a starting point when working with a consultant. We developed this as a consulting tool as we start working with new clients. It was so powerful that we decided to include this in our web site. This is a quick way to target the strengths and weaknesses within an organization when doing a SWOT analysis (strengths - weaknesses - opportunities - threats). You will end up with profile of your business strengths and weaknesses. Remember to build on your strengths and fix your weaknesses. The results are immediately available with no waiting. Here is how to interpret the results for each category. Score 90-100 80 50-60 40-50 Below 40 Excellent Very Good Average Needs Attention Very Weak At the bottom of the results page, you are given the opportunity to have your results emailed to us (not required). We are available to discuss your results or provide assistance with your improvement program. Doug Williams and Associates provides complete small business consulting services. Daily Marketing Tip Add A Search Tool Prospects often came to the website of a major distributor to look for replacement parts. They could browse the online catalog to find the product they needed. Prospects would often click deep into the website to find what they were looking for. Many grew frustrated with this time consuming process and would complain. Solution: add a search feature that included keywords and cross reference numbers. Result: the search tool has been a great success and is the most widely used tool on the website. Market Rates Federal Reserve Rate 3-Month Libor Prime Rate Mortgage rates 15-Year Mortgage 30-Year Mortgage 30-Year Mortgage Jumbo 1-Year ARM "I've always felt it was not up to anyone else to make me give my best." - Akeem Olajuwon 4.94 5.45 6.56 5.05 3.00 3.24 6.00 Lean Manufacturing Why use lean manufacturing? Simply, lean manufacturing is a great competitive weapon that reduces your costs, improves quality and improves your bottom line. If you are competing against off shore competition, you need lean manufacturing! Lean production is aimed at the elimination of waste in every area of production including customer relations, product design, supplier networks and factory management. Its goal is to incorporate less human effort, less inventory, less time to develop products, and less space to become highly responsive to customer demand while producing top quality products in the most efficient and economical manner possible. Lean excellence is a coordinated response to today's highly competitive environment. Its roots lie in manufacturing and are strongly influenced by the production system principles originally developed at Toyota. What kind of results should you expect from a lean manufacturing implementation?       Defects reduced by 20%. Delivery Lead Times reduced by more than 75% On Time Delivery improved to 99+% Productivity (sales per employee) increases of 15-35% per year Inventory (Working capital) reductions of more than 75% Return on Assets improvement of 100+% What is involved in implementing lean manufacturing? First, and most important, top management commitment. This must be a key company objective. It takes a lot of hard work and doesn't happen overnight. It involves a real cultural change in the organization. Lean makes use of many tools and techniques. Every operation is different and no two companies put these improvements in place the same way and use the same tools and techniques the same way. Discrete manufacturers, process manufacturing and job shops can all benefit greatly. Read about the tools and techniques and then call Doug Williams and Associates for an analysis on how we can help your business. Lean is about doing more with less:  Less time, inventory, space, people, & money.   Lean is about speed and getting it right the first time. Lean is about eliminating waste. 5S 5S is a Lean Manufacturing housekeeping methodology to clean and organize the work place. 5S focuses on having visual order, organization, cleanliness and standardization. 5S is a determination to organize the work place, to keep it neat and clean, to maintain the discipline necessary to do a good job. 5-S is a process originally coming from Japan. We have created an English equivalent to the original Japanese 5-S words. 5S may be thought of as 4S + 1S with 4 components plus a commitment to sustain what was gained. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Sort(Seiri) To remove what is not needed and keep what is needed. Straighten(Seiton) Place things in such a way that they can be easily reached whenever they are needed. Shine(Seiso) Keep things clean and polished; no trash or dirt in the workplace. Standardize(Seiketsu) Maintain cleanliness after cleaning - perpetual cleaning Sustain(Shitsuke) Commitment to inspire pride and adherence to standards established for the four components Remove the wastes of waiting, looking for tools, creating variation etc. By eliminating the unnecessary, establishing a place for what remains, and cleaning up remaining equipment, tools, and storage devices, clutter is reduced and needed items are readily found. 5 Whys 5 whys as part of lean manufacturing is a problem solving technique that allows you to get at the root cause of a problem fairly quickly. It was made popular as part of the Toyota Production System (1970’s.) Application of the strategy involves taking any problem and asking “Why - what caused this problem?” By repeatedly asking the question "Why" (five is a good rule), you can peel away the layers of symptoms that can lead to the root cause of a problem. Very often the first reason for a problem will lead you to another question and then to another. Although this technique is called "5 Whys," you may find that you will need to ask the question fewer or more times than five before you find the issue related to a problem. Benefits Of The 5 Whys.    It helps to quickly identify the root cause of a problem. It helps determine the relationship between different root causes of a problem. It can be learned quickly and doesn't require statistical analysis to be used. When Is 5 Whys Most Useful?   When problems involve human factors or interactions. In all types of business situations whether solving a lean manufacturing or for any other business problem. Example of a five Why Analysis. ...Here is our "wheel" life example. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Why is our largest customer unhappy? Because our deliveries of bicycles have been late for the last month. Why have our bicycle deliveries been late for the last month? Because production has been behind schedule. Why has production been behind schedule? Because there is a shortage of wheels. Why are we having a shortage of wheels? Because incoming inspection has rejected a large number of wheels for not being round. Why are we rejecting so many parts? Because purchasing switched to a cheaper wheel supplier that has inconsistent quality 7 Wastes 7 Wastes Of Lean Manufacturing The 7 wastes are at the root of all unprofitable activity within your organization. Waste elimination is one of the most effective ways to increase profitability in manufacturing and distribution businesses. To eliminate waste, it is important to understand exactly what waste is and where it exists. While products differ in each factory, the typical wastes found in manufacturing environments are quite similar. After years of work to eliminate waste, Toyota, the Japanese automobile manufacturer, identified the following seven wastes as the most prominent ones. The 7 wastes consist of: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Overproduction is to produce more than demanded or to produce it before it is needed. It is visible as storage of material. It is the result of producing to speculative demand. Transportation does not add any value to the product. Instead of improving the transportation, it should be minimized or eliminated. Motion of the workers, machines, and transport (e.g. due to the inappropriate location of tools and parts) is waste. Instead of automating wasted motion, the operation itself should be improved. Waiting for a machine to process should be eliminated. The principle is to maximize the utilization/efficiency of the worker instead of maximizing the utilization of the machines. processing waste should be minimized. All unnecessary processing (non value added) steps should be eliminated. Combine steps where possible. Inventory or Work In process (WIP) is material between operations as a result of large lot production or processes with long cycle times. This creates excess inventory that requires extra handling, space, interest charges, people, and paperwork. Defects. Making defective products is pure waste. Focus on preventing the occurrence of defects instead of finding and repairing defects. Ford 8Ds For Problem Solving Ford 8Ds is a lean Manufacturing tool. Originally developed at Ford Motor Company, Eight D was introduced in 1987 in a manual titled "Team Oriented Problem Solving" (TOPS). This course was written at the request of senior management of the automaker's Power Train organization, which was facing growing frustration at the same problems that were recurring year after year. The focus of this system was to use this approach in a team environment. Teams are to be cross-functional and include members from both the manufacturing organizations as well as design engineering. The Ford 8Ds are most effective in dealing with chronic recurring problems, primarily defects or warranty issues. They were never intended to replace or stand as a systemic quality system. The 8Ds' focus was to deal with problems and discover the weaknesses in the management systems that allowed the problem to occur In the first place. The real benefit would come by changing how management decisions allowed the problem to happen. The problem is merely a symptom of a greater systemic management issue. Global 8D problem solving is made up of a detection cycle and a prevention cycle. It defines a corrective action methodology. Increasingly, these days, companies practicing lean manufacturing are requiring their employees to also understand the 8-Discipline approach (Eight D) to team-based problem solving. These essentially present a standard methodology for data analysis and statistical thinking as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. D D D D D D D D Use a team approach Describe the problem Implement and verify interim containment actions Define and verify root causes Verify the correction action(s) Implement permanent corrective actions Prevent problem recurrence Congratulate the team For most manufacturing organizations, routine problem solving will not improve the product and/or process. A more systemic overall quality initiative, such as six sigma or another method is still required. Ford 8ds Value Stream Mapping Value Stream Mapping is a method of visually mapping the flow of materials and information from the time products come in the back door as raw material, through all manufacturing process steps, and off the loading dock as finished products. This is the Value Stream. Mapping is a critical initial step in lean conversions. Mapping out the activities in your production process with cycle times, down times, in-process inventory, material moves, information flow paths, will help you visualize the current state of the process activities and guide you towards the future desired state. Value Stream Mapping can be a communication tool, a business planning tool, and a tool to manage your change process. The process includes physically mapping your "current state" while also focusing on where you want to be, or your "future state" map, which can serve as the foundation for other Lean improvement strategies. VSM can serve as a starting point to help management, engineers, production associates, schedulers, suppliers, and customers recognize waste and identify its causes. The goal is to identify and eliminate waste in the process. Waste being any activity that does not add value to the final product. Benefits of Mapping 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Helps visualize the production process at the plant level not just the single process level. Helps you see more than waste it helps you see the sources of waste in your value stream. Shows the linkage between the information flow and the material flow Makes decisions about the flow apparent, so you can discuss them Forms the basis of an implementation plan Ties together lean concepts and techniques to enable improvements that show up in your organization's bottom line. "On every important journey a good map helps get you to where you want to go." Doug Williams And Associates can help you with Lean Manufacturing or other small business improvements, please call us at (360) 695-8100 or to email us Click Here. Value Stream Mapping Visual Controls Visual controls are a key lean manufacturing principle. The intent of a visual factory is that the whole workplace is set-up with signs, labels, color-coded markings, etc. such that anyone unfamiliar with the process can, in a matter of minutes, know what is going on, understand the process, and know what is being done correctly and what is out of place. A visual factory is made up of visual displays and visual controls. Visual displays and controls help keep things running as efficiently as they were designed to run. Sharing information through visual tools helps keep production running smoothly and safely. Shop floor teams are often involved in devising and implementing these tools through 5S and other improvement activities. Visual controls describe workplace safety, production throughput, material flow, quality metrics, or other information. Visual controls supply the feedback to an area, much the same way that SPC can give process feedback to the operator running a particular operation. A visual display relates information and data to employees in the area. For example, charts showing the monthly revenues of the company or a graphic depicting a certain type of quality issue that group members should be aware of. The efficient design of the production process that results from lean manufacturing application carries with it a set of assumptions. The process will operate as it was designed as long as the assumptions hold true. A factory with expansive visual controls and displays will allow employees to immediately know when one of the assumptions has not held true. Audio signals in the factory are also very important because they signal malfunctioning equipment, sound warnings before the start of machine operation, or other useful information. A visual factory allows the people operating the process to stay on target. Visual Controls Secrets To Increasing Web Traffic By Doug Williams It is no accident that some web sites have thousand or even millions of hits every day while others seem to be camouflaged with no visitors clicking on their sites. In general, there are 3 major areas of Internet marketing strategies. 1. Have a product or service that is in demand. The more unique and desirable, the better. If you're trying to sell something that lots of other people are also trying to sell, you're facing competition in two ways. It’s going to be a lot harder to get noticed on search engines, and the competition is going to eat away at the profits. Create a site that sells. A website sells product by design. It presents the product / service, builds trust, and then closes the sale. If people don't trust you, they won't buy from you. It doesn't matter how many people you attract to your website if they get turned off by an unattractive presentation or a half-built website. Draw a stream of potential buyers to your site. You can obtain first page rankings on search pages without using tricks. If you build highly optimized, search engine friendly web pages, you can score well on several different keywords or keyword phrases. This is called search engine optimization. 2. 3. Let’s start by looking at what doesn’t work: 1. 2. Banner Ads: Click thru rates have now dropped to just 0.3%. This is not a cost effective traffic builder for your site. Banner ads that are tied to keyword phrases are more effective. Exchange Banner Ads or links. The downside is that you work hard to attract a targeted customer to your site and they end up leaving before you can close the sale. The upside is that links pointing back to your site improves your ranking with many search engines. My suggestion is that if you want to add links, do this on a separate links page. E-mail marketing: This is one of the most disliked forms of internet advertising. It violates one of the basic rules of the Internet…NEVER SPAM. The bottom line is that email marketing doesn’t work. Classified ad services: “Free for all” classified ad sites have popped up all over the web. This is how they work…first you sign up and receive your own classified ad site. Then you allow visitors to post their ads for free. In exchange, you get to send them your spam. The issue is that you are not dealing with targeted customers and you end up with zero results. 3. 4. Search Engines Search engines are a great source for new customers. Existing customers already know you and usually they usually don’t arrive thru searches. Since visitors find you by entering in search terms, they are new customers. These visitors are targeted…they create the search that finds your keywords. Since they found you, they are motivated and much more likely to buy. Properly targeted search engine traffic results in sales that could have gone to your competitors…and this goes to your bottom line. Keywords and Keyword Phrases This is a very important part of web page optimization. You need to understand how your customer thinks. People who use a search engine are looking for the product and its features. Remember, 3-4 word keyword phrases attract buyers, 1-2 word keyword phrases attract browsers. Create a list of keyword based on common names, combining words into compound words, common misspellings, looking at competitor key words. Stay away from company name and brand names as keywords. Select keywords based on recent actual search usages. This information is available from the Internet. In picking the best traffic building keywords you will want to end-up with 80% specific keywords or keyword phrases and 20% general keywords / phrases. Eliminate words that are unlikely to be used. Choose approximately 16 specific keywords / phrases and 4 general ones. Make sure that the words cover your entire product line. Spiders on the Web Search engine spiders are programs that follow links on web sites, gathering data for search engine indexes. The spider, robot or crawler goes to a web site and follows hyperlinks throughout the site. The spider reads the meta tags on the web pages. Meta tags are tags that appear in HTML at the top of each web page; these tags tell the spiders what's on the page in a fashion that is easy for them to index. The robot reads these tags and compares them to the content on the page. The better the tags add up with the actual content of the page the higher the spider will rank the page's TITLE, DESCRIPTION, and KEYWORDS. When the spider finds material in the tags that does not reflect the actual content of the page, it will give the page a low ranking or will not index the page at all. Design your site to be spider friendly The Meta Tags are important to getting good rankings, and on many search engines, the page title (often truncated) and the Meta Description tag are what gets displayed. 1. Constructing your Meta TITLE tag. All your most important key phrases should be in the TITLE tag. Browsers only display the first few words of a title tag (whatever fits into the title bar of the window). So while the first sentence of your title tag should be readable by people the rest can be just a list of key phrases. The Meta Description tag should contain a short description of the web page. You've already written one for the TITLE tag! So just edit that to make it human readable (and perhaps a little shorter). Meta Keywords tag. Enter your key phrases in the order you think is most appropriate, separated by commas. Don't repeat a key phrase, and don't repeat any individual word more than 5 times. The first paragraph of your page should repeat and expand upon everything in your title and description meta tags. You need to have all those key phrases in it. However, since this is going to be read by people, it needs to be written with them in mind. 2. 3. 4. Don’t put up spam pages You clearly want to have your important key phrases on your page more than once, because this is what gives the search engines a clue as to what your page is really about. However, you don't want your key phrases to appear too many times. This might make the search engines think your page is a spam page trying to rank highly for a particular phrase and will not list them. RSACI Rating Say that someone visits your page... but they can't! Their browser blocks it, saying that it's "not appropriate". This is probably because you haven't installed rating tags on your site. It's pretty simple to do, and it means that a lot more people will be able to access your site. See The Internet Content Rating Association at http://www.icra.org/ for more information. Paying for hits Pay-per-click is another way to increase the traffic to your website. Pay-per-click providers are simply a search engine where you can bid for the top positions for various search keywords. Even if you have done everything right and you have a perfectly optimized web site for search engines and you have traffic flowing to your site, you can quickly lose your potential customer with a poorly designed website. 10 ways to design an annoying site that drives traffic away. Have useless or just plain bad content. Make your pages over 50K so the pages load real slow. Disable the back button so people can’t leave the site. Place blinking text and moving or spinning graphics to distract the reader from the other really bad stuff on your site. 5. Don’t proof read what you do and have plenty of spelling and grammar “misteaks” 6. Put in music…and make it really loud. 7. Make your text unreadable by putting light blue printing over a medium blue 3D wallpaper or similar background. 8. Put your entire site on one…long…long…long page. 9. Clutter up your site and make it confusing so no one can figure out exactly what you are up to. 10. Have plenty of pointless graphics or clipart for no real reason. 1. 2. 3. 4.