Painted Picture: Business Financial Publishing 2011

posted by   Ian Wyatt   |    September 23, 2008

Posted in   Entreprneur's Organization, Business Financial Publishing, Painted Picture   |   Comments

The best way to ensure that dreams become reality is to take the vision from our minds and share it with people. The following vision, what I call my Painted Picture, is a vivid mental image of what Business Financial Publishing will look like, feel like, and act like by December 31, 2011. The goal of this document and process is to share my vision for the company’s future with our leadership team, employees, advertisers, partners, and customers. By sharing this vision, together we can turn this dream into a reality. 

Our Business

We are in the business of building an engaged online audience through our websites, blogs, seminars, online videos, newsletters, and e-letters. Our target audience is individuals with compelling demographics who have a tendency to buy products online. We capitalize on the aging baby boomer population by developing online content products that appeal to their interests in the areas of wealth and health, with topics including personal finance, investments, healthy living, anti-aging, and wealth creation. We monetize our audience through advertising sponsorships, direct product sales, and product partnerships. Our audience depends upon us to deliver investment ideas that outperform the market, business opportunities that will exceed their expectations, and insights and tips about health and wellness that will improve their well-being.

We have expanded with successful divisions in the health and wellness, and small business / opportunity seekers markets, diversifying our revenue streams and helping propel the overall growth of the company. Our products include interactive newsletters, membership websites, webinars, home study courses, and live events.

We have re-branded our company as a diversified new media Internet company, with a new name that encompasses our expansion in areas outside of the investment information market. Business Financial Publishing remains a division of our new company, and all employees are now part of our larger organization, creating additional growth opportunities for everyone within the company. We have additional divisions and operating companies in the areas of health and wellness, and small business and opportunity seekers. Our company is recognized as a highly credible diversified media company, participating and presenting regularly at events including Specialized Information Publishers Association, Direct Marketing Association, Mequoda, Marketing Sherpa, and Financial Publishers Association.

We are successful in part due to our rapid product development, and diverse product offerings that allow us to market different products based upon market fluctuations, and the changing interests of our audience.

Knowing Our Audience

Our audience is the aging baby boomers and those within 25 years of retirement. Baby boomers are in their 50s and 60s and are in the middle to upper middle class, and are nearing retirement. They don’t expect Social Security to pay for their retirement, and are concerned about their finances in retirement. Most of them haven’t saved enough, and may have to cut back expenses in retirement, continue working past age 65, or develop alternative sources of income. They seek sound investment advice and wealth-generating opportunities. They are also concerned about their health, diet, and general wellness. They are familiar with the Internet, and most have been online for +10 years. They are comfortable buying products online from credible sources and trusted brands.

It’s All about People

People make our business successful. Our employees are passionate about their work, and motivated to work hard to build and grow this company, and seek professional growth opportunities within our organization. We retain our best employees through great benefits, flexible schedules, competitive compensation, and outstanding bonus and profit sharing plans that allow them to share in the financial success of our company. Through group interviews and Topgrading, we’re able to find the best people for our job openings. We hire smart people who have a track record of success, and have a formal new employee orientation program that aims to help them understand who we are. With every potential hire, we ask ourselves "will this person raise the bar at our company?" Our employees have good work / life balance, and excel both in and out of the office. They consider it a privilege to work for our company.

Our leadership team includes a full time Chief Operating Officer, who runs the day to day operations of our company. Our leadership team is complemented and advised by our formal board of advisors, which provides needed outside insights, advice, and guidance. We meet with them individually, and also hold an annual meeting that includes employees, the leadership team, and the board of advisors.

Education & Training

We hire the best employees possible, and continue to invest in their education and training in order to keep them at the top of their game. The company encourages ongoing training and development, and pays for employee training. Our supervisors work with employees to find meaningful, high impact learning opportunities. Employees share their takeaways from training at our weekly education luncheon series.

Guru Driven Business

Consumers prefer to buy products from people and brands they know and trust. With health and wealth information, this is particularly true. Gurus are a core part of our success. We have successfully developed gurus out of achieving employees and from world renowned experts to help us build our business. We have been successful by approaching even those people who we think might be too big, or too well known to work with us. These gurus become the face and voice of our various products, developing personal connections with our audience through newsletters, video webinars, teleconferences, and live events. We aggressively promote our gurus through media appearances, speaking engagements at conferences and industry events, and print and online public relations activities.

The Numbers

We have successfully expanded outside of the individual investor market, and provide valuable information to our audience related to other topics of interest. Revenues from the financial / investment market are 65% of total revenues, growing at 15% annually for the last three years. We have greater transparency in the financial numbers, sharing more comprehensive P&L statements with our staff on an as-needed basis. Advertising continues to represent the majority of our revenues, and we’ve been successful in growing our product / service sales to one-third of our total sales. The company is highly profitable, and we share our success with our employees through our management by objective (MBO) program, 401k, profit sharing, and stock option / ownership plan.

Multiple Locations & Remote Work Options

With offices in Washington DC and Burlington VT, we can offer employees an urban or country work environment. Our employees travel between locations as business demands. Every employee tries to visit the other office at least once a year to interact with colleagues in the other office. Our dual locations offer employees two distinct work / life environment options. While the DC market offers us many more potential employees, we have found qualified people in Vermont seeking employment in our growth industry. Our offices are state of the art, and the environments are avant-garde. We also offer remote / work from home options for proven employees and top talent that we are unable to find locally. This flexibility allows us to hire the best, regardless of location.

Metrics & Accountability Driven Culture

Our business is driven by the numbers. We use numbers and metrics to monitor performance and improve every day. Michael Dell said, "I want to improve our business by 1% every week. Compounded interest is my friend." Like Dell, we seek small incremental improvements every day, knowing that combined, these small improvements will have a profound positive impact on our business.

Throughout our offices, we publicly display our timelines, project status, priorities, goals and progress. Our company "dashboard" displays key performance metrics that are updated throughout the day on LCD screens.

Meeting rhythms are a core of our success. Our regular meeting schedule fosters effective communication company wide, between departments and individuals. Our routine of meetings keeps everyone on the same page, and allows ideas to flow bottom-up, and top-down. Our meeting rhythm includes a daily all company huddle, weekly department and leadership team meetings, and weekly one-on-one meetings. Our meetings are effectively run, starting on time, and ending early. Every meeting has an agenda, which is shared with participants in advance.

International Expansion

Developing countries such as China and India are changing the world. They have large and growing populations of middle class, who are seeking information related to their health and wealth, similar to our U.S. audience. These markets are huge. We have successfully entered one international market, and we are preparing to enter a second international market.

New Products and R&D (Rip-off and Duplicate)

Our successes are embraced by rewarding and recognizing those responsible, and by investing greater resources in these and similar projects with the greatest likelihood for success. We cut our losses quickly. "Successes teach you nothing; failures teach you everything." We don’t dwell on the past or place blame, but instead embrace our failures as learning experiences and move on to the next great opportunity. We encourage our employees to take risks, and realize that if everything we did proved successful, that we’re not risking enough. Nothing risked, nothing gained.

At the same time we recognize that our success doesn’t entirely depend on the development of our own unique ideas. We closely study those companies that are achieving success in our market and others, and we steal smart. We learn from the successes and failures of others. By taking the best ideas from many competitors in the marketplace, and making refinements and incremental improvements in a quick and efficient manner, we are able to limit downside risks and costs, giving us an edge over our larger competitors.

Technology Focus

Technology is an important aspect of our business, and we invest capital and human resources in the systems that power our business. We recognize that there are many aspects of our business that are out of our control, including competition, the economy, and consumer spending. We know that technology is something that we can control, and by over-investing in this important aspect of our business, we can stay ahead of the curve and avoid challenges that result in lower sales for the company. We have built out an internal technology team in our Operations department with more than one full-time people to focus on the core technology needs of our company (servers and infrastructure, email delivery, e-commerce and fulfillment, etc.), and they are complemented by talented consultants.

Success

Success is having a lot of fun while doing something you love. Our company thrives because our employees view their work as more than a job. They understand and support the company’s growth objectives, and play a significant role in helping define our direction and plans for the future. We are accountable to one another and the organization. Our opportunistic view of the world allows us to see the glass as half-full, and pursue opportunities that might be overlooked by others. We aim to create and build products that contribute to rapid revenue growth, and healthy profit margins. Our audience, clients, advertisers, and partners love doing business with us and enjoy the experience provided by our employees.

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