How to take your business from chaos to control...

Being a business owner can sometimes be being likened to being a juggler. There are numerous functions to a business and you have to keep them all up and running systematically to enable everything to run smoothly. So as a business owner you can find yourself being:

• The Leader, setting the vision for the business and producing an action plan that moves you on a day-to-day basis towards your vision.
• The Manager, making sure the plan is implemented and holding each department within the business accountable for achieving their part in the plan.
• The Finance Director, keeping control of the numbers and ensuring that all money spent shows a good return on investment
• The Marketing Director, whose role is to ensure a constant flow or leads/enquiries into the business.
• The Sales Director, making sure the enquiries/leads are converted into customers.
• The Operations Director, seeing that the product is delivered in the right context, to the agreed quality, first time every time.
• The HR Director, looking after the day to day running of the Team.

Now, if you are new to business or have a small business you may be covering a number of these positions or possibly all of them.

So, for instance, if sales are down, you could put your marketing hat on and argue with the finance director within you that more money needs investing in marketing. At the same time, you could put your Sales Director hat on and argue with the Marketing department that the leads/enquiries that are being provided are not pre-qualified so are a waste of time. As the Operations director, you will probably be tearing your hair out trying to find the balance between too busy to keep the quality up and too quiet to justify the amount of people you have in the team, which of course leads to discussions with the HR Director. Is it any wonder you see a great many business owners talking to themselves!

As SME business owners, these conflicts are taking place in our heads so it’s no wonder that we sometimes drop a ball, so to speak, and end up in a cycle which goes something like sell. Sell, sell, do,do,do, oops no customers, sell,sell,sell, do,do,do etc

In businesses where there are a team of people, to avoid the conflict, we may have a lack of accountability which eventually leads to ineffective results or, in other words, a business that is going nowhere because it is constantly locked in the blame game.

Running a business this way normally results in either of 2 outcomes

1. Severely restricts the growth of the business
2. Tears the business owner apart! 

So how do you break the cycle?

It starts by changing your thinking.

The role of a business owner is to look after the team. You do that by providing the environment in which the team can thrive. This translates into the 4 T’s and the 3 R’s.

The 4 T’s are:

• Tools. Make sure they have the tools needed to do their job.
• Training. Constantly up-skilling your people so that they can do a better job.
• Trust. You have to be able to let go and allow people to take a risk whilst being prepared for the consequences of that because, they may get it wrong occasionally. The key is to unpack the experience and coach them through how they would do it differently next time so the same mistakes aren’t repeated.
• Targets. Everybody should have goals which are measurable. The role of the goals is to ensure the correct behaviours are carried out on a daily basis.

The 3 R’s are:

• Recognition. Catch people doing something right instead of something wrong and making sure you comment on it. Positive reinforcement will lead to more of the right things being done.
• Remuneration. A competitive rate of pay.
• Rewards. This could include a profit related bonus scheme, extra holidays. Some low cost ways could include: just saying thanks, a pat on the back (see last week’s blog for a lot more ideas)

With all the above in place, your team’s role is to take responsibility for looking after your customers, by providing consistent customer service that is so good it allows you to produce a USP and Guarantee that will niche you in your market place.

Great service means happy customers, who will show you their appreciation by paying on time and will also be prepared to pay a premium for the service they receive. They become advocates of your business; your secret sales force providing you with a steady flow of referrals.

Another, spin off from having happy customers is they will come back time and time again saving you the expense of going out looking for new customers all the time.

With the customer now paying a premium, on time and coming back, time after time, and providing referrals, the business can now look after you the business owner. It does this by providing the two outputs you want from your business: cash and time. Remember your business is a vehicle to provide you with the lifestyle you choose.

Once you have this cycle in place you now have choices:

• You can install a general manager. The business is now able to work without you.
• You can open other outlets.
• You can franchise.
• You can open other businesses that are not necessarily in your present industry. Business principles are the same in any business.

Simple, but not necessarily easy.  If you want to learn more about how you can achieve this in your business drop us a line and we can arrange to sit down and have a coffee and a chat.

Dedicated to your success

Susan

Business Performance Coach

Would like to explore the possibility of working with Kevin or Susan as your Business/Executive Coach or would like some training for your team?

Simply drop us an email at info@mpcforprofit.com or call the office on 0151 348 1202 and we can pop a date in the diary for a coffee and a chat that just might Grow your profit, Transform your business and Change your life.