The 5 S’s that contribute to a successful, smart, super superior and steady business. Strategy First cab of the ranks of is strategy. First for a reason, it’s the most important. A business that deploys a solid strategy has a great advantage in the marketplace. A strategy is the ultimate plan. The major aim that the business is striving for, the big picture. It goes beyond just making money. Like anything that you do, it’s essential to think of the end in mind to increase the profitability of achieve and to also know which direction North is. A strategy is far more important to a small business than a tactic. In saying that, the tactical idea of the week/month normally gets priority. Strategies are the longer range goals, the ultimate accomplishment that you want your business to have, the perception that you want to create. Compared to a tactic which is daily/weekly action that is done to get you closer to your strategy. A wise company wants to be more strategic, rather than tactical. A strategic leader works smarter, a tactical leader works harder. A strategic leader knows and works on the bigger picture and a tactical leader works on the finer details. Strategies start with the end in mind, that’s why it’s first. All tactics and other efforts then support the overall strategy of the company. “All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.” Sun TzuThe Standards The level of quality that your company produces is extremely important. These standards flow through into all areas of business, from the experience the client receives, housekeeping, culture, attire etc. As mentioned above, strategies will support all other areas of your business, standards is no different. If your overall strategy is be the most professional company in your field, the standard for your attire would be to dress very smart. Standards can also be a level of expectations to base your employees performance against as well. An example is a company I worked with that had a standard for the sales force to just make ten appointments on a weekly basis. That was the only measurement they had the management had for the sales force.. The standard was measured on a weekly basis and very simple to manage as it was as simple as looking at the figures. Standards are like guidelines that you can instill to get your business operating the way that you would like it to. Systems One of the most misunderstood and underutilized areas in business. This would be one of the simplest areas to implement into your business instantly to make your business run more efficiently, consistency and increase productivity which are ingredients to more profit. Creating these systems will allow for you to take a step back from your business and allow it to run like a well oiled machine, giving you more focus on the bigger picture, working on the business, not in the business. Here’s a question to indicate how well you have systems in your business. How long can you step away from your business? Could you do it for three months?Are you too involved with your business? Are you a business owner or operator? If you are a business operate you are most likely working hard for your business, instead of getting your business to work hard for you. If all the business knowledge is in your head, it’s a great idea to start developing systems into your business to get it working harder for you. Any actions that you do more than once, I would recommend creating a system for. Even if you do a task once every six months, it may only take 15 minutes to do but you forget how to do it because it’s so irregular and it takes you 1 hour. That’s nearly two hours that you’ll never get back. Time is the most expensive and previous resource you have! Here’s a simple 5 steps system procedure to get more out of the business, in less time and effort with an increase in efficiency and consistency WHAT is the system? WHY do we do this/why is it so important? WHO is responsible for the task? When everybody is responsible, nobody is responsible WHEN is the trigger points to alert people? HOW is the task complete, steps requires Important to also Implement > Test > Measure > Evaluate the systems to ensure that are polished. Skills With the amount of education, resources, coaches and experts available these days, skills is one area that should be focused on. Having a team that is consistently up-skilling is one of the best investments that you can have into your business. A contributing factor to a companies success depends on the teams skill levels, poor skills leads to poor performance and it’s really challenging to make your business maximise growth and profits with under performing staff. This area has a significant impact on your bottom line. Lets take your sales team for example, if you have a under skilled salesman they may only close 1 deal out of 10. Compare that to a skilled salesman that could close 3 out of 10 deals. If you have a sales force of 10 people that see 10 people a week, that’s 20 deals that you could be missing out due to lack of skill. Lets analyze the tangible effect that directly has on your business. An average sale is $500, that’s a cost of $10,000 per week and about $500,000 per annum. I’m certain that you could get some skills for well under that amount and get a huge return on your investment. Richard Branson talked about specialised knowledge once and he said he either acquired the specialised knowledge or he hired people that had the specialised knowledge. Being the incredible business mind that he is, he mainly went for the latter. Have a look at a high level athlete, they gain an incredible amount of skill from their coach. The coach has the skills that teach the athlete how to perform at the highest level. In business it doesn’t have to be much different, that’s how the likes of the Branson’s run over 400 companies. It’s the skill set that have and have around them. Staff Human capital plays one of (if not) the most significant role in any company. As mentioned above the skills of the staff play a critical role, but to broaden it further it ultimately is the employees that have the biggest impact. If your staff are engaged, happy, motivated and skilled the business can achieve it’s goals much easier. The role of a manager/leader in a company is to ensure that staff are kept engaged, the higher engagement, the more you will get out of them. Many companies treat this area lightly and demonstrate poor practice of it, with the results having a significant and negative impact on the company. You can look at your staff as a reflection process, like a mirror. The more you appreciate, respect, empower, engage and trust them, the more they will do for you. It’s been proven that workplaces that staff with high engagement levels have a significant increase in productivity, improved moral, loyalty, creativity and growth. How do you get that? Ultimately it comes down to caring and appreciating. When you have staff that are inspired to go to work, clients get inspired about getting the service. The lower the engagement levels, the more effortful the work will appear, the more they need breaks, coffees, stimulates, motivation, incentives and bonuses to stay engaged. The higher the engagement, the more focus, the less breaks, less time off, less stimulates and more focus on the companies mission and vision. It’s difficult to overwork when you love what you do. If you would like to rapidly grow your business and maximise your business profits subscribe to the free video series on growyourbiz.au
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 07:26:57 +0000
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