Posted by Michael Gunther on Thu, Jul 23, 2009 @ 12:53 PM
By Christine Sommer, Collaboration Certified Consultant
Structure, processes and accountability. Fun? Not always, but they are a necessary evil for the survival of a business. Unfortunately, we often see the artistic and creative entrepreneur struggle with this skill set.
Creative entrepreneurs have such a passion for the masterpieces they create, but the business structure is often lacking. All too often the creative-preneurs come to us with big visions of business concepts with hundreds of possibilities but just can't seem to implement the actions to make it happen. The key ingredients that are usually missing include: structure, processes and accountability. Entrepreneurs who do develop these skills can take their company to a whole new level. So how can you make these happen?
Structure:
Treat yourself like a client. Set up a time to meet with your staff or just yourself each week to plan out what needs to get accomplished. Set up yearly, monthly and weekly goals. Get the ideas out of your head and put them down on paper. You now have a place to go to start prioritizing the ideas you want to implement.
Sign up for a Free Hour Business Consultation that can be done in person or over the phone and let one of our Collaboration Certified Consultants help you determine the right path and structure for your business.
Processes:
Create processes for the work that you do on a repeated basis. Utilize technology to streamline your work. Managing your time is critical in building a business, and when the process gets created, time spent in certain areas can often be cut in half. Not only that, but when you hire and employee to do that job they will thank you for having the system in place.
Our Business Assesment Consulting here at Collaboration-LLCis geared for established organizations that need to fine-tune current business practices. This interactive assessment will evaluate your business in 4 key areas using our proven business model, benchmark your business within your industry and then, provide you with a Game Plan to grow your business and sustain profitability.
Accountability:
How do you hold someone accountable to make sure things get done? Set out an action plan with the task that needs completion. Assign a date it was created, write out the task at hand, who it was assigned to and, most important, the due date. If you are having a hard time holding yourself accountable, join a mentoring group. There are several groups in the business community designed to hold business owners accountable to the goals they create for themselves. Get support from outside of your company and let them help you stay on track.
Here is more information on our Management Training Program that will help you strengthen your management team and increase productivity in your business.
The Bottom Line:
Developing these skills when they are not your natural talent will enhance your leadership skills and help you become a profitable and sustainable business.
If you have any questions or would like to receive more information please feel free to Contact Us!
Posted by Michael Gunther on Wed, Jul 01, 2009 @ 01:24 PM
By Michael Gunther, President of Collaboration LLC, Business Growth Specialists
A follow up from Sales is a Science, Part 1: Who is your Client?
In my last column, we learned the first step of “back to basics” in sales is understanding your client, let’s move on to the second: measurement.
Do you go through periods when your business is extremely busy, followed by times when it’s painfully slow? Creating a process to measure your sales will help eliminate these peaks and valleys, ensuring that discrepancies between sales goals and actual sales are addressed and new business remains consistent.
Measuring your sales– through goal setting, tracking, and client feedback – will provide you with invaluable insight into how your time is best spent, how your skills can be improved, and how your return on investment is shaping up. This will increase your control over both your schedule and the bottom line.
Set, Track, and Measure Sales Goals
Setting measurable sales goals is the first and most important step in the sales process, yet it is too often overlooked. Most companies make the mistake of setting sales goals that are only measured by a dollar amount (such as wanting to generate $30,000 in new business), while successful companies set more quantifiable sales goals.
To set quantifiable goals, you need to first understand your company’s unique sales process. Take five minutes to outline the steps in your sales process, from a potential client’s initial contact with you to their purchase of your product or service. Now, identify three to five of the key steps that you can track on a weekly and monthly basis, such as the lead source, the total number quotes generated, the number of initial client meetings, etc. Then, set monthly goals for each of these key areas and track the stats – this will help direct your sales strategy and activities each month.
Once you have all the statistics, examine the results to determine their meaning: Are your closing ratios low? How are your add-on or up sells? Are you generating enough leads to hit your goal? What activities and strategies do you need to adjust?
I know one local company that, through measuring their sales process, realized it took them an average of 12 days to deliver a client proposal. Armed with this insight, they redesigned their proposal process to a five day turn around and their sales have increased significantly. By simply measuring their sales process, they were able to boost sales.
Obtain Client Feedback
Once you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your sales process, it’s time to obtain your clients’ feedback. Asking for feedback, and acting on what you find, can help you grow your business by 25-30%. Within the first week of gaining a new client, ask them questions that will uncover what is behind your sales statistics: What is the top reason they chose your company? What were their first impressions of your company?
Check in with them again in 30 days to be sure you’re meeting their expectations. The most important question you can ask, according to a survey from Harvard Business School, is if they would be willing to refer your products or services to someone else. This one question will tell you whether you are meeting their expectations – plain and simple. If they answer yes, find out why. If they answer no, find out where you are falling short.
The Bottom Line
To achieve your sales potential, first start with a strong client profile and then measure your sales process - through goal setting, sales tracking, and client feedback. And remember the key question: “Would you be willing to refer our products or services to someone else?”
Posted by Michael Gunther on Tue, Jun 09, 2009 @ 05:11 PM
By Michael Gunther, President of Collaboration, Business Growth
Specialists
Over the last 14 years of consulting small businesses, I have had the privilege of working with many partnerships. In fact, over 60% of our consulting clients have been partnerships - whether they were family partnerships, married partners or friends. Almost 100% of the time the company has come to us because the partnership was now hindering the growth and the success of the business.
These partnerships could have prevented the pain, lost opportunity and profit if they would have defined some clear partnership parameters at the beginning of their working relationship. Often these partners who were once good friends or had strong family bonds, are now operating their business without speaking to one another, or working with a veil of suspicion and with no clear direction or purpose other than to protect themselves.
Here are some key areas that typically are missing from these organizations:
No Clear Communication Structures
What is required for partners in terms of meetings and types of communications that need to be shared with partners?
What are the steps to resolve conflicts?
No Methodology for Business Decisions
How compensation is determined for each partner's role verses their level of ownership?
How are financial decisions made within the organization?
Are roles & responsibilities clearly defined for partners? What are the consequences for non-performance?
No Clear Legal/Financial Documents
What legal documents exist to support the partnership?
What is the financial commitment of each partner?
What happens if one partner does not want to participant in a financial outlay?
No Exit Strategies Clearly Identified
How can the termination of the partnership happen?
What behaviors or actions constitute a mandatory leave or termination?
What does each partner want from this business besides a financial gain?
Partnerships can be highly successful. They can also be a huge impediment to the success of the company if the partners have different agendas and are headed in different directions.
By sitting down with your potential partner or current partner and answering the questions above, you will begin the necessary communication process and structures to build a solid partnership and thus, a solid business. To download an expanded version of these tips, please click here.
Posted by Eric Hubbs on Thu, Apr 30, 2009 @ 10:30 AM
By Michael Gunther, President of Collaboration, Business Growth
Specialists
Move over public speaking. Business planning, or lack thereof,
seems to be aggressively fighting for a spot on the coveted list of top fears. Referred to by some as planning phobia, its cause, like any fear, is overwhelmingly emotion-based. If not dealt with head-on by a business owner in denial, planning phobia
could prove fatal to any business. However, the good news is that the cure lies completely within the business owner's control and their chances of recovery are exponential.
Why not develop a plan for a business? Excuses from business owners everywhere range from lack of time to "we've been successful so far - why bother?" are given all the time.
Whatever the excuse, the underlying reason is fear - fear of failure, fear of the unknown and in some cases, fear of success.
So, what can be done to help business owners overcome planning phobia? Well,awareness is the first step. Then, the cure lies within the willingness of the business owner.
By choosing to create and implement a business plan, they have made the decision to potentially own a successful business. Think about it like a trip across the country. You
determine where you are starting from, where you are going, your timeline to reach your destination and the most efficient route(s) to get there. Then you multiply this effort for each
department in your business.
"As business owners, we wear ‘many hats,' comments Kim Conti, Broker-Principal of Kimberly's Global Real Estate Corporation. "As a result, you can easily and often lose your
business focus, both short- and long-term. I have disciplined myself to reference my business plan when I am feeling overwhelmed and it is amazing how this document can
pull it all back in perspective for me."
So what can you do to cure yourself of planning phobia? Try this...
Just do it! It is natural to fear doing something that you have never done before. By
planning however, you mitigate the fear. One has to begin somewhere so just discipline
oneself to sit down and create your roadmap.
Make an annual commitment to revisit your plan. Every business plan is a working
document. That means that at the end of each year, use it as a tool to measure where your
business has been over the past year and what changes need to be made going forward.
Your business plan will be your greatest ally when you need to make crucial decisions for
your business.
Share your plan with your internal team. Business plans are the roadmap for everyone
in your organization to follow so that you are all headed to the same destination. Include
them in the initial planning stages. The routes that each of you may take will be different
depending on the goals of each department therefore it is important to discuss the big
picture, 12-month plan and goals and then break the journey down into shorter goals along
the way so that each of your team reaches their destinations on time.
Give yourself permission to alter the plan when appropriate. As with any road trip,
unexpected circumstances arise that may cause reason to change direction. It is vital to
allow yourself and your business the flexibility to redirect your strategy when appropriate.
Use it. In order to keep on track, you should refer to your business plan often throughout
the year. By doing this, you will identify when you are traveling in the right direction and
when you need to take an alternate route.
When developing your business plan, make sure that a succession plan or an exit strategy
are also clarified. Although it is not always easy to confront the fact that one day you will be
passing your business on to someone else or that it no longer is a sustainable business,
the repercussions of not addressing such decisions will prove far more costly in both time
and money than if these decisions were not made.
Planning phobia does not have to ruin a business trip. The cure is as simple as a roadmap.