The 3 C's of Ongoing Business Success
In Australia according to the ABS there are over 1.8 million businesses, 1.2 million employing less than 20 people.
Irrespective of the field of industry that your businesses is in, if you want your business to last longer than a year! (A year is the average life span of 95% of most small business start ups) as a business owner you will have to find the right answers to a number of key business questions.
This in no way means that as a business person you need to get every business decision right, as a matter of fact when most people start out in business the reality is that the bulk of their business decision will probably not be the right or best answer for them.
As we travel along our mistakes usually empower us to begin to start making better decisions.
However there are a few questions that if they are not answered at least partially correctly can have dire consequences for the health and future of our businesses.
It does not matter whether you are currently in the start up, establishment or expansion phase of your business, there are 3 major questions that will continue to present themselves to you, time and again in your business .
The quality of your answer to these 3 questions will usually dictate whether your business goes to the next level, stagnates or crashes and burns.
I call these questions the 3 C's:
- Cash flow
- Customers
- Crew (staff)
Following are some tips to help you begin to effectively answer the 3 C's.
1. "Cash flow"
I have placed this as the first one of the C's as I come across this challenge the most with my business clients; You can have a good customer base and great staff but if you have not managed your cash flow structures well, your business could be dead in the water.
Here are my top 3 tips to get the cash flowing again:
a) Review and minimise all administrative expenditure, anything that does not directly contribute to the growth dimension of your business needs to be reassessed. Then set a process for this to continue to happen every 6 months to a year minimum!
b) Have a "why" day! Spend a day looking at every area of your business and ask yourself "why do we do things this way"? This should lead to the next question which is "Can we do this more efficiently and more cost effectively"?
c) Do I need to continue spending money in this area of my business?
e.g Do the personalised car number plates actually contribute anything to my business? Can my business run just as efficiently from a home office? Would my business run more effectively if my staff was PPT instead of FT?
Lets move onto question number 2
2. Customers
The long and short of it is without customers we don't have a business! Having said that it is also true that without the right "type" of customers we can also find ourselves in trouble.
Here are my top 3 tips for acquiring "A" grade customers:
a) Work out how much money a client is worth for the lifetime of their business with you.
A lot of business people think that a client is worth only the initial sale or consulting fee etc, however if your serious about building an viable ongoing business enterprise you will need to think more longer term with regards to a customers monetary value to your company. Things like repeat business, referrals, direct marketing and synergistic partnerships will need to be considered.
Then once you've worked out how much a client is worth to your business, you can begin to strategise how much time, effort and money you are willing to invest back into the business relationship
b) Unless you want to play the discount game, market your business to people who are looking for a quality product or service rather than a major discount. This will mean that you may actually have to say "no" or "I cant help you" to some prospective clients. I know this might sound scary but some customers will actually hurt your business (not to mention your sanity) if you choose to take them on.
c) Invent ways to continue to reward your "A" grade customers with unexpected gifts and world class service. I don't care who you are, we all love to be made to feel special, things like "a thank you card" after a transaction (personalised not generic), small gifts, exclusive offers etc! You can be as creative as you like just make sure that it has a personal touch.
Last but not least number 3 is Crew
3. Crew
Unless you plan on being a one man/woman band, you will have to deal with the staffing question at some point along the way, and then continue to deal with it whilst you run your business.
After being in business for 17 years across 4 different industries I can still confidently confess that I believe most people want to do a good job for their employers when they turn up for work. Having said that I have experienced and heard nightmare stories of employees causing major damage to businesses.
So here are my top 3 tips for created a dynamic staffing team:
a) As much as you can remain involved in some dimension of the hiring process, whether that be simply giving the final OK at the end of the process or doing the initial interview yourself, it helps you and the potential employee to eyeball each other at the beginning of your potential partnership (From the front office clerk to the CFO everyone that works for you is a business partner).
b) Have a trial period with a measurable process of evaluation at the end of the trial period (usually this is within 3 months of employment). If you are not satisfied with their progress give them feedback way before the trail period has ended, offer training programs, a work buddy, whatever you can to make it work however if they are still not up to where they should be then you need to cut them loose. This might seem a little hard but I assure you it will not be any easier 12 months down the track when your business has a gaping hole in it due to their inability to function efficiently within their role.
c) Share the wealth! Appreciate your staff with praises, gifts, pay rises, time off. If you spend the time to get to know them you will be able to zone in on their needs pretty quickly. Some people would rather a half day Friday than an extra $100 in their pay check. Some staff simply need to hear a thank you from time to time, actually if you use the 1 to 10 ratio on them it will help you manage them better. Praise them 10 times for every 1 time you need to say something hard to them and they will be able to receive the correction quicker and usually without as much issue.
Yours in Business success
David Balestri
Peak performance consultant
www.giantmaker.com.au (Coming soon!)
Mobile: 0406756179
Email:davebalestri@gmail.com
"Do less, be more!"
