Seriously, have you ever had a "duh" moment? You know - the time when someone says the obvious and inside (or maybe out loud) you're saying, "DUH!" Well, many business owners stress over three key areas:
* Efficiency
* Productivity
* Time Management.
You'd be shocked at the large sums of money business owners waste in these areas. But improving one's bottom line means improving in these three key areas. (Duh, right?) As obvious as that may sound, "how to improve" may be less obvious. That's where this article will help.
It's all about refining your "systems". Wait - did I just hear someone say, "What systems?" Okay, if that was you, you may have a little work cut out for you, but for those who do have systems in place, tightening things up may be the key. I warn you, these may seem a bit "cold" and uncaring, but business sometimes really is just "business". Here are the cold, hard facts.
To become very clear on what needs trimming and what needs tending, try these suggestions:
1) Analyze the output of each individual on your "team". Yeah, they may grumble, but just the fact that they know they're being monitored will make them more aware of time being wasted.
2) Increase workloads. Again, you'll hear grumbling, but busy hands and minds are less idle hands and minds.
3) Keep up to date with technology. Replace that dinosaur system with a more modern one. Get in the current century!
4) Someone's leaving? Good. Don't replace him or her. Just re-distribute the workload.
The focus so far has been directed at your team. Let's turn the focus now onto you: Management. Nervous? Don't be. These few suggestions can save you time, money, and a few headaches.
1) Delegate. Quit spending your time and money doing things someone you're paying a lot less can do. One, it makes those working under you feel like they're job is important, which of course it is, and two, it relieves you to do what you need to be doing, which is working ON the business…not IN it.
2) Design systems that allow you to rely on your staff or on your processes so that you don't have to be there 24/7, yet know that things are running smoothly without your having to be there.
3) Reward those who are not requiring supervision. The cost of the reward is generally much less than the cost of hiring a supervisor to oversee the team.
While these "systems" are extremely effective, knowing how to implement them can seem daunting, if not overwhelming. That's where a business coach comes in.
For example, one company we worked with had a "team" in place, but the team was highly inefficient. The result was a lot of reworking orders and extra time and money wasted.
When the company hired one of our business coaches, he helped the business owner develop a "culture" for the business. A culture is basically the "spirit" of the business. This included the vision, mission, rules, etc. that became clear, focused, and the "ship", if you will, that got the whole team on board.
The coach then helped with the development of the team, marketing, testing and measuring, and developing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), management tools that helped build and maintain incentives - and lo and behold a company that was nearly in the hole recorded a net profit of $250,000 on a turnover of $3 million. Yes, you read right.
So, what, you might be asking, do I do if a system is not in place?
Start by listing all the routine tasks that each team member is responsible for. Then log exactly what needs to be done, how it's to be done, what happens if it's not done, who needs to be notified, and any follow up action required.
Do this for every task and every team member. Then break these down into functional areas: sales, merchandising, manufacturing, front office . . . and a system will fall into place.
Still overwhelmed? No worries.Hire a business coach. Our system "vehicles" are already in place and ready to go.
So, don't wait! Get on that road to profit! Vroom, vroom.
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http://www.actioncoachcalteam.com/
http://actioncalteamblog.com/
As a Master Licensee for ActionCOACH, our team of coaches help business owners affordably reach their goals by providing each with proven strategies to move their businesses forward. My 25+ years of business experience includes domestic and international ventures and business ownership. Email: peterwilliamson@actioncoach.com
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