This morning, on one of my favourite networking meetings – I asked 2 leading questions:
- Is your Business making enough Profit?
- Is your Business experiencing any Problems?
Of course, the answers came back NO and YES respectively – I wouldn’t have expected anything else.
But then, the usual debate ensued, peppered with the usual comments:
- ‘I haven’t the time to get to the detail’,
- ‘I haven’t the right people in place’,
or worse still:
- ‘I’m not sure why’.
They say as a Leader that you should surround yourself with people who are better at stuff than you are – I firmly believe that trusting in a great team will reap the benefits and the rewards of a well run and highly motivated team in business. That’s all very well if you are a small business owner, and can’t afford a large team of Department Heads, or even a Senior Leadership team.
Grasp the nettle – do something about it! Help is out there. A Business Mentor, Coach or simply an advisor acting as a sounding board will HELP you in this situation. An ‘Unreasonable Friend’ who can help you look at your business from a ‘helicopter view’, and help determine your business priorities, and then help you create a strategy – or even just a ‘To do’ list to enable you to tackle resolve your problems one by one, and enable you to grasp opportunity and ultimately make more profit.
In this uncertain time of Business Recovery post pandemic, there are many programmes of support and assistance available from Councils, Government bodies and public/private partnerships who can support you with such a journey – it is out there – just get in touch!
Just a simple conversation will start to unfold the opportunities and how you should be best spending your time, what areas of the business need work, and a route can be determined on how to get there. Simple Steps (and lots of ‘P’s):
- Your P&L & Profit: The first place to look for opportunity – Revenues/Costs/Profit – what proportions? What is most important to you?
- Your Product: What is it you do? What’s your USP, why do people buy from you? What barriers are there to purchase? Why aren’t people buying more/more often?
- Your Pricing: Is it right? What are the opportunities? Does it deliver the right GP? Net profit? Yield?
- Your People: The MOST important aspect of Service delivery. Have you got the right People? In the Right Places? Doing the Right thing? Is their Performance spot on?
- Your Business Process: Is it all working like a Swiss clock? What needs to change? ‘Do what you’ve always done, get what you’ve always got’ etc etc.
Challenge yourself a bit, move out of your comfort zone, but don’t do it on your own get the help and support from you deserve from the people who can help.
It will pay off.
