Focus on the money!

Have you ever been in an environment where there was a goal identified or a target set…maybe a sales team or a workplace department. Did the ‘target’ often or usually get achieved? Did the goal become more real and attained by making it large public and bringing it to everyone’s attention?

Probably.

You see we all recognise the power of setting targets but I shall share a thought with you gleaned from visiting hundreds of businesses…most do not make this visible or public or prominent and I believe they are holding themselves back.

You see there is an incredible power in bringing thoughts or desires out into the consciousness of the physical presence. If you make it public and visible you make it ‘real’ and by this very act you can make it real in the truest sense ie achieved. Why do I say this?
Truthfully there is much research into the power of the subconscious mind. There is evidence that you get what you focus upon…and so I suggest that focussing more openly upon the desired goals will make it more likely to happen.
So a key suggestion would be to get yourself a large white board and probably two and place them in prominent places in line of vision with both yourself and the team as applicable. Large white boards or dry wipe boards are an invaluable ‘must have’ fitting in your office. It will gradually become a first glance almost without being aware of it…and this glance constantly imprints on the mind that which you have written. The mind then will run around keeping to its task of attaining that which it has been directed to get.

So get yourself a white board and write clearly upon it exactly where you are at in respect to targets – especially financial targets ie sales achieved and sales needed for the existing or current month or quarter. I promise you that this will be hugely, massively effective. Put it in front of the team or all of those in your company who will help you drive towards the sales needed.

And whilst we are talking together…many, many times I ask a business owner what his target is and they will often say “ as much a s we can get”. I then follow up with “ok how much are you on this month and how much more do you need?” and get answers that clearly reflect that they don’t know or at least not accurately.

Well it is paramount as business owners and leaders that we know where we are and where we want to be on a month to month basis. Get a white board now and clearly write this months aimed for target at the top and every time a deal comes in write it down underneath with a decreasing target/ still to get figure.

Yes it’s true we live in a world of Excel spread sheets or accounting software and that in theory or indeed in practice this is available at the touch of a button…the point is this isn’t constantly in front of the eyes and thus going directly into the brain. Only when it is constantly going into the mind can the mind get the message with sufficient intensity to drive the attainment of it. Simple daily message input several times a day as you look at it will direct your mind without any conscious effort.

Focus much more clearly, openly and frequently upon simple targets such as the sales volume needed to hit monthly goals and you will have greater success. I suggest that you have a discipline of setting a large target figure in red and then each sale as it comes in written underneath and the decreasing red figure showing that which is still to get. You might also include a deposit figure to show new cash flow if that suits your business model or you might show numbers of leads and then numbers of sales to show your ‘hit’ rate. You can use this discipline in any department to keep the team focused and provided you steer the usage in the first few weeks to make sure it gets embraced you will find it becomes a habit and the mind stays focussed on money…which lets face it is pretty paramount in small business land these days!

You could then use it as an outlet for your ideas and use it as a project board too. Every time you have an idea or something that you want to do this can get written too possibly on the right hand corner of the board and again you can add to this as the idea ferments and matures in your mind…every time you have an added thought on how to expand the core idea you scribble the progression thought down too even creating flow chart type diagrams which again help the brain to engage and remember and act upon your wishes.

Indeed a white board is also a visible message board which can also be massively useful in any business these days as people traffic flows in and out at different times and mobile phones whilst being excellent are still liable to flat batteries lost chargers or poor signal areas.
So just a thought or tip! Focus visibly much more on the money

How do you write a Business Plan?

A key component of success and an underlying discipline in any success story is that of planning. There is a widely held recognition that unplanned usually equates to poor…or worse, disaster. We accept that planning is vital if we care about the journey or the result.

Indeed we know this as we all generally appreciate the need for a business plan when starting a business and especially when we are looking to raise funding.
So why is planning such a pre-requisite for a funding exercise? What is it that they are looking for in the planning and how can this help you in business? AND why does a business need a plan even once it’s running and has been for some time?

Every month I am fortunate to meet with and talk to a lot of business owners and very often the subject of planning is raised. It’s understood at a level of ‘recognised discipline’ but rarely embraced and acted upon as a required action. The business once running is being managed and steered and there is little time to do much else! There is pretty wide ‘reactive’ style in the operations and many hundreds of business owners complain that there business is different because their particular client facing or interaction environment is unique and requires the set of reactive actions that they are trapped into as a mandatory set of actions.

I beg to differ.

Why? Well I have seen and been involved with businesses of all types and whilst they all can fall foul of the same challenges and ‘reaction urges’ some of them have decided to make a clean brake from that world of stress and with a determined and planned effort have made a new modus-operandi and enjoyed once again their business. The key being that it was deliberate and planned and it didn’t just happen…but that it did happen when it was planned and acted upon. Even businesses that specialise in the support or back up environments where they are primarily called in an emergency or breakdown can improve their ‘lot’ by as much as 50% when activity is planned and clients are involved in the planning process from their perspective…prevention being better than cure.

So, in your business right now let me ask you, is there a written and current business plan? If the answer is ‘No’ then not to worry…but please let us do something about that.

When asked why a plan isn’t available the most common answer is ‘they haven’t got time to sit down and do that’…because the assumption is that it is to require days and reams of paper to come up with an ‘all singing all dancing’ conclusive report fit for lending cash against.

The second answer, though often not so forthcoming, is that actually they aren’t sure either how to write one or what good it would do them when they have written one…ie how they could use one effectively.

So for a few moments lets have a look at those thoughts…how to write one that is effective for you to use.

First and foremost let me state then that if you are in business I believe a plan is paramount – but not the sort that you might expect to take to the bank. I believe that you need a business growth plan. A plan that tells you how to go forward from where you are – not one that tells everybody everything about your team, your marketplace and your strengths and weaknesses. (These are not useless pieces of knowledge however and you should know them…but I don’t believe they are required from an on-going planning directive perspective). So a business growth plan is a little different and sensibly it is designed to be shorter more to the point and thus less time consuming to create. Indeed it is a very different document and one that I design to keep as an on going and constantly amended and updated document. Your business growth plan should in fact become a bit like ‘Triggers Broom’ over the years! When you look at it in 5 years time it will have none of the original parts in it…it’ll still be there, still be effective but not the same as the original.



I suggest that you simply write a few key questions down as a template or starting point and then let the answers flow as they would if it were a conversation. In fact literally allow the document to be created as out of a conversation with yourself or your team as to the answers to the questions…and even the questions themselves you’ll find will come out of the team and be refined and added to. For example I might create a simple outline for a plan as follows:
Where are we now? – a brief snapshot of the current status quo…how busy, how much money, state of order book, future prospects known about, staff roles and any potential downfalls
Where do we want to go in the next 2 or 3 years? – what sort of work do you want to attract, from where, from whom,
What might you need to get that? -what staff , any premises change, machinery, web, training ,
What can we do in the next year to achieve this? – how big do we need to grow, what preparations might we need to embrace
What can we do then as an action list (to make progress towards these goals) in the next month? – who do you call, when, what might you ask or say, who might you work with, what might you be required to create physically for gathering or attracting work in, what exposure to markets can you create or generate, who is going to do this.

Literally these simple questions when properly thought and talked through will give you and your team a basis for a plan that is simple to produce, quick and easy to compile and yet is good enough to keep as a working document or a business growth plan. It will tell you what you are all doing this next week and this next year and where this will lead you…and provided you started with an end that you desire and worked back in sequence then it will be a very helpful process. Remember you cannot get where you want to go if you don’t know where you want to go and haven’t planned a route. You just drift and hope not to crash!

Too many businesses are drifting and hoping they don’t crash!!

What do you do with it once it is written? How do you use it and make it effective?
Well again lets not get all ‘degrees and scholarships’ here…common sense tells you that if you put it into a draw and it never sees the light of day it ain’t gonna be very useful to you! Better just keep it on your desk and every week make a determined effort to pick it up review what has happened and what you have done in the last week and see if it aligns. Better still have a simple meeting with your team and allow discussion along the lines of ‘we said this last week, how have you got on?’

The truth is that the planning process allows for points to be raised that would otherwise have gone un-noticed. Questions for example, when a business complains that everything is very reactive, such as “How might we try to get our orders and bookings a month ahead so that we are less immediate and hand to mouth?” Questions allow for the possibility that something better might be achieved instead of the lack of questioning and assumption that nothing can be done about it. Questions that can improve your business are un-earthed when openly discussing and planning…and this is a supreme benefit of the process.

Another excellent benefit is that it is one of the rare times when you actually sit and think about your business and hear or see some other perspectives...instead of the usual ‘nose to grindstone’ approach that keeps you in a rut and feeling like life is monotonous. You might just see it from another angle and challenge yourself to once again be fired up and drive it!

In short, planning your business on a regular basis with a business growth plan is an invaluable exercise. Questioning where your new leads are going to come from, how many you might try to convert and what you can do to possibly break into new markets or add new products. All of these are powerful and ultimately make the difference between a business that is progressive and enjoyable to drive and one that is constantly challenging, rarely exciting and always reactive and worrying possibly about next month.

Make planning a simple exercise and focus on simple but strong questions. Make it a team involvement perhaps and then get your comments or ideas reviewed independently by someone whose opinion and input you can respect, and then you future in business especially if we are to experience a ‘slow down’ in the economy is brighter and more enjoyable. It’s not War and Peace that is required. It isn’t rocket science or magic. Its application of simple basics that often sets the winners from the ‘also-rans’.

Surviving the Credit Crunch

Currently with the ‘credit crunch’ and the ‘slow down’ being main topics of news media it is very possible that our focus on the future has taken a slide south. Unsurprisingly there is then a ripple of more negatives when the topics of more conversations become ‘slow down’ and ‘possible recession’. So, here’s an idea…every time you hear someone begin to talk about a slow down or you hear yourself mention credit crunch ripples as possible reasons why you aren’t buzzing with new sales around your offices…try immediately switching the conversation to the opportunity that each slow down presents.

It is in fact true that many millionaires are made in the slower periods of so called recession. They say “one man’s meat is another man’s poison” and it’s also true that when one industry slides others can boom. So try asking “what can we benefit from as others slow down?” Ask questions that stimulate a fresh perspective of thought instead of allowing dwelling on negatives. It is so simple and many might ridicule – but the truth is that it is the simple things that we all can do but most don’t that makes the difference between winners and also-rans. Success is often about looking for opportunity not just waiting for it to come marching up to you and ask your involvement. So if you have a questioning attitude then looking is more natural.

Indeed think about it…if there is a shortage of something someone makes lots of money supplying that which is deemed to be in short supply...supply and demand scenario. Take this principle then and expand it by asking “What might people be ‘short’ of that we can give to them to benefit us?” If there is a slow down that means people need to make all of their resources count…so instead of allowing them to say no to your offer because they are holding back, twist the offer of yours into a MUST have because your offer will prove to be invaluable when there is a slow down and money needs to be conserved. Your offer in fact conserves money doesn’t it? Your offer actually helps them doesn’t it? Indeed far be it that you allow them to walk away surely when things get tough that is all the more reason to justify investing in your product or service?

Obviously every product or service serves a slightly different market and each will view themselves ‘differently’ – but I promise that if you take a step back and think slightly differently for a moment then asking a question that empowers your positive thought will create an air of optimism and probably an angle that could prove productive.

Have a fabulous day, awesome week and ask “Where can we twist this economy view to our advantage? Here’s to the next million!

Hints and Tips for Doing Better Business

Do you feel that although you’re always busy you’re not seeing any tangible results? If so, you’re probably focusing on the wrong activity. From our experience it’s an extremely common occurrence, so take heart – you’re not alone! And you CAN do something about it!

Here are a few things to think about:

· Get a diary
· Ask yourself what you are doing with your time. Question each activity. Is it the best use of your time?
· Identify your most profitable and unprofitable tasks. Be ruthless.

Then:

· Write down your business goals. Ask yourself where you are going and why you want to go there. You will be surprised how many people drift along with no defined route. Please don’t be one of them.
· Write down a plan to ensure you fill your days with the right activity. This might include sales calls, networking, marketing communications – whatever it takes to identify, reach and manage your customers. Be specific.
· Continue to work your plan. Measure and monitor performance against the plan and adjust your plan to ensure you stay on track.

Follow these simple steps and you’ll be several steps closer to achieving your business goals.



“If it was worth planning it is worth working”