Plan the Action! Action the Plan!

I do get frustrated at things not happening quickly enough for my liking.  My frustrations tend to build up while I am waiting for things to happen.  You know what it is like, you finish a specific activity, and then you have to wait around for someone to either do the next bit or come back to you with an answer.  You can sit there waiting for a long time or at least that is how it feels to me.  Well, I simply don’t do it.  So what do we do about this never-ending cycle of hurry up and wait?  The truth is that there is not a lot you can do about the need to wait for others to complete their side of the job, so don’t make it an excuse.  If business is not going that well or at the pace you would like take ACTION NOW!

If I had a dollar for every time a client told me, “So and so has not responded yet so we can’t move on and we are just waiting for a few more responses before we make the next move”, I would be a millionaire.  Sitting around waiting for things to happen is so debilitating.  You certainly need to keep the pressure on people to ensure you can close the deal.  On the other hand, if you sit around waiting for their response you will begin to doubt their commitment or your product or ability.  Have someone in your office be responsible for making those “How are you going?” calls.  You don’t need to do it yourself.  You need to get back to your action list and keep on actioning! In fact, if you don’t have a good periodic action list i.e. daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly etc you will find that waiting for people to come back to you becomes a convenient excuse for doing nothing.

It is not difficult to set up a simple 90 day action plan using a excel spreadsheet.  Set out your weekly monthly and quarterly goals.  There are 13 weeks and don forget there are 7 days (not five) in week.  I find it best to reverse the order, so I set my goal or goals for the quarter and then work back to my weekly goals and then to the daily actions I am going to need to take to reach my goals.  Commit to this action list and do not deviate.  Distractions will arise each week so you will need to be completely disciplined. Stick to your guns here.  Give a copy of your action to someone who know cares about your success and will make you accountable each week for meeting you objectives.  Set up a convenient time to discuss each weeks achievements and the week ahead.  Discuss both your success and importantly your failures.  Why have you not undertaken certain activities or followed another course other than the one you committed?  Be rational and listen to yourself as you respond, you will sometimes hear the guy with the excuse trying to get out.  Don’t let him.  As much as we hate to admit to it without an organized actionable list few of us would achieve very much at all.  “Better offers” are presented every day you just have to learn to say NO. Do this religiously for 30 to 60 days and you will astonish yourself at what you can achieve in a day, a week and a month.

Until next time

Your, back to the list and into action, business coach

Neville@thesmallbusinesstoolbox.com

If I just had more time!

Probably the most frequent response I hear from business owners is that there is just not enough time for them to do all that needs to done.  This is completely understandable if these owners, who are in the majority by the way, are working in their business rather than on their business. I recently met Jack a business owner for more than 20 years.  His wife had just returned from a trip overseas after attending her father’s funeral.  “I should have been with her but I just can leave the business unattended,” he told me.  “Why couldn’t you do that Jack?”  I asked.  “Well there is simply so much going on I have to be here.  I wouldn’t be able to respond in time if I was away.”  On another occasion, I was playing golf with a business owner.  As we walked the course, our frustration built as he was continually taking calls from the office.  I asked him “can’t someone else do that for you.”  “No.  I need to make sure we deliver on time.”  Well I had had enough!  “If you can’t turn your phone off for the rest of the round we are just going to move on without you.”  He got the message, even if it was begrudgingly.  You see these people are working in their businesses not on them.  In both cases, they had management who they were not prepared to make accountable for the day-to day operations of the business.  If they did, they would have had time to do what a good entrepreneur does and that is work on the next stage/phase of business growth or planning for their ultimate exit from the business.

Working on your business requires that you develop the discipline to do the planning required.  “I don’t have the time” I hear you say, again.  Yes you do.  It is really that you choose not to.  If building your business is your priority then make the right choice.  Start working on your business today.  Don’t wait.  Step back and try to look from outside in or take a ‘helicopter’ view.  Review your company’s vision or mission statement.  If you haven’t stated a purpose for your business develop one.  Then, look at your current business strategy.  Don’t hold back.  How can we improve, what management do you need to realise the opportunities and so on.  Take this right through to marketing and selling of your business, products and services and then into the financial aspects.  Get your team involved.  They are in the ‘front line’ every day.  You will be surprised at what great ideas for improvement they have but never thought to tell you about. (May be you haven’t asked).

There are some great tools available at www.thesmallbusinesstoolbox.com that will help you build and achieve your dream.  Giving yourself time to work on your business is not a luxury it is a necessity.

 

Until next time

 

Your, sitting back and thinking about it, business coach

Neville@thesmallbusinesstoolbox.com

 

 

How to Get Your New Business Started

Thinking of starting your own business? We’d like to share this thought provoking article “10 Mistakes that Start-Up Entrepreneurs Make” By ROSALIND RESNICK

So you want to be an Entrepreneur?

A common folly in many failed businesses is that the initial choice of business was wrong. Many a broken entrepreneur will acknowledge this in hindsight. This is why you need to honour the choice of what business you want to open. It is the first make or break decision you will take as your own boss.

Avoiding the pain of this first serious error is made a little easier if you field the choice with all the faculties you possess. Carefully measure and weigh the successes, skills and talents which led you to believe you could be a successful entrepreneur.

Get away from the starting block in good form by selecting the best draw for your assets right up front.

There are valuable techniques available to assess what will work for you, in your field of expertise and appeal to the market to which you have easiest access.

Initially you may have considered this new venture from a personal viewpoint and analysed your character in the process. The decision to go into business is not one taken lightly so we can safely assume you are passionate, courageous and focussed. Other information gleaned during this profiling period can be a key indicator as to what style of enterprise could suit you. The maxim is “know yourself to excel”.

Proceed step-by-step in the selection of your chosen business.  You may be able to moonlight initially to test the market and gauge your own response to the business sector you wish to enter. If it is a completely new field you could offer to work gratis for the experience.

We often see stressed high level executives turning their hand to a new small business venture in a totally different arena in a bid to escape the hectic pace of big city life. Many have gone from suits and boardrooms to aprons or overalls and deliver inspiring results!

It can be incredibly invigorating to remain in the field in which you work but as the boss instead of the employee. Choices are boundless.

Comparative analyses are vital in your selection strategy. The most graphically illustrative method to date remains a simple ‘FOR’ and ‘AGAINST’ checklist.

Research is critical. Chat with many assorted business people (as well as their staff whose opinions may have a different and enlightening bias) in the environment you plan to enter, listen and discern. Obey your own heart.

You will discover a practical step-by-step guide to key aspects of managing your own small business when you visit TheSmallBusinessToolbox.com.

Strategy the Nuts and Bolts

A small business with a strong sense of identity, knows who it is and where it is headed.

Its strategy may be a simple matter of “nuts and bolts”, so simple it can be written on a serviette or the classic “back of a cigarette box”.

Yet without this basic strategic framework any small business is much like a rudderless boat in a storm. No
matter how sturdy the craft it has no direction and will end up wherever the wind and currents send it!

A good strategic plan will create synergies both internally and externally and this increased momentum and energy will provide positive direction attracting both customers and alliances, which are essential to sustainable success for small business owners.

Bring your team together, use data already available within your business and brainstorm “what if’s” around new, cost effective way to create awareness, interest, desire, trial and conversion in your product or service.

It doesn’t have to be complex. What makes a good customer for you? What problems do they have that your product/service could solve? Where can you find these people i.e. where do they “hang out”? How can you get your story across in a way that has them listening e.g. what benefits can you offer in order to solve their problem?

Having answered these questions you’ll be able to allocate tasks against an action plan, track progress, monitor the budget and measure the results.

Success is achieved when the plan is used to breathe life and purpose into the business activities undertaken and exceptional success is found when the plan is revisited regularly all through the year, tweaking and amending until your individual success recipe is found!

Use TheSmallBusinessStrategicToolbox.com to assist you in determining your unique selling potential, bottle your small business’s individual character and decant it liberally to outclass your rivals.