What will make 2011 better for your business?

We’re getting close to year end, and with that comes a time of reflection and planning ahead.  Maybe you’re working on your 2011 budget, or you’re looking at your year-to-date numbers for 2010 and wondering what next year will look like.

It might be helpful to take a look at your business from a few different vantage points to consider what you might want to do differently next year to make 2011 a great year for your company.

1. Be the customer.  As much as possible, put yourself in the shoes of your typical good customer(s) and think about what’s going on in their business.  Read up on the trends in their industries.  What are they facing as they plan for next year?  Then, be the customer as he interfaces with your company.  What is it like to place an order, call for information, ask for help, receive a shipment, or get an invoice?  Is your company doing anything that is frustrating your cusotmers?  Better still, COULD your company be doing something that would make their business function better?
2. Be the vendor:  Think about your primary vendors — and think of them as your business partners.  What does it feel like to sell to your company?  Do you treat them fairly?  Do you pay your bills on time or at least notify them if you’re running a little behind?  Do you talk with them to find solutions to your company’s problems and allow them the opportunity to help you?  Or do you treat them as adversaries, making it harder for everyone?
3. Be the employee:  Do your employees feel good about what’s happening in your company?  Do they KNOW what’s happening, or are you making them guess?  Do they see the connection between their work and company outcomes?  Do they feel that you’re treating them fairly?  If they had a chance to leave, would they?  Try to put yourself in the position of your employees — not knowing everything you know about the business.  What questions would you have?  What concerns?  What would you say you like best about working there?  Would you encourage someone you know to apply for a job?

After channeling these groups, what do you need to change for 2011?  Whatever product or service you sell, it’s the people (customers, vendors and employees) that make you who you are.  If they aren’t happy to be buying from, selling to and working with you, you’ll have a rough road ahead.

If you’re not sure how these groups feel about your company, find out.  And then do something with the information you gather. 

Here’s to a successful 2011 for your business!

What is your most important role?

Business owners wear many hats.  We’re often the visionary, financial wizard, chief marketer, HR manager, IT person and producer of goods and services.  Early in the life of the business, we often have little choice about handling all of these functions.  But at some point in the life of the business, it makes sense to determine our most important role and focus our efforts and attention.

Figuring out how to do that can be a challenge.  Here are a few ways to approach it.

1.  What do you enjoy?  We tend to enjoy things we’re good at, and we tend to be good at things we enjoy.  (Go figure!)  If you enjoy marketing and hate finance, you’re going to choose to do more marketing than budgeting.  That doesn’t make budgeting any less important–it just gets less attention.  Know what you enjoy and think about whether or not it makes sense for you to focus your attention there.

2.  What can someone else do just as well or better than you?  Business owners can be a little controlling.  Sometimes its hard for us to believe that anyone can do things as well or better than we can, but they can, and we should take advantage of that.  Maybe the actual consulting you do is difficult to teach someone else to do, or you have particular expertise and experience that you can’t duplicate easily.  Fine, then think about those things that you can teach:  billing and financial record keeping, standard marketing activities, clerical tasks, and so on.  If someone else can learn how to do it, let them.  That will free you up for the things no one else can do as well as you.

3.  Where do you add the most value?  We each get 24 hours a day — that’s it.  If you want to maximize the value of your business, you have to spend your time on those areas where you add the most value.  If that’s selling, focus there.  If its delivering services, focus there.  Time is a perishable resource.  Every minute you spend doing something that doesn’t add significant value is a minute lost.

If you’re a small company or a one-person company, you may be thinking, “sure, I’d like to hand off some things, but who can I hand them off to?”  There are lots of options today.  Many small companies have sprung up to handle the tasks you shouldn’t.  Companies like Mattson Business Services can handle many of your administrative tasks and keep you organized.  Companies like Web Business Freedom can help manage your social media challenges.  Daniel Ratliff & Company can help with your accounting challenges.  And Altman Initiative Group can help with many of your HR challenges.

Take a little time to think about your most important role.  Your business’s future may depend on it.

Right-sizing your organization for Recovery

Many companies faced layoffs during the past year as the economic downturn continued.  If your company was one of those, you may soon find yourself facing the other issue of deciding who or how many people to bring back.  The question “what is the right size for my organization to be?” is an important one – and sometimes a difficult one to answer.  The value of your company is directly affected by how productive your employees are – more productivity generally means more profitability.  If you want to maximize value, you must right-size the organization.

Right-sizing means having the right number of the right people in the right jobs to accomplish your company’s goals and objectives.  With that concept in mind, you should “begin with the end in mind,” as business writer and consultant, Stephen Covey, would say.

Your company’s goals and objectives:  The downturn may have drastically altered your company.  You may have repositioned yourself or changed product lines or markets to make it through the tough times.  Now may be the time to think about who you want the company to be in the recovery.  Do you want to continue with the strategies you adopted previously and make them stronger, or do you believe the recovery offers you the chance to accomplish something totally different.  Define your goals in terms of customers, product/service lines, brand positioning, employee satisfaction, and profitability.  You’ll need to be clear on each of those to go to the next step.

The right jobs:  What infrastructure does your company need to accomplish the goals you developed from the last step?  If you’ve decided new products are the wave of the future, you may need to beef up your Research and Development department.  If you think customer service will be the brand differentiator for your company, your service and sales department may need to change.  If speed to market is critical, your order, manufacturing and shipping processes may need to be expanded.  Flow chart what needs to happen to achieve your goals, and then break those processes into functional jobs that make sense, utilize reasonable skills sets, and maintain adequate controls.  Research best practices in your industry to see how each job can be done most efficiently, and plan jobs to take advantage of those ideas.  (Visit www.kboptions.com if you need help with this step.)

The right people:  Once you’ve defined the jobs that need to be done, you need to give some thought to the kind of people who could best accomplish those jobs.  What skills, education and experience would they have?  What temperament or behavior style would make them best suited to that type of work?  How will you screen potential employees to see if they fit what you need?  In other words, will you know a good fit when you see it?  Get your selection process in place so that you can put the right people into the right jobs.  This applies to your current employees and any new ones you’ll bring on.  We want to plug people in where they can best succeed, not set them up to fail.  (Visit www.altmaninitiative.com if you need help with this step.)

The right number of people:  This may be the toughest question of all.  How many customer service reps do you need to handle 500 customers?  How many billing clerks do you need?  How many sales people will it take to reach your goals?  Determining the answer isn’t purely scientific, but some data can be used to help you with these decisions.  You can find that data in a number of places including your own historical records.  For instance, by using your accounting and payroll records, you can determine how many man-hours you spent to produce a certain outcome (invoices produced per clerk, clients brought in per sales person, etc.)  You can also pull information from your trade association on many of these data points.  Check the association’s website or call to ask if they compile such information and if you can gain access to it.

As always, you must use a little common sense.  Your company isn’t just like anyone else’s, and your way of doing things may require fewer or more people as a result.  But using this information can help you get a “ballpark” read on your staffing plan.

Now is a great time to start readying your company for recovery.  Position yourself and your company for success!

It’s lonely at the top…

Hey, Mr. or Mrs. Business Owner, have you ever felt isolated in your position?  Have you found yourself considering decisions, wishing you had someone to talk to who would understand what you’re dealing with and address it from your perspective? 

Many of you may have found resources to help you through those times, and that’s good.  For those of you who haven’t, let me talk to you.

They say “two heads are better than one,” and I think that’s usually true.  Having someone you can bounce ideas around with, talk over options and get real, honest feedback is invaluable.  As business owners, you need other business owners you can talk with.  Nobody feels your pain like someone else who has to meet payroll every Friday, or someone whose house is on the line as collateral for the business’s line of credit.  Another business owner can speak from real experience, not just about theory.

There are a number of ways for you to connect with other business owners.  Industry groups are an excellent resource.  Many industries have regular conferences or owner panels that meet by phone.  If the others in the group aren’t competing in your market, you can be very open and frank and get excellent feedback.

Informal alliances can also be beneficial.  If you have other friends who are business owners, and there are some that you respect and trust, meet for coffee or lunch on a regular basis to talk over business issues.  Keep each other’s phone numbers handy so you can brainstorm as needed.

There are also groups like our Business Success Institute who organize business owners and hold regular meetings to discuss specific topics and brainstorm solutions.  The relationships you develop in groups like these reach beyond the meeting times and can be a real benefit.

 Whatever your business, remember that you don’t have to go it alone.  There are others who are willing to share their experiences, insights and ideas.  Find a resource.  Connect with others.  It doesn’t have to be lonely at the top.