You see, you have a choice. We all do.
How’s that Paul, you ask. What can I do about softening business or consumer confidence, the credit crunch, the fact that my business is now not as profitable as it once was because of falling sales and “margin squeeze” in a tight economy?
(For those of you who read last week’s article, this week’s continues the theme, with some further thought provoking ideas. If you missed it last week, go back and check it out.)
Well, first understand there are things that you can’t do anything about directly (external forces to your business) and yet there are other things you do have the opportunity to influence or change.
Wisdom is in correctly identifying the difference and correctly prioritising what needs to be done and by whom so that your business can weather the ‘storm’.
Some practical keys for 2009 business success:
1. Critically evaluate all aspects of your business with a view to identifying lost profit, sales, cash and productivity issues.
I have said it before and I’ll say it again, your business is probably leaking $100 - $300 per day (or more) in NET PROFIT. That’s money out of your back pocket as the business owner.
2. Stop procrastinating, make decisions more efficiently and accept you will make mistakes. That’s OK. Make the best decision you can with the information available, do not delay and delay expecting “perfect information” before you make the decision - you will never get it.
3. READ and APPLY principles from the book, “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson. Highly recommended. Take 15 minutes of your day to read this, it’s powerful.
4. Don’t cut back on your marketing and advertising budgets, in fact look at your marketing and advertising investment and how you can make it work better for you.
5. Don’t cut back on your sales staff. You and they need to FOCUS and carefully consider how to protect (and in some cases rationalise) your existing customer accounts; revisit and reactivate lost or inactive accounts.
6. Stop being a “control freak”. Learn to delegate properly and spend your time on those high value activities (HVAs) instead of getting bogged down with administration.
7. Recognise the value of external expertise. You are the expert in your business/industry (or at least you should be) and lawyers, financial advisers, accountants, business growth specialists (that’s us) are all experts in their field and able to partner with you to ensure your success. Make sure you have the right players on your team.
8. Have the guts to act counter-intuitively to the other players in your industry. Be a market leader not a follower.
In fact, for those of you who are serious about this, here’s an invitation you should act on. Drop me a line to paul@rightteam.com.au and I will send you an 8-page article on “Selling in a Down Economy”. All business owners, sales directors and managers should read this article and consider its implications for your business.
Finally, just a reminder. I like it when people write to me and share what’s happening (the good, the bad and the ugly) in their businesses. Thanks to all of you who wrote last year…it is appreciated. If you have particular topic areas or questions of interest related to business management, business improvement, profitability, cash flow etc that you would like to throw in the pot for us to consider in future articles throughout 2009 please write to yourbusiness@rightteam.com.au
NEXT WEEK:
In response to identified demand from small to medium sized businesses, we will be launching an interactive, 12 module online coaching program specifically designed to ensure you have covered the essentials required to ensure your business is a success.
And the best news is that it will be truly great - a great value for money investment.
Make sure you don’t miss next week’s article for the details. | 
