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How do you feel about growing your business? Perhaps you are happy and content the way things are now, and really don’t want to work harder or longer just to maybe have more money.
Growing Your BusinessDocument
That’s a reasonable and noble thought. Free time is the most sought after commodity there is.
However, over time, are you getter richer or poorer? Have you looked at your numbers lately to know how you are doing?
Consider that the only thing that goes down is the temperature at night. Everything else goes up. Everything costs more. Even if your use of utilities is constant, their cost keeps going up.
So what to do? Your profit (income minus expenses) needs to be constant (worst case) or increasing (best case). In other words, like a living plant, your business needs to grow or is it slowly dying.
The two worst scenarios for any business is too little business or too much business. You want the “Goldilocks” amount of growth, which is just right. How do you do that?
Here is the secret. Remember this. To grow, you need to let go.
What does this mean, and how do you do this? What is keeping you from growing at this point? Not enough employees, not hard enough work, not long enough hours, not enough income, uncontrolled expenses, or?
What is keeping you from growing at this point is YOU! Think about it. What is your daily routine? What activities do you do to bring in the money? What activities keep you busy and occupied, but do not contribute to the bottom line?
Yes, I know that you enjoy what you do and find it rewarding and fulfilling. However, rewarding and fulfilling may not put food on the table and a roof overhead. What to do?
If you are a one man band or perhaps have only a few employees, you can still succeed to increase your profits by growing your business.
Let’s say you are a one man band. You have two arms and two legs and they work best if they are going in the same direction at the same time. If you are being pulled left and right, you can’t make much progress.
I would offer that you do not, and cannot do all the job tasks that are required to make your business run. By way of example, I use an accountant to provide me financials and do tax returns. I use a landscaping service to do grounds maintenance. I use attorneys for any legal work. The list goes on, but you get the idea.
So, of all the activities you do, which are the most profitable and the best use of your time? Think about this, because this is the area where you want to focus your time, efforts, and energy.
Let’s say you may have a few employees to help out. Did you hire them and then formulate a job around them, or did you have a job description and find someone to fill it? The latter is best.
There are many processes that comprise your business. Some may include the sales process, the collection process, delivery of product or service process, new client acquisition process, and so on.
EACH PROCESS NEEDS TO BE SYSTEMIZED. My favorite book of systems is called a cook book. Let’s say we turn to page 24 and it is Chocolate Brownies. If you follow the recipe (system) you will get chocolate brownies. If I follow it, I will get the same, identical chocolate brownies. The benefit of a system is that the results are consistent, predictable, and reliable.
Likewise, if you have a written system for a job, you only need to hire someone who can and will follow directions, and presumably we all learned to do this in school.
Remember that if someone follows the system and you do not get the desired results, the system needs to be modified.
Next comes effective delegation. We are all blessed with the same 24 hours a day. If more needs to be done and you have reached your limit, you need the help of someone else. You need to off load or delegate (not abdicate).
Delegation consists of:
Defining the task
Giving reign to the person to do the task
Communicating the desired outcome in time, dollars, and accuracy.
Following up on results and commending good performance.
Providing the tools and technology the person will need to perform.
This whole process is letting go to grow. You need to trust yourself enough to let go and trust that others can and will do what is needed, because they know how and what to do.
What if you and your staff are maxed out and another person is needed? Do you have a difficulty finding good people? Do you feel they are not talented or hard working like you?
The first task in hiring someone is to define the job title and exactly what things they are expected to do. This should be in writing. With this in hand you can better screen applicants. There are written appraisals available to help you screen for personality and honesty traits.
You may feel that you can do something better and faster than any associate you may have. Well, maybe you can, but that is not the idea. The idea is to free you to do what is the highest and best use of your time.
Therefore, it is imperative that you give everyone WRITTEN job directions. This will allow for consistent performance and consistent results.
We have discussed how you can grow your business by working smarter and not have to work harder or longer. We have discussed why it is important for the business to be vital and continuously profitable.
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