To get the result you want, do you focus on the result or the process?

How do you get a business going in the direction you want, growing and profitable? It would appear that from most businesses perspective, regardless of their size, industry or location, that all too often if the profit isn’t where it should, then the only way to fix that is cut costs, cut advertising, cut staff, look for smaller premises. We all know what happens next, start discounting to attract customers and then it’s pretty much all over.

For decades it would appear that this is the only solution available rather than address the issue of how this business makes money in the first place, the processes that are performed in every area and the results to actually determine what’s wrong.

Very recently a relatively new player into the donut market has closed down, opening around 30 stores in a very short period of time (the first store opened in 2015) and according to media, the store closures have been blamed on high rents. Everyone likes a good donut and there’s were fine but obviously they couldn’t sell enough to pay the rent and wages. But surely at some point someone had looked at how many donuts we need to sell a day, and how we do that, in order to not only cover the costs, but profit. When there was only one store, maybe that happened, but with 30 stores, maybe the focus changed from donut sales, to profit. It shouldn’t, it’s all about how many and how you sell the donuts, attract customers and keep them coming back.

Everything in a business should be planned and should have a process to how it’s done, otherwise it’s shear luck and sometimes, that actually can work to some degree, but it eventually slows down until it stops due to additional competition, new products, customers going elsewhere and more.

Managing those processes is the key. When you know exactly what you want from a business and how that’s done, you then simply design the process and the performance minimum standards in order for that to happen. The team then need training, support and ongoing review, to ensure it all happens as planned, and if that’s done it will. Here’s an example.

Let’s say you have a business that sells something to other business and for that you have a sales person. Their job is to bring new business in every month, that’s all they do. But how many new clients is the expectation?

• Let’s say it’s 20 new clients a month, and in order for that to happen:
• They need 100 prospects a week,
• That turn into 20 fresh appointments per week
• Which convert into 5 new customers each week, so 20 a month.

You then simply review that activity each week or month, look at the results achieved and if on track great but if not why. Were the appointment numbers low or are the sales skills not up to scratch, do they need some training?

The option to a managed process, is pretty much anarchy. Staff do what they want, get the results they are happy with and if not, they leave or management eventually move them on. The revolving door of non management.

This same management process as simple as it sounds and it is, needs to be done across the board in every area:

• How you attract customers
• The selling process, how you grow
• How we service and maintain our clients
• Staff recruitment and onboarding
• Product development
• Marketing plan and the results from it.
• Planning, direction and objectives
• All management processes.

Businesses fail only because of one key thing, it’s very rarely anything to do with the product or service, almost regardless of how bad it is. The reason is poor management and so the solution, to getting everything right, is great management.

Understanding what the objective is in the first place and where you want the business to go. From there it’s a simple matter of designing each aspect of the business, so it actually achieves the results you want, reviewing it as often as needed, even daily in some areas, but more often monthly is enough.

Review the plan, look at the what was done, activity and results and adjust if needed. Maybe it’s time to ramp things up a little, maybe it’s still about getting some aspects on track. Is it a skills shortage or simply a will issue. Whatever it is fix the problem.

Business360 and mybusinessnow.com.au help businesses develop the skills that all business need, enable access to integrated solutions that all businesses need and ongoing support to ensure it all happens.

Checkout our website at www.mybusinessnow.com.au or email erwin@mybusinessnow.com.au for more information.

Business shouldn’t be complicated and in fact it’s not, it’s easy, just not simple if you don’t know, or your doing it wrong! Business360 is about uncomplicating your business and growing.

People, planning, possibilities.