Terry Sage of Trades Coaching New Zealand gets back to basics by outlining five key concepts you need to put in place to establish the foundations of a successful business.
What is the easiest to build — a square house or a round one?
Dumb question really, and you might be thinking who cares — they both do the same job, right?
Of course they do. The inhabitants get to eat, sleep, watch TV, keep their toys dry, and lock the kids away when they are a pain in any shaped house.
But when it comes down to it, building a house with four 90° corners is way less stressful than one with a never ending 360° bend in it.
KISS — it makes so much sense
So why do business owners insist on turning their business into the most complicated beast possible when the old acronym, KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid), makes so much sense in the business world?
So here is Business 101. Follow these steps and your business will have the best foundation possible.
Your stress levels will be lower, your efficiency will trend upwards, and if it all goes to plan you should be making money.
If only life was that easy, right?
The issue with Business 101 and the small-to-medium business owner is they never find the time to do the simple tasks needed to benefit from 101 — and that is an absolute tragedy as they would benefit so much from doing so.
But the reality is work, clients, suppliers, the rain, staff, broken Ford Ranger (again), the next quote and life in general gets in the way. Not to mention the stack of invoices you need to send out, and the bigger stack of invoices you need to pay.
It brings to mind that old song by Cool And The Gang — “Get Round To It”. If you’re now scratching your head saying “who?”, google it and live a little in the 70s.
So what exactly is Business 101?
It’s the boring but necessary stuff that gives a business its foundation.
It’s the stuff you read about in every business book. It’s what your accountant told you to do years ago, and tells you again every time you see them for your annual review.
It’s the stuff your mentor or coach has been trying to get you to do. So, no excuses, you have been told.
There are five key concepts and we will take a look at one of these each month so as not to overload you.
I have templates and examples that I am happy to share with you to help you with the process.
If you’re keen to stick with it over the next five issues of Building Today, two things will happen — you will have written and built your foundation, and you will have scored five months’ worth of free business coaching without even buying me a cup of tea!
The five key concepts are:
• Business Plan: Don’t get carried away with writing a book. The goal here is to get what’s in your head onto paper and turn it into an action plan.
• Team: Get legal and professional with employment agreements, job descriptions, induction plans, and house rules etc.
• Systems: This is the easiest one where we look at what you do now and fine tune it.
• Marketing: We come up with a strategy and a budget based around your ideal client.
• Financials: All the numbers, all the dollars in and out, cash flow forecasts, reporting and the crucial one — is your charge out rate covering all your expenses?
Once we have all this sorted you will have an action plan to follow that can only improve your operation.
You can do one of two things from here — wait until the next issue of BT and read along, or drop me an email and I will send you a business plan template so you are ready for the next issue.
If you’re keen, email [email protected].
