Wednesday 31 October 2012

Your THINKING and THOUGHTS

TO SME Owners

So you have in place your VISION of where you want your business to be and in what form,
this is a great place to be, but as always there is a trick in turning it into reality.

One key trick I have grown to understand and accept covers the following areas,

- when you think of your vision, you actually see images, close your eyes now and think of seeing your business in a certain position, you will see images,
- some still call it visualisation,
- we have about 60000 thoughts a day so you can see how powerful your thinking is, but this might not go along with your, belief system,may be hard to pick up on the concept of what you think about comes into being.

Go do some research, it will also be great self development, the other trick is to get your team to get into the right thinking space relative to their jobs and the vision of the business.
They can start by being a LEADER WITHOUT A TITLE in your business, as Robin Sharma puts it.

Till next time may the Force be with you, I am your silent partner helping you work on your business.

Thursday 25 October 2012

Your Sales Team and their client follow up!

To SME Owners

Here is a real live case of a lack of follow up, lack of research, and may be some Arrogance and
Com pliancy.
These two businesses are in the top 4 in their game/industry.

I dealt with one of them in 2010 (December), now needed a quote on a similar need in 2012 (September), rep came to see me, did all the rep stuff, and asked me if I had dealt with his company before, I said no!, not truthful, but wanted to see if he did any research!

When I dealt with the business in 2010, price was R20k, remember very similar need, rep came back with a quote of R36k, I asked him did you pick up from your system that I have dealt with your company before, he did not check! I told the rep that I had and the price was R20k, check out the rate of inflation? In the mean time called for a quote by a competitor, and showed the rep, the invoice of the deal I did in 2010 for R20k, yep he came back with a price of R21k. Even if his price was R25k I would have gone with him.

The rep who quoted me R36k came back with a price of R34k!
SO YOU KNOW WHO GOT THE BUSINESS.... so as an owner need to follow up on.....?

Till next time may the Force be with you, I am your Silent partner helping you work on your business

Thursday 18 October 2012

Scalability of Your Business

To SME owners

This is an important part of running your business, given any focus on cost management.
The law of forced efficiency, is the idea that any job will expand to fill the time you allow for it.
                                            Interesting to say the least!

Herewith a real live case/numbers.(done in SA Rands)

The business moves many commodities, with majority of sales done on line. B2B

Business founded in 1999,
2001 sales R500k
2003 staff head count 13
2003 sales R4.5m  growth 201%
2004 salesR5.8m   growth 39%
2004 staff head count still 13
2005 sales R7.9m
2007 sales R18m
2007 staff head count 33         ( The management and leadership of this business must be good to great) what a business, client service and technology must be first class-well done to them.
The business is Euroffice uk
So always keep an eye on your scalability.
Till next time may the Force be with you, I am your silent partners helping you work on your business.

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Your TEAMS Performance

To SME Owners

You can't force your staff to perform, you have to create a business vibe that lets staff THINK, and create better way's of doing stuff in the business.

Yes business culture is a driver, but it also includes the working condition's, the office layout, the rituals, etc.

The staff must also take responsibility for not just "taking from the business/ their job"but what are they becoming as a person, do they contribute to a climate of cooperation and willing.

Many sme businesses have Mavericks working in their company's, who are usually achievers, they however mess things up for the rest of the team. I came across this recently, the bossman had a little word with his maverick, and said enough is enough, fit in or------,walk and see more chap.

I will watch this space with interest over the next 30 days!

Till next time may the Force be with you, I am your silent partner helping you work on your business.

Sunday 7 October 2012

Survival is not Sufficient

TO SME Owners

Yes there may be many of you that are just trying to keep your business door open to trade,
so we have got to move your mind away from just focusing on survival, but focus on these
areas.
What decisions you have to make that will give your business the highest and best impact,
Really,really find out every day where the cash is in your business, does your business
need to be recapitalised and why,
Are you making quicker and better decisions with speed, with speed,this is so important, I have
researched this area in sme businesses for 15years.

Most businesses adopt unrealistic plans and think, lets keep to the grindstone, that is why I have
developed my Reality Check 303 model, which gets to the core issues with speed.

Yep our labour law in SA is not there to help sme businesses, when it comes to under preforming staff  but you have to spend time to get ride of those staff that are passengers, yes it takes time, but you must, these staff mess up your business brand.

Till next time may the Force be with you, I am your silent partner helping you work on your business.

Tuesday 2 October 2012

Your SME business structure

To SME Owners

I hear many times have a lean structure, cut your head count(very few sme businesses have shrunk to greatness)Being a sme you tend to win business on your service levels, so in my mind cover your base, by not being short staffed, big business can have two staff off out of a team of say ten, but you cannot!
While I am doing this post listening to my best of the best cd's Rodriguez, Cold Facts, he did a concert in LA recently aged 70, I first heard his great tunes in 1970's when at school, some things do not change, so where does this lead, understand the COLD FACT'S about HOW IMPORTANT the structure of your business is and the balance about working on your business vs in!

Set up a culture where you delegate but check, you need time to think through any risks, any pending decisions, move with speed, big business move slow most of the time, I have a client, where the big player in the industry is so, so slow to wake up.

Till next time may the Force be with you, I am your silent partner helping you work on your business.