Decisions x Actions = Results
Almost all business owners I speak with want to improve their results. (I wonder why the others are still in business, or how much longer they will be in business for). But of those that do want to grow and improve their results, it is a select few that are making it happen.
What is the principal characteristic of those business owners that are improving their results consistently?
The commitment to ACTION!
The headline of this article is a recipe for change. If you want to change your results, you need to not only make decisions to change, you actually have to take ACTION. All of those business owners wanting to improve results have made a decision to change, but so many are doing the same thing today as they did last week, last month, and last year.
So taking different actions will change your results, and making Great Decisions then Powerful ACTION will lead to Improved Results.
So ask yourself what decisions you have made to improve your results in the past that you have failed to take action on, and then consider what the future may hold…
One action I strongly recommend is documenting your decisions, determining the actions and then building accountability around the actions. If you would like to discuss how this has worked with our clients to improve their results, make the decision to call or email me. Once you have made the decision, take the ACTION! Call me directly on 0418-142-562 or email me at adam@mbrgroup.com.au
Updated Fuel Tax Credits Now In Place
From 1 July 2010, the fuel tax credit rate for heavy vehicles that use fuel such as diesel or petrol and travel on public roads is 15.543 cents per litre. This rate change is due to an increase in the road user charge.
A heavy vehicle is defined as:
- one with a gross vehicle mass (GVM) of greater than 4.5 tonne, or
- a diesel vehicle acquired before 1 July 2006 with a GVM equal to 4.5 tonnes or more
To determine your eligibility, you can start with the online tool by clicking here and if you need further assistance, call our office on 03 9385 7700
Motivating your team to grow your business
Unless you are the only person in your business, then the success will be determined by the performance of others.
To get the most out of others, how can you motivate them? In sales, we should always be looking at what is it about the product or service that creates need in the customer or client, and how can we make sure we communicate that effectively.
So to motivate our team, we should use the same logic. We should look to motivate based on what is in it for our team members.
Now for some of us we can offer a great work environment (think the Google offices), some can offer flexible working arrangements (work from home, telecommuting, etc), a career path, or commission bonus pay structures.
These are all things that may motivate our team, some will work for some people and not for others.
But what about those workplace environments that to not lend themselves to any of these? An example that springs to mind is waiting staff in a cafe. The environment is a cafe, and whilst it could be a groovy cafe with a highly fashionable interior, the team don’t have a “corner office with bean bags” or if they do, there is not the time to use them. The opportunity for flexibility is limited to hours and the roster that is in place, and whilst this may be flexible from an hours perspective, you can’t wait on a table from home! If the cafe is relatively small, or the key management team is small, then a career path may not be on offer, and whilst the team may be bale to impact the tips they receive, the ability to put a meaningful reward or bonus scheme in place is limited.
So how could we as business owners motivate such a team?
Think back to your first job, and it is likely that it may not have been high on glamor or pay, but you can probably remember the types of things that gave you a buzz.
Firstly, it is highly likely that your team will be motivated by the thought of “a job well done”. So if you can provide training and support to make sure they are doing the very best they can, they will feel “masters” of their roles. This is also a great way to help “modify” any behaviors that are not aligned with the mission of the business.
Second, if you can provide them with a level of control over how they do their job, then that autonomy can be a powerful motivator. If they know that by doing the right things at the right time in the right way that they will continue to have that control over their role, that will encourage ongoing excellence.
Third, purpose. Now in some ways, you might consider that a career path or a bonus structure is “purpose”, but as business owners you have the right and even the obligation to impart a purpose to your team. If, for instance, it was clear that their purpose was to ensure that customers walked out extremely likely to recommend to friends and associated that they visit your business, then the likelihood of your team performing in a way to support this will increase.
And, in the case of a cafe, tips may indeed be a fourth motivator….
But the most important thing is to remember that no matter what the business you are in or the roles that your team are required to fill, by looking beyond pay scales, you can indeed find alternate motivators. They may not be obvious at first, but by looking, the chances of finding them increase exponentially.
If you would like to subscribe to our enewsletter, register on our home page.
For a more personal approach to growing and developing your business even more, feel free to contact me on adam@mbrgroup.com.au or +61393857700
The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business: A Book Review
When considering how I can help my clients grow their business, I am constantly aware of the saying that a business is a reflection of the owner, so to grow the business, first look to help the owner grow.
Expanding knowledge is one of the keys to personal growth, and so reading books is a powerful way for a business owner to grow. And in the tech world we live in, we can read a paperback, hardcover, ebook on a kindle or other electronic device, or listen to audio books. We really have no excuse for not developing ourselves by reading.
Over the last week I have been enjoying the style of Bob Phibbs, aka “The Retail Doctor” and his book “The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business”.
This book has been written in a way that will allow Retail Business owners to pick it up and start using the strategies within hours, and the practical tips and suggestions will ease the implementation process.
Of course, a book alone will not grow a business (du-uh!).
So here are some of the key reasons to read the book, and then most importantly, ACT!
1. Know your numbers. Along the lines of “what you can measure you can manage” simply means you should have a strong grasp of where your business is at now. If not, go to it!
2. Merchandising. The art of not only displaying sale items, but store layout, shelf heights, and more. Importantly your merchandising should be tailored to YOUR market.
3. Employees. Unless you sell everything in your store yourself, deliver it yourself and follow up all of your customers yourself, you are going to have employees. These are your team-mates in the game of winning business, so make sure your team knows where the goals are, and you have the right people in the right positions.
4. Selling. You need to understand your sales process, and then stretch your process to maximize the effectiveness. Different products and markets require different processes, but without a process that results in sales, it’s all over!
5. Training. Once you have an effective process, and the right people in the right positions, then training them to ensure they are doing the right things is what will really provide you with leverage. Get this right, and the reliance on you to sell yourself is gone.
6. Coaching. As an owner it is my belief we should all have coaches, but your team needs a coach too, and that might have to be you, or it might be an external resource. Either way, coaching will lift their performance to the next level.
7. The Internet. You just have to know what it means now to your business, and now is the time to be planning what it will mean tomorrow, and how you are going to make sure it helps your business grow.
8. Your turn. So over 200 pages of strategies, tips and suggestions. But if all you do is read them, then the pages will have little impact. It is you deciding to act that will drive growth, so how are you going to commit to actions. Coaching makes you accountable to your decisions and plans, so that is a great way to drive the growth in your business, get a coach.
And then Bob gives his list of 13 steps to being a top salesperson. This list is a great summary of the key points in the book, and could form your checklist moving forward. If you have salespeople today, and you give them this book, then the 13 steps can form part of their performance measurement.
So this book gets a recommendation from me for all business owners, as if you own a business, someone is selling something for you (or you are doing it yourself). An easy read, 230 pages plus index of practical suggestions and strategies that can help your business grow.
If you would like to understand how the power of coaching can turn these strategies and others into actual results in your business, email me now adam@mbrgroup.com.au for a copy of our business growth magazine and the opportunity to attend a 3 hour Business Grow session.
Also don’t forget to register for a free copy of our e-newsletter on our home page
The power and value of change in your business
Does your business embrace change?
Every day the world changes, the markets change and your customers and clients change. This means that if your business does not embrace change, and instead remains static, then relative to the world around it, it moves backwards.
Whilst change can be confronting, the reality of the statement above should make all business owners look to implement strategies that support change.
A great question to ask yourself about your business is “is there a better way?”
You can ask this about your whole business, or more powerfully, consider the question in respect of the various key areas of your business: Marketing, Sales, Delivery and Servicing.
So here are four steps to embracing change in your business:
1. Determine that your business needs to have change as part of the way it operates.
2. First think small, that is, pick a particular operation of your business and ask “is there a better way.”
3. Utilize the resources around you (your team, your customers, your advisor/coach) to evaluate options.
4. Change via testing and measuring.
For change to add value, you should have absolute clarity of why your business operates. If you would like to discuss this clarity of “why”, call our office to speak to our dedicated business coach, Adam Ramage.
Are you allowing business to walk out your door?
We all appear to put so much effort into growing our business, and yet most businesses are guilty of letting business walk out the door.
Here are three strategies to improve this:
1. Measure it. Make sure you know what your retention rate is. What you can measure you can manage, and it is NOT too late to start.
2. Make sure all of you existing customers know all of the services you offer. The last thing you want is one of your customers going to a competitor simply because they didn’t know you could supply the additional product or service.
3. Instill brilliant communications with your customers and prospects. Sales scripts provide a consistent message. Asking your customers what they need increases your chances of satisfying those needs. Communicating keeps you at front of mind.
If you work on these 3 strategies, you will minimise the chance of business walking out the door.
We can help identify opportunities for you to improve your business results. If that interests you contact our office or email adam@mbrgroup.com.au
Three ways to grow your business this week.
It is possible to grow your business. The most important aspect of changing (improving) your performance is to change your actions.
So what three things could you change this week to grow?
1. Lead generation. Do something different targetted at improving your leads. It could be an email campaign, a radio ad, or a presentation to a community group. But do something and make it different.
2. Conversation rate. Do something different to improve the number of leads that turn into customers. It could be what you do or say, but you have to do something different to get a different result.
3. Increase the average sale value. This is the classic “would you like fries with that”. Just think how many customers or clients you have dealt with in the last week who could have benefitted from more of your productsor services.
These are just 3 of the many ways you can achieve growth this week.
If you would like to explore these and more, call our office or email adam@mbrgroup.com.au
Do you really want a business partner?
As our business develops, or as we start out our business, it may seem like having a business partner is a great idea. But what if it is not what you thought it would be?
As with any significant event or strategy for your business, you should consider both what is to gain, and how to minimize the disruption if the outcome is not positive.
If you are thinking of adding a business partner, or starting a business with a partner, consider these 5 keys to a successful partnership:
- Establish common goals for the future of the business – Clarity is “gold”
- Document the rights and responsibilities of the partners
- Make sure the agreement covers sale or purchase of partnership interest and how that will be valued
- Ensure you have a communication strategy between partners
- Review and refine the goals and agreements regularly
If you follow these keys, not only will the likelihood of a rewarding partnership increase, but in the event that this does not turn out, formal documented agreements can make the partnership dissolution less costly and painful.
If you are considering a partnership, or an agreement for an existing business partnership, and would like more information, contact our office today.
Business is like a game of football!
If Aussie Rules is not your game, substitute the team sport you can best relate to.
I ventured to the M.C.G. on Saturday afternoon to watch Melbourne take on West Coast. With the youthful exuberance that Melbourne had been demonstrating in recent weeks, I was looking forward to a contest filled with energy.
Have you ever looked forward to doing business with someone, in the belief that their product could help you?
And, if so, have you ever finished the transaction and felt like you had been shortchanged by the experience?
On Saturday, I felt shortchanged by Melbourne. It gave me the opportunity to liken the game of footy to business and these are the things that were evident:
1. When Melbourne ran through the middle of the ground early in the game, and then kicked poorly, it was like a business having a great product, and delivering it poorly.
2. The quarter and half time breaks were a great opportunity to review and reflect on what was working and what was not. It is a time to build on successes, trial changes to those things not working well, and reset targets. We all should take the time to do this in our business.
3. When things aren’t going well on the field, the challenge is to remember to enjoy the game, take the positives on board and learn from any mistakes.
4. If you see another team (or business) doing something really well, remember that might just work for you!
5. West Coast ended up wining the game because they consistently did the little things that matter. How does your business “score” on taking the time to tend to the little things?
6. If you can get your entire team sharing a goal, then the likelihood of success is multiplied. Get your team playing the game together, and enjoying the game together. Success will follow.
So take note of these points when considering the “game” your business is playing today. Make decisions, take actions that result in your supporters (customers) not feeling shortchanged.
Don’t wait for the whistle, go for the ball!
Why should I grow my business?
Your business is paying all the bills.
You don’t have to work (most) Sundays.
You are paying off your home.
Your football team is winning games.
Why should you think about growing your business? Your friends who run their own businesses have been able to grow, but they have been lucky, have grabbed a great contract or customer and do not operate in your market so growing was easy for them.
If this sounds like the thoughts in your head then you will have proven yourself right!
The saying goes “If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are right!”
The first thing that needs to happen for your business to grow is for the leader (I am talking to you) to believe that you can grow it. If there is belief, then anything is possible, because it is the belief that will provide the inspiration for action.
Of course, ACTION is required for change.
So first, believe, second, act, and third monitor the impact of the action.
Then, when your business grows in a way that frees you to spend more time doing what lights you up, you will know why you wanted to grow your business in the first place.
Go to it!