People + Systems = Great Sales!

Posted on April 23, 2011 by ACBSEadmin

When you ask many of the greatest salespeople in history what their secret is many would answer – personality. But when asked how to quantify and teach personality to others these super salespeople are often stumped. Teaching great sales involves a major re-education and a focus on systems that make sales simple.

Sales scripts not only increase the sales of top performers but also produce amazing results for the entire team. One rule of thumb which can be used in selling and in life is that what you can measure you can manage and grow! The ultimate test of a superior salesperson is how consistent their results are and how consistent the results are for the entire team. Using a sales script achieves this consistency and makes the training of new team members simple and effective.

By introducing a sales system like a script, you can then measure conversion rate on a daily basis and your sales will automatically increase – guaranteed.

So, exactly what does a sales script look like, how do you write one and how is it used… let’s look at this now…

A sales script is a documented, methodical, learnable, effective system of selling your goods and services. It is a written process on paper designed to give the salesperson control of the call (while the customer ‘feels’ in control) and create a desired result – the sale!

The basic idea is this – find out what your top salesperson is doing, write it down and then get everyone else doing the same thing!  Ask your top salesperson to write down exactly what they say to a prospect to get them to buy your product or service. You may even choose to reward your top salesperson for doing this by offering them a great incentive such as a percentage of extra sales.

Let us briefly outline key parts of a sales script. Obviously, there are differences between sales scripts used on incoming and outgoing calls, however I will just detail some typically used questions that can be used for your sales scripts!

The opening: “Could I just outline the reason for my call?”
Permission: “Would it be ok if I asked you a couple of questions?”
Rapport Building: “What is your biggest challenge in relation to…?”
Below Waterline: “What is most important to you in regards to…”
Paraphrase: “Based on what you just told me, it sounds like…”
Temperature Check: “How does that fit with what you had in mind?”
Assumptive Close: “Will you be paying for that on Visa or Mastercard?”
Open the relationship “Congratulations and bye for now.”

A script can be read, learned and must be practiced, used, measured and improved (if needed) to increase conversion rate of prospects to customers of all the team. Imagine taking the guesswork out of selling once and for all by using a system that makes your sales results less people dependent and more system dependent!

Posted in business leader, improving sales, Increasing Sales, sales conversion | 1 Comment

9 Secrets to Getting the Perfect Employee

Posted on April 18, 2011 by ACBSEadmin

These days too many business owners are throwing their advertising dollar down the toilet using out-dated recruitment methods and using boring old ads. And, then they wonder why they’re getting the wrong response!

In this article you’ll learn the secrets to getting and keeping the perfect employees. This information is an invaluable and often neglected secret weapon when looking for your dream team.

1. Have a clearly defined job description for the role …

One of the biggest mistakes business owners can make when looking for new staff, whether it’s for the expansion of the business or because someone needs to be replaced, is that they don’t actually have a clear and concise outline of what they want the employee to do and exactly how they expect it to be done!

When you think about it, without this simple document, it’s no wonder that both the employee and employer can be disappointed or become disillusioned:  If there are no clear guidelines, it’s that much harder to do the job correctly and to expectations.

Most business owners don’t have either the time, the expertise or perhaps even the realisation, that they need to develop this critical document way before they start advertising.

Without a clear job description, what often happens is new people are employed, given a quick tour of the premises, introduced to a few key people and then left to their own devices, simply because everyone is too busy to train them properly!

How can they live up to the expectations of the boss when they don’t even know what those expectations are!

Some business owners say “If only I could find someone like me!” Well ask yourself the question:  Would you ever work for you?  If the answer’s a loud ‘No”, you may have an understanding of what some of the problem may be!

So, working out what you expect of your new employee is half the battle, but don’t leave it until after they start!  Do it before you advertise.

2. Have lots of candidates to choose from …

Putting the effort and money into advertising to just get 2 or 3 candidates is a common mistake. The problem with this is, if you have only 2 or 3 candidates to choose from, how do you know if you’ve picked a great candidate?  And are you truly going to be satisfied with picking the best of a bad bunch?

Is that the way to build a successful business?  No way!  You obviously need to see as many candidates as possible so you can get a good feel for who’s out there and who can best fill the role.

There are good candidates out there, and you need to use every resource available to get good people in front of you.  Always use more than one advertising or ‘people finding’ strategy when recruiting for new team members.

3. Hire slow and fire fast …

Most people in business tend to do it the other way around: they hire fast and fire slow.  This is because the decision to bring on more staff is usually made under pressure.

You know the situation, you’re busting at the seams with work, your spouse says, “If you don’t start spending time with me, I’m out of here”.

Or your best person has just had a better offer (which should always give you food for thought), or suddenly they want a change of direction and you are left with a great hole in your operations with no-one left to fill it!

So now the race is on to find someone to share the load and take up the reins where they were left.  In your haste, you may be tempted to just take anyone with a pulse that even remotely looks like they might fit the bill.

What then happens after several months, or even years of kidding yourself that they are getting better, is that you either live with this continual frustration or you decide that maybe it’s you and not just them.

You finally build up the courage to ask them to leave and their response is something like, “Yeah, I was wondering when you would say something”.

So, it’s important to always do your homework up front.  Make sure you know exactly who you are looking for before you begin recruiting. Don’t worry about losing candidates, rather, worry about how to get a good process going and how you’re going to get lots of prospective candidates into that process.

Then if the candidate doesn’t work out, you can let them know early and start the process again.

4. Have a compelling reason for people to want to work for you …

Often overlooked is the process of making the job attractive to the right candidate. This would also include creating an environment that good employees feel that they could develop and grow, and contribute to something worthwhile.  Most good people are looking for a more than just a job. They want something meaningful and inspiring.

When a friend of mine was looking for a life partner, he was becoming very frustrated until someone said to him, “First you need to define exactly what she would look like and all her character traits”.  So he got busy defining his perfect mate.

Several weeks passed and still no result.  In frustration, he came to me and said, “Well, I have the perfect partner defined in every way.  Now what?”

I said, “Imagine you’re walking down the street, and coming towards you the other way is your perfect partner.   The question you need to be asking yourself is, will she be attracted to you?!”

You will need to put in some effort into creating a great environment and opportunity for your ideal candidate, to make sure they will be excited about the prospect of working for you and with you.

5. Use a systemised approach to choose the best candidate …

Don’t trust in your innate abilities to choose the right candidate, as this usually only works if you are an expert recruiter, and it can be very easy to get it wrong.

Recruitment is almost like a courtship:  Everyone is putting on their best behaviour and face, and once the honeymoon is over, we get to work with the ‘real’ personality.

Instead, create a system of key activities and questions that will test your candidate’s knowledge and their abilities.  Systemise this process so you can delivery it consistently and accurately.
That way you can actually compare candidates in an “apples to apples” comparison.

6. Communicate the values of your business …

Do you know how much it costs the average business if they employ someone and that person leaves within 3 months?  You’d be surprised and shocked I’m sure, to find the actual figure is around $30,000!

Most people don’t believe this figure until they start to count the down-time for training, lost productivity and opportunity costs, and the time taken to interview and select that candidate.  Not to mention the time, costs and heartache of having to go through the whole recruitment and interview process again so soon!

It’s important to understand the reasons people leave soon after starting a job.  One of the main reasons is because the job described, and the actual expectations and work environment, do not match.

Or the job might be clear, but the cultural environment is not a good fit for them:  They may be looking for an environment where there is opportunity to move ahead or to get good bonuses with good productivity and output.

Make sure you communicate your cultural environment and the long term opportunity, up front.  Let them know what it’s going to be like and what they can expect 12 months and two years from now.

7. Have a systemised induction process …

Be aware that if you don’t have a strong, systematic induction process then you are ultimately digging yourself a big hole: It is very difficult for people to know what you want them to do, in the way that you want them to do it, in the timeframes you want them to do it, if their only training is ‘on the job’.

Let’s face it, it’s hard for people to get it right if they are left to their own devices when they start.  So, don’t leave the new employee hanging around waiting for something to happen, and then getting confused when they can’t read your mind!

Create an induction process that will welcome new employees into the business and that will mesh them with your team and give them the best possible chance at succeeding within your company.  You and your new employee will reap the benefits and will be very glad that you did.

8. Have clearly defined Key Performance Indicators …

As the old business saying goes, ‘If you can measure it, you can improve it’, so make sure you have measuring ’sticks’ in place to monitor each aspect of the new employee’s performance.

Tracking relevant KPI’s (key performance indicators) for your team is equally important for their own self-monitoring as it is for you to be able to tell if they’re doing a good job. You also need to know if your team are delivering you profitable and productive results !

Just for a minute, imagine playing a game of ten pin bowling with a big curtain blocking your view of the pins.  That’s how most people do their jobs, bowling the ball, but not knowing if they’ve hit anything.

Rather than just yelling at them when they stuff things up,  you will get a far better result and feedback when you provide them with meaningful data about their performance and results.

Remember, if you can measure it you can improve it!

9. Review performance regularly …

Do you communicate with your team regularly!  I don’t mean talking to them every day in the hallway…  I mean do you have a structured review process where you can discuss details of their role and their performance objectively, on a regular basis?

Did you know that 68% of your team will leave you because of perceived indifference?  That means, they feel you don’t care about them anymore: they feel like a number rather than a person.

Put weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual reviews in place.  This will enable you to continue to get the best out of your people, will make them feel connected to you and your company, and will also help you to spot any potential problems sooner rather than later, or worst still, too late!

Make sure you keep this communication open and honest, and with a positive outcome in mind.

Posted in business decisions, selling your business, team building | Leave a comment

7 Things Every Business Owner Must Consider when Defining their Business future

Posted on April 11, 2011 by ACBSEadmin

What is changing in your market?

Many business owners believe that if they have a great product or service, business will automatically come to them.  Even if you do offer the best product and great service, if you don’t deliver what the market wants it will eventually dry up and blow away.

Get to know your market and how it is changing.  No longer is your biggest competition coming from down the road, it is coming from overseas or online.  Know what changes are happening in your industry and prepare for them now.  A great way to do this is to be in regular communication with your customers and listen to what they are saying.

How well do you know Your Numbers?

Business is all about turning assets into sales, sales into profit and profit into cash. If your business strategies aren’t putting more cash in you bank account, then don’t do it, or do it differently.

Take the time to review what happened last year, analyse the results you achieved, see what adjustments you need to make to obtain the results you require, plan next year and look at what assistance you need to obtain the desired result.

Every business has 2-3 critical drivers that are producing the bulk of its results.  Learn what they are for your business and focus on these.  You’ll get to your future destination much quicker.

Where are you going?

Setting and achieving goals is one of the best ways to measure your life’s progress and create clarity. Consider the alternative – just drifting along aimlessly hoping that one day good fortune will fall into your lap with little or no effort on your part. You’ve got more chance of finding a grain of sugar on a sandy beach.

It is a fact that successful people do the things that unsuccessful people will not do.  Successful people write down their goals.  Goal setting is a powerful process for making your vision and dreams a reality.

Get very clear on where you are going and stay connected to this daily.  Back this with a clear step by step plan and you’ll be well on your way to achieving your future.

What is your succession plan?

Every business owner must condition themselves that eventually, the baton must and will be passed, and he or she must be able to do so without hesitation.  There are three important components of succession planning that must be kept in mind during the entire process:

  1. Attracting and retaining the best talent.
  2. Building leaders from within the business.
  3. Developing the careers of potential successors.

Create systems in your business so your business becomes ‘systems dependent’ rather than ‘people dependent’.  This will mean when you come to exit your business you’ll have the fundamentals in place so you can hand over to a general manager or you’ll have a more marketable asset to sell.

Begin with the end in mind so you can maximise your return on effort.

Who are you listening to?

Too many business owners listen to ‘BBQ Bob’ – the guy at the BBQ who will give you all the ‘free advice’ about how to run a business… when he hasn’t even run one himself…  Be careful about who you take advice from.

Surround yourself with the best advisors and become a generalist, rather than a specialist.  In an information economy, there is a lot to keep on top of so surround yourself with the best experts who can keep you informed about the key changes that will impact you and your business.  It will be a small investment compared with the acceleration they’ll give you.

Take time to find the right advisors who can fast track your journey.

Do you have cash for growth?

Profit and cash flow are not the same thing. A business can still go broke whilst making a healthy profit just by not having enough financial reserves to meet its commitments.

Cash flow management is the fundamental and essential responsibility of the Business Owner or General Manager. A good cash flow manager reviews cash flow needs for the next week, next month, next quarter…and plans for any large cash need before it becomes a crisis.

Remember that cash flow management is more than just what’s happening with accounts receivable and payable. It also includes sales, raising finance through loans/overdrafts or sale of assets, controlling stock…

What is your exit strategy?

For many business owners, their business is their superannuation – so get clear now on how you will exit your business and who would buy it.

Do you have employees with the management ability and the mindset of an owner and the ability to access capital to pay for the business? If these people aren’t working for you now, do you have time to recruit them and teach them the business with an understanding that they might take over? What about your suppliers, customers or competitors?  They might be looking for an opportunity to enter your part of the industry.

Gavin Bassett

Posted in business coaching, business planning, goal setting | Leave a comment

6 Simple Steps to Success

Posted on April 5, 2011 by ACBSEadmin

I remember hearing the story of a young girl who was a real estate millionaire.  When asked how she achieved her wealth she said  “Well I read this book called the 7 Steps to Wealth and I just followed the steps”.

The same is true for business.  If you want massive results in your business – whether it is more profit, more time or a great team, it is just a matter of following the 6 steps to massive results.

The first step to achieving is to achieve MASTERY of your business and mastery of your time.  This involves getting your business to deliver consistently and reliably so that every customer experience is consistent.  It is also important to make sure that your business is profitable, with good margins and strong cashflow.  This stage often involves tightening up debtors and also stock.  Mastery is all about putting the foundations in place so the business is staged for growth.  Too many businesses grow to quickly and without mastery run out of cash along the way.  Mastery also involves taking control of your time. This includes finding at least 5 hours per week to work ‘on’ your business to create the results you are after.  A great place to start is to read and implement the principles in ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective people’ by Stephen Covey.

Once this step is completed you will need to define your NICHE – positioning your business in the market so you no longer have to compete on price.  Your niche can be anything and may be based on areas such as quality, speed, reliability, safety, customer service, back up service, convenience, image or guarantee.  Once you have decided your niche you should redesign your business so that the business enhances your position and ownership of the niche.  It is worth spending some time developing your niche as this will form the basis of your marketing and is a precursor to the next stage … LEVERAGE.

Leverage is all about doing more with less.  The key areas we will focus on to leverage at this stage are marketing and time.  Leveraging your marketing and profits is all about working the ‘5 ways’.  Start with conversion rate, then average dollar sale (both involved in sales) and then number of transactions (getting your existing customers coming back) and finally on lead generation (new customers).  So often business owners want to start on lead generation first but this is often the most challenging and requires the most investment for any of the 5 ways.

They key to leveraging your time is systems.  Effective systems can save you and your team both time and money.  The basic rule for systemising is ‘Systemise the routine, humanise the exception’.  Anything that can’t be systemised needs to be run by people.  A system means that things are done consistently, regardless of the team member.  Now you are well on your way to creating a business that works without you.

Once these are in place, the next step is to spend time building a championship TEAM to run your systems.  Remember Systems run your business.  People run your systems.  You lead your people.  This is where you need to focus on leading and building your team.

This leads to SYNERGY where the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts.  Your team starts to develop mastery, they are applying leverage, you are owning your niche and everything thing starts to work ‘in the zone’.

By this stage you’ll now be seeing MASSIVE RESULTS in terms of your time and profit and if you choose, a commercial, profitable, enterprise that works without you.

Posted in business coaching, profit maximising, success planning | Leave a comment

8 Tips for buying a franchise for profit…

Posted on January 24, 2011 by ACBSEadmin

Franchising is a great business system, one where you combine a great system for running a business and producing a profit, with great people who have an equity interest and thus will do a much better job.  That said, it doesn’t mean every company on the planet is able to be franchised, or franchised well.

So, here are the top eight things to consider if you’re thinking of building or buying a great franchise …
1.    How many other same type franchises are out there?

Chances are if there is a lot of competition, two things are present, the best ‘sites’ are taken and when you are looking to sell a franchise they will compare you with every similar company.

2.    How many people want to buy a business in the areas you are trading?

Let’s say you want to set up a franchise in Victoria, how many people week in, week out, are actually buying a business. In fact, you should find out how many franchises each and every competitor sold last year to give you an idea of what your sales will be.

3.    How many customers a day does the business need?

When you’re buying a franchise, you’ve got to do some basic math on how many customers the business will need per day, or even per hour to break even and then to make a reasonable profit. Most companies I look at need far more customers per day, every single day, than is reasonable given the market or site they are going into.

4.    Check the demographic growth?

When you know who your ideal customer is, check into whether that group is growing or diminishing in the area you want to put the business. If you want to build a business you need to know the customer base is growing with you.

5.    How many competitors for the franchisee?

The hard work begins when you have to get your franchisee profitable. And, if you’re the franchisee, you need to seriously examine the market size and the number of competitors you face. More competitors will often lead to reduced prices, margins and therefore lower success.

6.     What is the profit margin?

One of the keys to a successful franchise is the profit margin. Given the franchisee pays a royalty, there needs to be a serious profit margin built into the business model to pay for this. The buying power of the group usually covers far more than the royalty fees.

7.    Do you build long-term customers?

Almost every successful business is created whereby customers don’t just buy from you once, they are with you for a serious period of time. If you buy into a business that only has one product, and a customer buys from you once and then you never see them again, you are generally going to find profitability lacking.

8.    And finally, will I enjoy the day to day?

Buying a business is seriously about a change in lifestyle. If you enjoy something you will read about it, study it and become really good at it. If it’s something you think of as hard work, you’re doing it for the money, and you don’t enjoy it, you’ll never be as successful as you could be.

Success in franchising and every business enterprise is all about the team you are with. If you are looking to join a franchise, remember that it’s the team you are joining, the leadership and the other franchisees who will help you, guide you and show you about success.

Posted in business coaching, franchise ownership, franchise success | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Selling Your Business – The Hardest Sale You Will Ever Make

Posted on January 17, 2011 by ACBSEadmin

They say the three most stressful times in a person’s life are when they get married, buy a house and change jobs.  Well, try selling a business – It’s your baby, the thing you have built over 15 years.  You have put your heart, soul and an incalculable number of hours into it.  Now you are going to sell it.

There are many things you need to do and consider, but these seven areas are of immense importance when it comes to finding a buyer, selling the business and getting the most value for it.

1.    Think about who would want to buy your business:

Do you have employees that have the management ability and the mindset of an owner and the ability to access capital to pay for the business?  If these people aren’t working for you now, do you have time to recruit them and teach them the business with an understanding that they might take over? What about your suppliers, customers or competitors?  They might be looking for an opportunity to enter your part of the industry.

Finally, you can go to the general market.  Contact a broker that has experience in your type of business or advertise it yourself through the classifieds.

2.    Remove Yourself from the Business:

Many businesses are based around the owner.  Customers are used to dealing with you. Suppliers have long relationships with you.  Your team trusts you.  All these relationships need to be transferred to your other staff or the new owner.

Start planning early!

3.    Setup the Business as if you are going to Franchise it.

Who wants to buy a business that relies solely upon the current owner – the person who wants to sell and walk away from the business?

A well-systematized business is attractive to prospective buyers who see the potential to own a business that runs smoothly using systems and, importantly, can run without their personal input.

A business that can be run under management attracts a premium price when it comes time to sell.

4.    Lock in your Senior Staff – The most Important People in the Business:

If your senior staff aren’t in a position to be buying the business, you need to lock them in some way.  Best thing to do is talk to them and keep them fully informed.

Keep them up-to-date with developments in the sales process and make sure they understand where they will fit in after a successful sale.  Consider introducing bonuses contingent on a successful sale.

5.    The Customer Database – Your Pot of Gold:

This is what will add value to your sale price.  Think about it from the buyer’s perspective, they are buying a business that with the hope that the customers continue to deal with them.

By developing a detailed database of your customers you will be giving them more confidence that they can manage the client relationships after you have gone.

6.    Formalize Everything – Agreements:

Get all loose agreement in writing.  Start with your employment agreements.  Develop up-to-date agreements that lay out the terms and conditions under which your staff are employed.

Put agreements in place with your suppliers and customers as well.  These should include trading terms, pricing contracts and any other “verbal” arrangements.

7.    Ensure you have the Best Looking Financials:

You should aim to be able to show three years of constant growth, with healthy-looking financials.  Clean up any personal items that could be questionable as business expenses – this will improve your profit figures.

Clear up all outstanding debtors – this will improve your cashflow figures.  Reduce any excessive spending and make the business look as profitable and attractive as possible.

8.    Get a Business Coach to give you an Outsider’s Perspective:

Clients often come to me looking for someone outside the business to assist them with the eight steps above.  They are GREAT business managers, but may never have been through the business sales process before.

An experienced business coach will not only provide you with advice to keep you on the right track, but also the motivation and confidence to see the project through.

Many people wake up one day, fed up with their business and then hurriedly attempt to sell it.  This doesn’t work.  Plan it two to five years in advance so that you get the best outcome.

Follow the eight steps above and you will be rewarded for the many years you spent building your business.

Posted in business coaching, profit maximising, selling your business | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

How to get things done… putting First things First

Posted on January 10, 2011 by ACBSEadmin

Whenever we are looking to improve our business we look at a number of areas and often start at looking to improve sales or marketing or our employees or improving our production, I believe we should look at ourselves first.

To improve your business you must take the following steps:

1.    Values and purpose

2.    Vision and Mission

3.    Goals

4.    Plan

5.    Take action

Values and Purpose.

What are your personal values, if you are not sure you must find out, the best way to find out is to spend some time by yourself and ask the following questions, what do I want my family, friends, community, employees (team members) and customers to remember me for, what do I want them to say about me.

When you have done this write them down and prioritise them and read them often.

What is your purpose in life is the next question, why am I here, why do I do what I do, once again spend some time thinking about this and write it down.

When you have completed this you can now sit down with your family and do the same for the family’s values and purpose, and after this you do the same for your business and get total involvement from your team.

You now have common values and purpose.

Vision and Mission.

What is your vision and mission for your personal life, your family and finally your business. Here you must find out the end, how will it all look like when it is complete, where will I live what will I own, where do I go for my holidays, what will my family have and what will they do, what will my business look like, how many team members will I have how many branches will I have.

Write all of this down and look at it often, you may say this will change from time to time and yes it will and therefore you must regularly change it.

Goals

You can now set your long term and short term goals this needs to be aligned to your values, purpose and vision and mission.

Plan

You can now plan on how you are going to achieve this, planning needs to be in the following order, plan the next 12 months, then break it down in a 90 day plan and after that into a weekly plan, you must plan and review daily, when you do this is your decision, the important thing is that you must do it the same time every day, if you do it in the morning make sure it is every morning and the same if you do it at night or during the day.

Take action

It is now time to put your plan into action and make it happen, this is perhaps the most difficult as our environment will continue to put pressure on us to do the things that others want us to do, it is therefore important to understand that for us to succeed is to do the things that will satisfy our values and purpose, our vision and mission and our life long goals.

Always remember  “We learn from our past, we plan for our future but we must live in the present”

Posted in business coaching, getting things done, planning, success planning | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Goal Setting in Life and Business

Posted on January 3, 2011 by ACBSEadmin

Goal setting is as important in personal life as it is in business. The most common denominator in all the self-help literature and books is the importance of goal setting. We’re told to set long-term goals, short-term goals, lifetime goals and personal goals.

The benefits of Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results orientated, Time-framed (S.M.A.R.T) goals have been written about in self-help books for years. So, it follows that goal setting is obviously a powerful process.

It is about ‘eating the elephant, one bite at a time’ and of turning vision into achievable, actionable things. It’s the common denominator of successful individuals and businesses.

Despite their obvious value, our experience with goals have shown that some are good at setting goals and sticking to them, achieving great results and others can’t keep a New Year’s resolution to stop smoking for two days in a row.

Failure to set goals can be seen as a fear of failure. That is, the blow to our integrity when we don’t reach our goals. When we make and keep commitments, such as setting and achieving goals, it reflects the amount of trust we have in ourselves.

We increase our confidence in ourselves to make and keep commitments to others and ourselves. However, when we don’t achieve our goals we lose confidence in our ability to make and keep commitments and to trust ourselves.

There are many reasons why we don’t achieve our goals. Sometimes the goals we set are unrealistic. New Year’s resolutions are typical examples. Suddenly, we expect to change the way we eat, or the way we exercise just because the calender changes.

It’s like expecting a child that’s never ridden a bike to suddenly jump on and go, or to run a marathon without months of training. These goals are based on illusion with little regard to natural growth. You must be able to crawl before you walk.

So, how do we set and achieve goals? Stephen R.Covey says it best in his book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.”

An example of a S.M.A.R.T. goal might look something like the following.

WHAT

My goal is to maintain a healthy body.

WHY

So that:

I can be fit to do the things I enjoy.

I can be an example to my children in health management.

I can build my personal character strength

HOW

Good Nutrition. I will increase my intake of fresh fruits and vegetables and decrease my intake of sugar, fats, salt and red meat.

Physical. I will exercise aerobically 3 times a week for 30-minute periods.

Focus. I will be aware of my body and look out for any health problems.

Focusing on the smaller, short-term goals and achieving success will give you the confidence to set other goals. So, remember, set your goals based on the S.M.A.R.T. principle to have the best chance of achieving your goals.

Posted in achievement, business coaching, business planning, goal setting | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

If it doesn’t add up, don’t do it.

Posted on December 27, 2010 by ACBSEadmin

Business is all about making a profit, so if your business strategies aren’t adding up to business profits, don’t do it, or do it differently.

To be a business – that is, ‘a commercial, profitable enterprise that works without you’-your business must give a good return on investment plus a full wage for every hour you spend working in your business. You can then pay someone to do your job and the business profits are not affected.

The quote ‘if it doesn’t add up, don’t do it’ can be applied in all areas of your business. Advertising is a prime example. If an ad is run and does not get an immediate response, there is no point in keeping that ad running. It is wasting precious time and money.  Change the ad or where it is running.

Increasing your team must also add up in dollars. Perhaps a business should consider setting training and operating systems in place so juniors can be hired to follow the systems, rather than hiring seniors who have the head knowledge of how it should be done.

Alternately perhaps the business should look at new machinery or technology instead of more team members.

If you want to buy a business the figures also must add up – or have the potential to do so.

Make a list of the criteria the business must fill and make sure this list is filled before you commit yourself. Many people buy into something believing it would fulfil their needs, to discover the figures were inaccurate or did not add up. If you are not sure, get help. Two heads are better than one, and prevention is better that cure.

A great idea when looking at a business is to check the industry average and see how your business compares with the average. Given that four out of five businesses go broke in the first five years, you may want to be better than average.

Finally the bottom line where your figures must add up is in net profit margin. To get this figure a business must add all expenses, including an appropriate wage for all the hours put in the business plus interest on the capital you put into the business. This will give your real margins.

‘If it doesn’t add up, don’t do it” must be applied regularly. Don’t wait until the end of the financial year to find if you have made a profit. Business is work, but it should also be fun.

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Leadership… Who’s driving your business?

Posted on December 20, 2010 by ACBSEadmin

When business performance needs to be improved it may well be wise to start the improvement process by first exploring the source of the leadership in that business. From my coaching experience I have found in many instances, that where a business is not performing the leadership direction is unclear and is not understood by the team.

Leadership is about painting a current picture of the future in the form of a vision. The common thing in all of the great leadership stories of the world is the ability to create that vision and then be able to share that vision with the people.

Leadership is a powerful creative tool and when embraced by business owners, has immense impact on the success that can be obtained in that business.

Managers in corporations have been guided by this concept for some time and for ‘tomorrow’s leaders’ the following has been written.

“Every executive, every manager, to fulfil the role, must have a vision – a vision of where the organization will be and what it will look like in the future.

They must create that vision and then share it with those reporting to them, if they are to gain a high level of employee involvement and commitment and attain a high level of productivity”

Anon

So it is in business. To succeed, the business owner must paint the picture and be willing to share that vision with the team.  It is from this beginning that so many success stories have evolved. It is in the absence of this beginning that so many businesses have failed.

Who is driving your business? It is in this area of business development that the small to medium size business owner will be challenged when the future direction becomes unclear because of rapid and continual changes occurring within the market place, and the speed of the change generated by the technological age that we live in.

Excellence in the level of service demanded by the customer today increases as you meet the level of his expectations of yesterday. The need to continue to deliver to the market place, a product or service that is better today then it was yesterday, will challenge the visions that the leader will create and the team will receive.

Low team moral, absenteeism and resignations are some signs that leadership has become engulfed and is in need of repair.

Increasingly, business coaches are encountering business owners who seek the help necessary to refocus and to reignite the vision for success. With the guidance provided by the experienced coaches at Action International located throughout Australia, many business owners are able to regain that leadership so vital for their success.

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