21 Steps to Having a Positive Impact on Your Business

In 1859 The Tale of Two Cities was published. Written by Charles Dickens the novel described the disruptive situation in 18th century England as well as in France. The novel begins with the line: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times….”

As we came to the close of 2022 where many of us thought it would be a better year than the chaos and destruction of 2020/21 caused by the pandemic, we are left with possibly the same thoughts as Dickens had in the 18th century. Perhaps we have experienced the worst of times in 2020 and 2021 and if we reframe it, possibly the best of times because it has caused up to rethink and refocus our efforts. What if we are about to experience the best of times in 2023/24? Despite the economy in 2020 and 2021, there were several businesses, that continued to survive and some that did very well. If we want 2023/24 to be the best of times, then we need to rethink some key aspects of business and how we operate on a day-to-day basis. Things have changed, the world has changed, the supply chain has changed, nothing is what it once was and may not be again. As I have suggested previously, disruption is the norm, and learning to navigate these changing times will make your business stronger.

Despite all the disruption and all the changes there are still many fundamental principles that if followed can assure moving our businesses from surviving to thriving, making 2023/24 our best year ever.

Here are twenty-one key principles that if followed could potentially turn the worst of times into the best of times for your business.

Have a Clear Strategy: Strategy is about meeting your customers needs. Those needs may have changed and if you have not talked with your customers in some time to make sure you are in alignment with their needs, now is the time to do so. You can’t assume that it will be business as usual. Communicate with your customers, ask them how you can better meet their needs and how you can add more value. Strategy is about finding what your customer needs are then organizing your business to meet those needs in the most efficient and effective way possible.

Have a Vision: Success depends on having clarity of direction. Clarity of where the business is going provides a picture of the future and the opportunity to set the course to get there. Without this clarity of direction, the business will meander aimlessly off course and likely will not even meet short-term let alone long-term performance goals. Every journey starts with a clear vision of where you are currently, and where you want to be in the future. It is not any different in business. Successful businesses have clarity of direction and a compelling vision for their organization.

Communicate Your Vision: It does no good if you have taken the time to clarify your vision if it is not communicated to your staff, so they know where the business is headed. One of the most common problems I see in business is the lack of a clear direction as to where the business is headed and an ineffective job communicating that vision to their staff and employees.  Communication of the vision is how you get everyone within your organization headed in the same direction. You cannot over communicate the vision of the organization. A well thought out vison that has been clearly communicated will ensure that everyone is facing the same direction.

Develop Goals: To bridge the gap between your current state and your desired future, you need goals and action plans. Goals set the milestones to make sure you are on the path and stay on the path towards your vision. Without goals it is too easy to get off course and get lost. Goals allow you to chunk down your vision into more manageable pieces that everyone can understand. Goal setting marks your path and keeps you on track.

Know Your Customer: It is imperative that you get to know your customer and who they are. It’s impossible to meet their needs and add value if you don’t know who they are. Not everyone should be your customer. You should be strategic as to who your ideal customer is and how you can have a positive impact on them. You accomplish that by communicating with them. I have found far too many business owners who wait for the customer to reach out to them rather than the other way around. If you are not communicating with your customers, you can bet your competitors are. Don’t wait for the phone to ring, call your customers, check in on them, see how they are doing, offer to help them. Focused communication builds relationships.

Organizational Structure: All great companies have a clearly outlined organizational structure to operate from that is understood by everyone within the organization. By doing so, they create a clear and consistent chain of authority and eliminate confusion. Every organization needs a structure to help determine how decisions will be made and who will be held accountable for results. Think of your organizational chart like an accountability chart that defines who reports to whom.

Update Your Leadership Skills: If you are operating with the same leadership skills you learned 10, 20 or 30 years ago, you are missing the boat. Outdated leadership skills will not suffice in today’s economy and what it takes to lead the younger labor force. The days of command and control are gone. People want to be lead and you can’t lead if you have not upgraded your skill set. In fact, you potentially will be holding the company back from achieving all that is possible. You become the bottleneck for success. There are so many great leadership books, classes and online learning opportunities, there is no excuse for relying on outdated leadership styles.

Develop Your Management Team: Nothing of any great significance is every accomplished alone. You need good people around you to help your organization reach new heights of success. Spend the time, energy, and resources to develop your management team. You cannot do it alone you need good people and the more highly trained they are the more efficient and effective they will be. Think of your business like a sports team, you need “A” players to win the game.

Attract and Retain Talent: The ability to attract and retain talent is critical to your success. All successful businesses need good people and once you have those good people in place, you need to be able to retain them. As a business owner, you must have the ability to leverage other people’s time, talent, and energy to grow your business. Learn how to interview, onboard, train, review performance, and retain to create a successful organization.

Have a Marketing Plan: Marketing is about sowing seeds to capture someone’s attention and get the potential customer to notice you. Marketing needs to be focused less on your mythology and what you do and more on what are the benefits and results for those who will purchase your product or service. A marketing plan communicates and educates your target audience on the advantages, value, and results of doing business with you.

Have a Sales Plan: If you want to be effective at selling to the potential customer you attract via marketing, it is necessary to have a plan for engaging this potential customer on how you will meet their needs. The reason you create a sales plan, is to generate consistent results. Having a clearly documented sales process will ensure your consistent success.

Revenue Growth: Revenue growth is a proactive activity. If you are having cash flow problems, it usually means you lack effective marketing and sales since cash flow is a lagging indicator. You cannot wait for business to come to you; you must go out and get it. It is no longer possible to sit around and wait for the phone to ring. Call your customers, engage them in conversation, let them know you care and ask them how you can help them to be successful.

Develop Processes and Procedures: Any organization that wants to excel and rise above the competition will develop documented processes and procedures to create consistency as to how work gets done. Without documented processes and procedures, we tend to get randomness, which is the enemy of efficiency. All processes are made up of a variety of functions and we cannot improve the whole without improving the various parts. Process improvement is necessary to be competitive in the marketplace and it starts by having well documented processes and procedures.

Standard Work: Creating standard work procedures is the foundation for organizational improvement. Standard work represents the current understanding of the best way or the right way to perform work to create consistent results, eliminating confusion and chaos. Analyzing how you are currently performing work, looking for waste within your systems and processes and eliminating that waste allows you to create a more linear flow. This becomes your standard way of performing work moving forward and increases your ability to improve throughput.

Value Stream Map Your Business: Value Stream Mapping is fundamental to business success. It is a practical and highly effective way to see, and resolve disconnects, redundancies, and gaps in how work gets done. It is a path towards outstanding performance. A value stream is a sequence of activities required to design, produce, and deliver goods or services to your customer. Value stream mapping offers a view of how work flows through the entire system allowing you to remove waste, disconnects, redundancies and gaps in your processes and procedures.

Increase Your Capacity: Capacity is the productive capability of the organization to achieve a specific output of products or services within a given period. Capacity is typically measured as a quantity of output per unit of time. Capacity planning is critical to an organization’s success. If the company has too much capacity, its inventory levels can rise, or it may underuse its workforce and equipment. If the company has too little capacity, it can lose customers to the competition because of the lack of ability to meet demand. Capacity decisions are important because increasing capacity usually involves a large capital outlay. Maximizing capacity through value stream and process mapping increases throughput and reduces cost per unit.

Know Your Numbers: The numbers drive everything in your business. Without a complete understanding of your numbers, you cannot effectively evaluate how your business is doing. It’s not possible to grow and sustain your business managing it from your checkbook. You need to learn the language of business which is accounting. You don’t have to be an accountant to own and operate a business, but you do need basic accounting skills. Doing business without understanding your numbers is a bit like driving a car without dashboard instruments. You may think you are going 70 mph when you are only doing 35 mph. Or you think you have a full tank of gas, but it’s only one-quarter full. You don’t know and are putting your business in jeopardy.

Metrics: Create line-item metrics for your business. What is Cost of Goods Sold as a percentage of revenue? What are your line item expenses as a percentage of gross profit? How do this compare to your last year? The year before? How do these compare to your very best year ever? Measuring and tracking these metrics allow you to develop trend lines as how your business is doing compared to previous years and your best year ever. These trend lines allow you to ask better questions to make better decisions.

Know your Banker: If you want your business to be successful in good times and in bad, then build a relationship with your banker. There are times in business where the relationship with your banker will keep you going. Your banker wants you to be successful and they can be a valuable resource to help you achieve that success. They understand business and they also understand that business does not always go as planned. Establishing a relationship with your banker before times get tough can help you navigate tough times in business. 

Advisors: Get a business consultant, advisor, or coach to help you see what you cannot see. An outside perspective can be critical to your success. Most successful individuals and businesses engage advisors to help them navigate the challenges of business. Look for consultants or advisors that have actual real world business experience, not those who have taken a two-week course on how to be a business coach. Nothing can surpass the individual who has been in the trenches of business in good times and bad to help give you guidance and advice from a non-emotional perspective.

Get Intensely Focused: Many people underestimate the power of intense focus. Everyday businesses are burning through cash due the lack of focus. Studies have shown that the U.S economy is losing approximately $997 billion every year because of constant distractions and 89% or employees do not complete their top three task each day due to distractions. Every time we get distracted it takes considerable time to get refocused losing productivity in the process.

Focused water at 60,000 psi will cut through 2” of steel. Imagine what you could do, and your staff and employees could accomplish if they eliminated the distractions and got intensely focused. Think about what the highest and best use of your time is, the 20 percent that generates the 80 percent of results and get intensely focused on that 20 percent.

Having a successful year next year depends on you the business owner and leader. If the business is doing well or not doing well, it comes down to effective leadership. Applying these twenty-one steps and others that a good consultant could help you with could turn the worst of times into the best of times for your business and your life.

If you would like to know more and ensure a successful year moving forward, reach out to me. Your first hour consultation is free, and you are guaranteed to come away with some useful information to help you get on the path to success.

www.garyfurrconsulting.com

garyfurr@garyfurrconsulting.com

503-312-3145