I was speaking to a business owner recently who was feeling very despondent and discouraged. She had taken a week off to go on an overseas holiday with her husband to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

When she got back, she spent most of her time mopping up staff issues and client complaints.

“I’m never going away again,” she moaned.

So we started to discuss effective time management strategies.

It turns out she had been burnt so many times before by unreliable staff that she hung on to a lot of the work, intellectual property and information the rest of the team needed to function effectively while she was away. She was always feeling stressed out and tired (hence the reason for the trip to the tropics) yet didn’t delegate what she needed to and managed her time poorly.

No wonder it all fell apart!

She realised it wasn’t everyone else’s fault. She had helped contribute to the mess and had some inner work and personal development to do.

Sometimes we get sucked into the vortex of busy-ness that we forget to strategically look at the way we PERSONALLY manage ourselves.

So let’s look at the importance of working on your personal development as an entrepreneur.

What skills do you need to ensure you grow personally so your business can grow professionally?

 

1. Effective time management 

This is a big one for many business owners. Very few truly understand the value of their time (that is, what it’s worth when they invest it well), very few plan their time effectively and very few have the techniques and discipline to stick to those plans!

Delegation, being organised, running effective meetings that get to the point and up-skilling staff are all simple strategies a business can use to claw back time in their day. Actually planning your time to ensure that the important things get done and then sticking to that plan as though your life depended on it (because your quality of life does!) are just the starting point.  In the end, you want to get your business to the point where it runs efficiently if you are there or not.

Or in Hawaii.

That is the goal. And effective time management is a vital step on the road to getting there.

 

2. Know your limits

Having self-awareness around your own skills, knowledge and limitations helps you manage your own expectations.

Many business owners think they can do it all. That way of thinking will lead to failure, burnout and breakdown.

The most successful business people in the world have a team of advisors and specialists around them. They’re smart enough to know where their knowledge stops and someone else’s starts.

The best ones actively recruit people who are better than them…at least in some areas….and then go out of their way to support and develop those team members even further.

 

3. Open to growth

My way or the highway! Who’s worked with somebody like that before? Or the finger-pointer? When something goes wrong, they are the first to blame everybody else instead of looking at the situation as an opportunity to learn something.

Being closed to criticism, opportunities for growth and new ways of doing things will keep a person and a business stagnant.

Albert Einstein said it best. “Once you stop learning, you start dying.”

 

4. Alignment of beliefs with actions

Have you heard of the Be Do Have formula?  If you want to have certain outcomes then you’re going to have to do certain things.  If you want to do those things effectively, then you’re going to have to become the right sort of person.

To achieve the results you want to achieve, do you have the habits of someone who achieves those sorts of results?  Similar beliefs?  Values?  Skills?  Start by looking inside you and deciding what sort of person you need to become and work out how you’ll become that sort of person.

 

5. Positive mindset

Let’s look at Richard Branson and his outlook on life. One of the reasons he is so successful is because he has a wonderful positive mindset. He has fun. He doesn’t take life too seriously and he encourages all of his employees to follow his lead.

A positive mindset does wonders for a person’s mental, emotional and physical health.  It accelerates the speed at which your brain processes.  It keeps us motivated.  It keeps those around us motivated.  What are you doing every day to ensure that you have a positive mindset?

Whether it’s a daily review of your dreams, goals and plans, a daily meditation, daily affirmations and visualisations or another technique, there are simple steps you can take to ensure that your mind is positive and that you can enjoy the value of that.

If you need some assistance with effective time management or other elements of your business, why not book in a FREE Coaching call today.

 

We’ve spoken about organic growth before and why it’s a great fit for SME’s.

Organic growth strategies focus on using the company’s own assets, energy and resources to expand the business as opposed to growing the company through a merger or acquisition strategy.

The thing to remember is organic growth is just one aspect of growing a business and tends to be linear and measured in percentages. For example, a sales and marketing strategy may be measured by a 20% increase in sales revenue.

But if you’re keen to grow your business at a faster rate, there are strategies available that will deliver leap-frog growth.

Leap-frog growth is stepped growth measured in multiples. If you’d like to grow your business 20 times faster, rather than by 20%, this approach could be the answer.

So what strategies do entrepreneurs who are looking for leap-frog growth implement?

Mergers, acquisitions or partnership strategies are the most common. Bear in mind that, while these can deliver huge growth, they all come with risks as well.  The majority of mergers destroy value…so be sure to research, get expert advice on how best to go about and manage these strategies and make sure a strategy such as this works with your business model before taking any action. As a general principle, do not simply start with a “plan to grow through acquisition”…be sure to have a clear strategy for your business first and then, if appropriate, use acquisitions as one tool to help deliver on the strategic plan.

 

1. Mergers & Acquisitions 

A merger usually involves combining two companies into a single larger company and can deliver benefits including better economies.

Far more common are acquisitions, which take place when a stronger company purchases or takes over a smaller, sometimes weaker organisation. For example, Proctor & Gamble’s acquisition of Gillette. This can be hugely beneficial and is one of the strongest leap-frog growth strategies.

Why? Because of the sweeping benefits an acquisition can bring. Acquiring specialised skillsets, business intelligence and industry knowledge and IP helps improve your organisation’s own skill base.  Being able to access funds, valuable assets, new development, better production or distribution facilities are often less expensive to buy than build.

Smart acquisitions can also save an entrepreneur a lot of time and money. For example, if you are wanting to expand your business in a certain geographical area, perhaps acquiring a company that already operates in that region is a smarter use of capital.

Accessing a wider customer base, diversification of products and services can also improve the long term prospects of your business. Reducing costs and overheads through shared administrative, financial and marketing budgets help lower costs. You can also increase purchasing power through an acquisition strategy and reduce competition by buying up new intellectual property, products or services.

 

2. Partnerships 

There is less risk involved in a business partnership strategy but can still provide leap-frog growth. There are a number of different types of business partnerships. Financial, marketing and expert partnerships are a great way to get a business moving forward in steps.

Examples of business partnerships include companies working together on a marketing strategy. For example, an airline and a hotel chain working with a cruise ship company to market fly/stay/cruise packages to customers. This is a smart use of marketing budgets and channelling all the customers from all three companies into one marketing funnel.

There is also a cash injection partnership that can help move a business from static to stratospheric quickly. Think about the television shows such as Shark Tank  or The Dragon’s Den where companies offer up a percentage of ownership of their business in return for the expertise and networks of the ‘Sharks’ or ‘Dragons’. This sort of exposure to high levels of business acumen can catapult business growth.

One of the success stories from The Dragon’s Den was the Generating Company. Two of the Dragon’s took 40% of the business for an investment of 160,000 pounds. A big investment, but since then The Generating Company has secured some big time clients such as BBC and Audi.

It comes down to research, planning and effective execution. Is a merger, acquisition or partnership the right move for your business right now? And if it is, how can you maximise the return on investment so your company experiences leap-frog growth increasing by 20 times the size instead of 20%?

Leap-frog growth strategies make you considerably more money at a considerably faster pace than organic growth, as long as they are well conceived in the first place and well managed in their execution.

It’s exciting.

And it’s smart.

If you’re ready to leap forward, Quantum Leap Your Business here.  Click here to find out more about the 6 Steps to Building a Better Business Workshop.

 

Imagine using these words to describe your business. Respected and valued. Highly profitable. Experiencing explosive organic growth.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Imagine if OTHER people described it back to you that way. That would sound even sweeter!

So what is organic growth and how can you harness it?

An organic growth strategy focuses on using the company’s own assets, energy and resources to expand the business as opposed to growing the company through major capital outlays, significant strategic shifts or a merger or acquisition strategy.  When you choose which elements will help your business grow, plan them out properly, execute the plan diligently and multiply the effect the results can be enormous. And the great news is, there is no silver bullet or rocket science involved! Small simple steps can provide massive growth.

What sales and marketing tools could you use to grow your business?

Did you know that there are approx. 350 ways you can grow your business? Excited yet? When we work with clients there is an overarching model we use that includes 5 ways to grow the business, each of which has about 70 strategies you can use to do that.

So, let’s look at these sales and marketing strategies that will lead to organic growth.  What are the 5 key ways you can start growing your business today:

 

1. Generate more Leads 

One of the simplest ways to achieve organic growth is to build on the customer base you already have. Happy customers are walking advertisements for your business whatever it may be. How can you leverage your existing customer base to bring in more leads?

Here’s an example:

A hairdressing business increased turnover from $2,300 a week to over $4,000 a week within two months by adding a referral promotion to a customer survey they conducted. They obtained an average of just under one referral per existing client. The referral was contacted and booked in for a half price haircut which brought a number of new clients to the business quickly almost doubling their turnover. By using a proactive referral strategy you can really grow your existing database exponentially.

What about the people that don’t know about you yet? How are people finding you? How can you get them more interested in what you have to offer? How can you capture that interest so that you can start building a relationship with these potential clients?

 

2. Generate more sales for the business

Many clients we work with are fantastic landscapers, interior designers, plumbers, graphic designers – whatever their specialty is, they’re very very good at it.

What they struggle with is running a business and certainly taking it to the next level, growing it and developing it.

One of the first areas we review is the lead conversion process for the business.  How many businesses actually have a documented sales process that can help them convert those leads into actual customers? Not a lot. A lot of business owners “wing” the sales process and hope that the client actually likes them enough or needs their product or service so they will purchase.  Yet having a dedicated sales strategy can take all the pressure off and arm you and your sales teams with the right tools to help more clients understand why they need your products and services.

 

3. Repeat Business and recurring sales

You’ve heard the stat…”it’s 6 times easier and cheaper to get a past customer to buy again than to find a new one”.

Working with a dedicated coach who focuses you on the opportunity if creating products and services that encourage clients to buy off you more often is a great way to build your business a lot quicker. After all these people already like what you do!

What other elements of your business can you offer existing clients that complements the first product or service they purchased and how can you encourage them to buy off you more frequently? Upselling and repeat business are a quick and great way to increase your revenue. Often take less time and money from a conversion perspective and add value to your bottom line.

 

4. Increasing the Average Dollar Value per Sale

We often see business owners not billing for work that has actually been completed, high levels of discounting so as not to ‘upset’ the client who isn’t prepared to pay full price and undervaluing their own skills and knowledge.

What’s the side effect of this? You’ll end up bankrupt!

What would happen if you increased the value of each sale by just 10%? It’s not a big jump right? That could come from well-implemented price increases.  Or from a better range of “packages”.  Or from some simple “up-selling scripts”.  Or from any of about 70 other ways of increasing your average transaction value.   In what areas of your business could you apply this to? One simple step can make a big difference to the bottom line.

There’s more good news. If you increased your efforts by as little as 15% on all of the five steps we are outlining here, you would double your profit.  Yes, they all multiply together.  Are you starting to see the real value now of how each of these steps can help you grow exponentially? But wait there’s one more.

 

5. Increasing your Net Profit Margin

By working diligently to plan and execute the strategies above, assuming your fixed costs don’t grow at the same rate, your net profit margin will increase by default. By using strategies that your Business Coach can work with you on, you can increase this even further.

Remember when we said at the beginning that there are over 70 strategies that you could use for each of these steps? We weren’t kidding. What other strategies could you apply to your Net Profit Margin to keep the arrow pointing up on your growth chart? This is where a Business Coach can really help.

Traditionally, organic growth is viewed as a slower path to progress and growth but it can actually be a smart, savvy and simple way to increase profits swiftly and progressively.

The first key? Using sales and marketing tools that build value on to your current model without adding debt to the bottom line.

The second key? Having a business coach that specialises in organic growth strategies and a tailored approach to get you there.

Because….

“If your business isn’t growing, it’s dying.” Brad Sugars

If you are excited by the above haven’t registered yet for the 6 Steps to Building a Better Business Workshop then you can do so here.  We look forward to seeing you there.

 

Think about some of the quality brands that are out there. You know the ones. Those companies that are synonymous with quality and excellent value for money (without being cheap). Those businesses who have made such a strong service connection with their customers that price isn’t even an issue anymore.

You know who they are. Wouldn’t you love to have your company name front of mind like that?

Well, it is absolutely possible and do-able. And you’ll be surprised by how something as simple as pricing can start you off on the right foot.

Getting the pricing of your product or service right takes practice but when you get it right, the impact on your business is huge. Improved margins, happy customers and clients who don’t haggle or ask for discounts, less work for more money. How good does that sound?

Many start-up businesses fall into the trap of competing on price. In fact, many businesses who have been around for years also make the mistake of dropping prices when competitors come onto the market.

It’s a dangerous strategy. Not only does it decrease those all-important margins and put the cash flow of the business at risk, but it also runs the risk of damaging the way your brand is perceived by the customer.

You can overcome this by intentionally building the right proposition and executing on the right strategies to charge a premium price. If you deliver the goods (both literally and metaphorically) to your client and they see the value in your product or service, they will return, regardless of price.

Price simply doesn’t become a factor in the purchasing decision when you execute the right proposition well.

Let’s look at a graphic design company as an example. A small business that started with one person grew to ten employees working out of a small office in the eastern suburbs. As the company grew, the owner started to compete with other design businesses on price focusing on providing logos and banner design for small to medium sized businesses.

The logos were running out the door! But at a very cheap price. The graphic design company was providing a basic service. They were completely overlooking the opportunity to be perceived as a strategic partner by their clients. Instead they were a logo sausage factory!

A change in direction saw the owner focus on providing ‘brand packages’ to start-ups. This service incorporated multiple products and a key consulting role – logo design, website design, social media branding, signage and the design of printed and marketing materials.

By doing this and by including face to face consulting time with their clients, the graphic design company were perceived by their clients as DESIGN EXPERTS, not just the guy down the road who will create a logo for you for $50.

They created the right proposition for their clients. They created a solution for their clients and they executed it at a smart and strategic level, charging a premium price for the service.

The result? A team of designers working on products and services that provided a higher rate of return on margins AND a list of satisfied and returning clients that did not blink at the cost of the service.

The perceived value of what the company offered had increased.

Along with their profits.

If you want to know how you can sort out the pricing products and service piece in your business, check out the 6 Steps to Building a Better Business Workshop.