How to regain Control over your Business

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All of us are running well-oiled business machines – right?!

Of course not – we all have times when we feel out of control – when it seems like we have created a business monster that is controlling us and is never satisfied.

Some of us seem to go from ‘feast to famine’ – one moment we can’t keep up, and the next we don’t seem to have anything we need to do

Even big businesses that you would think must have it all under control by now are not as great as you might think looking in from outside!

So how do we start to gain back control from the monster we have created?

Perhaps a time management course is the answer? – well it might help and it is important to manage your time but we need to look at some fundamentals first

Controlling a business is about doing the Right things and doing things Right

It is a continuous cycle of things we need to build into habits – it consist mainly of Direction, Focus, Goal Setting, working out what it takes to get there, making time every day to move towards that goal and reviewing performance against that goal regularly and adapting as necessary

We have covered Direction and Focus in two other slides where we understood the importance of strong shared core values and core purpose, and also the importance of focusing on something scalable with the right cash flow model.

• Now we need to set ourselves a challenge – what are we shooting for? If we know what we are aiming for then we can decide whether we are on track and whether what we are doing will directly help us get there

Try this exercise: Imagine a journalist is doing a write-up of your business in 10 years time.

1. Who are they working for (local newspaper, National, International?...).

2. What are the key things they are saying – • what are you known for, • what milestones have you reached, • what awards have you won, • what do your employees think, • how big are you (turnover, staff), • what kind of customers have you got and how many, • what kind of products and services are you providing, • where are your offices/ premises, are they owned or

leased………

Take the 5 or so most exciting snippets and convert them into a powerful description of your business in 10 years’ time.

Now you have this – can you pick out a ‘stretch’ goal? Something that is linked back to the core purpose. This can be numbers based or more qualitative:

• Become a £1m turnover business with 20% net profits by year 10

• Become the business most known in your area for helping SMEs build on-line relationships

• Be seen as the Rolls Royce of catering equipment industry in the UK

So how’s this helping me with control you ask?

Well now we have a goal that is linked back to our core purpose and values, and we have agreed our focus; we can start to work out what we must do to get there – which means we can start to control what needs to be done.

• We need to make time each day to work on the things that need doing – because they will move us a step closer to our goal.

So if you want to gain control – you need to know what things are important and work on them, and you need to recognise what things are less important and find other ways to get them done

If you get in the habit of asking “Will it move me closer to my goal?” then you will begin to regain control

If you develop some measures linked to your goal (e.g number of meetings held with prospects per month, number of telephone calls, number of new clients, average sale per client etc) then you can track progress each month – and adjust as you go along!

Simples!

•Need a sounding board for your ideas?•Need to know what to prioritise?•Want someone to challenge your assumptions?

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