Do you demotivate your people?

Is this how your staff spend their days?

You are human and by definition you will make mistakes.

Your employees, suppliers and customers will understand this as they are human too.

If you want to get better productivity and loyalty out of people then there are a number of things you should do.

Make sure that the business you are in is easy for everyone to understand.  That is, have a simple statement of what you do, and that can be the guiding principle for everyone to follow. Keep this statement in plain English that you don’t need and MBA to understand.

Be open with everyone and communicate both the good and the bad news. Communicating the bad news can be difficult at times as if you appear despondent or emotional you can fracture your staff’s morale on the spot. 

You need to appear confident that you can get through it all and that you are presenting a problem to be solved mutually.

Communicating the good and the bad news also means giving performance appraisals. You need to provide boundaries to people, but not provide constant oversight. If you maintain the boundaries but otherwise leave people to get on with their job then you will come to a pretty good balance. Criticize your staff to often and not only will you destroy morale but you are also leading by example so your staff will criticize each other too.

Delegate and mean it. Don’t jump back in and finish things off. If something really is time and mission critical don’t delegate it in the first place. Also don’t delegate too much to a new start – you will overwhelm. Let them learn step by step the smaller pieces so they work up to taking on bigger tasks.

The hours you work as the company founder can create an issue too. Remember that most of your people will have come out of a conventional corporate culture. So if you are coming in late and going early they will resent it, especially if they know you were taking time out to play golf or go water skiing. If you do take time to yourself then keep the details to yourself.

Never do something just because others are too

Yes, I know this contradicts what I often say about looking at your successful competitors and deliberately looking similar.

Which one are you?

The point of distinction I would make to you is that you shouldn’t copy high risk changes to your business. Let me explain.

Big company CEOs are often not very creative. Many are good at running large systems – which is what large companies are. They are not necessarily very good at knowing how to grow the business.

What tends to happen is that they often copy each other. It doesn’t really matter whether the source of influence is their peers, the media or management consultants – the underlying assumption is that if their competitors are doing something then they must have looked at all the issues so it must be okay for them to do the same.

Unfortunately the comfort that comes from running with the crowd can turn out to be based on mass delusion.

You as the owner of a smaller company don’t have the cash flow cushion necessary to survive a dumb decision. When looking at your competitor’s new strategy consider your own experiences in the market. Are they tapping into a known sector with willing buyers with the money to spend?

It may well be worth letting them prove that the idea works or not, then sweep in and take market share.

When you do take risks, take calculated risks based on your own understanding of the market. Also, try out new ideas as a trial or pilot to see if they work first.

Are you cooking something without all the ingredients?

Business is uncertainty.

When you make a decision it is not possible to have all the information you require at a good level of accuracy.

On the other hand, sometimes you can be missing vital information too.

Typically this kind of thing comes up in negotiations – whether with employees, suppliers or customers.

One of the ways you can check for this is by looking at how long it is taking to prepare an offer or contract terms.

If you are taking a long time, and thinking a lot about some key details while trying to guess what it is that the other party wants, then you are probably trying to cook something without all the ingredients.

Try listing out all the basic information you need and highlight what you don’t know. Then call up the other party and ask them.

Otherwise, it is too easy to make presumptions which may not be true.

Also, for those out there with a university education you are likely to take longer to make a decision than someone without university qualifications, so check that you aren’t looking for too much information.

Franchises are good, franchises are bad

Buying a franchise is a straightforward way to get into business. You sign up and they give you the trappings of the business right up front.

The business model has been proved, and they are effectively providing new and updated IP and product through the economies of scale and efficiency available through having multiple branches.

For you as a business owner it takes a lot of the uncertainty out of what you are doing. Even better, there is already an existing brandname and market awareness. This is a lot easier than starting from scratch.

If you are in fast food or retail landlords are more likely to allow you to rent a good location in a good shopping centre when you are part of a growing franchise.

Most Master Franchisors are good business people who want you to succeed and will work to help ensure ongoing success.

The flipside is that there can be a high cost to buy in – the upfront fee. Then you usually have to pay quite a bit for fitout, promotional material, training, and ongoing materials.

The Franchisor does not guarantee that your chosen location will succeed. You still need to choose well, and I have seen friends come undone and end up in massive debt through picking the wrong market. This is especially true for international franchises coming into a new country where the business model is untested.

If you are one of the initial handful of franchisees then you can expect to be sharing some of the growing pains and may find your business changing rapidly – make sure you talk openly with the franchisor about this upfront.

Longevity of a franchise is an issue to consider too. The Master Franchisor can grow too fast and end up in over their head both in terms of administration and debt.

Keep your eye on these things and cover your risks where you can.

Be a little wary of service franchises which are effectively asking you to pay a large upfront fee to be given a branded business card and a stationary set to quote and bill clients, with the promise of business referrals. 

Often those kinds of business have very few barriers to entry and for a tiny fraction of the franchise fee you can set up your own business in this same area. Make sure the franchisor is really offering something.

In other words, franchises can be great and they can also go wrong – there are no guarantees in the world of business.

Make your product easy to buy

Your customers aren't this dedicated.

This has several levels of meaning.

First and foremost, customers have to know that your product exists.

Next, they need to know how to contact you.

Then they need to be able to buy it. This is where things can break down.

If there is one thing I can say to you, it is keep things simple. Your business systems need to make life easy for your customers.

Here are a few examples.

• Respond to queries by emails immediately, answer questions, send product information and offer to send out your sales representative ASAP.
• Offer only a couple of choices, and clearly differentiate them on features and price.
• Bundle features where you can. Bundles are better than too many choices.
• Have your contracts and standard terms and conditions ready and send them out.
• Have a price list and quote as soon as you can.
• Try being a mystery shopper of your own product. Call up and see how easy it is to get to someone who can tell you about the product and how to buy.
• Make your bundles and offerings similar to your competitors so it easy for buyers to differentiate.
• Keep the online purchase system mainstream and easy to use.
• Provide plenty of details for those who buy online.
• Contact details, addresses, web address, etc. should be prominent and repeated in multiple locations. Leave no doubt how they can take action.

Remember, if they contact you they are probably ready to buy, so offer them your attention as soon as you can.

Change the scope not your price

This one goes out to all those of you providing services or consulting.

Is this too much?

One of the main reasons that the majority of small companies fail to grow is that the owner is afraid of not winning business and underprices for work compared to the market. This leaves them as a contractor rather than a consultant or service provider, and they never have the time or cash flow to take on more people.

One of the key principles is that your hourly or daily rate doesn’t change.

Clients are often new to using consulting services and they often don’t know exactly what it is they want.

With experience you will be able to tell what it is that the client needs as opposed to what they are saying they want, however, you need to provide a scope that matches what they are asking for.

By offering what your client is asking for there is a good chance that the price will be too high. This is where things can get tricky.

Now you need to make you client understand that there is a trade-off between scope and price. Offer them less service or a more focussed scope. Keep the focus on the total cost rather than the unit cost.

There is always a risk that the client won’t even come back to you after the initial offer – and we have all been on the receiving end of this frustrating situation. This situation can be rescued if you ring up and indicate you are willing to talk about the scope.

The best gift is trust

A great reflection of modern large corporate life - free your people from this and they will be grateful

Do you want to get the best out of people?

Do you need help from experts when you are starting up but can’t afford to pay?

Do you want to build a good corporate culture that will stay with your company and continue long after you have exited?

Do you want have employees and managers who do the right thing by the business?

If you answer yes to any of the questions above then you need to learn how to trust and how to give that trust.

For many founders this can be hard. I count myself in this category too. If you have given up your secure paid job to take the leap into the great unknown then it is easy to be obsessed with details.

If you want your employees and suppliers to like working with you then you need to give trust.

This doesn’t mean you have to live in a juvenile fantasy world in which everybody does everything on time and perfectly. It means learning to live with imperfections, taking a ‘good enough’ attitude to things and building in extra time for people to go on the learning curve.

Our childhoods are basically about being progressively trusted more and more by our parents and teachers over time. This doesn’t need to stop when working.

Trust your employees with small things that you think they can accomplish then increase what responsibility and trust you give them over time. Some people grow quickly, some less quickly, but they all grow.

People realise that being given trust is increasingly rare in modern companies and if you can do it in such a way that your company doesn’t spiral out of control then you will go far.

Winning at all costs will destroy you

In the movies and on TV there is a lot of emphasis on being a ‘Winner’ and being overly competitive. Half of the reality shows over the last couple of years are about artificially competitive situations where everyone tries to screw everyone else. It’s pretty much a celebration of narcissistic behaviour.

We all have different abilities

This makes great TV, but lousy business – here’s why.

Human beings are cooperative – this is one of the major reasons for our relative dominance on the planet.

Generally speaking we like to get on with other people, we give time and effort to others and we expect the same in return.  When someone just focuses on themselves most societies have words for this – greedy, moocher, etc.

So in everything you do there is a social dimension.

There is only so far you can push suppliers and employees before you destroy morale and your business will self-destruct. You as an individual may be able to push yourself harder and faster, but they can’t.

And trust me when I say you don’t want a business full of people exactly as competitive as you. It’s a fast track to a toxic culture where the ends justify the means and cooperation between your employees evaporates.

Learn to accept that many great people aren’t particularly ambitious or competitive and that these same people will be the bedrock of your growth.

Worry about today – tomorrow can take care of itself

What can you do to help your business today?

Today's harvest is more important than next year's crop

Can you make a call, book a meeting, ask for a sale, run a job ad to take on help, or something.

It will amaze you to see how many friends and well-meaning people will advise you to spend more time working on the business and not in the business. This is a great throw-away line that is singularly unhelpful to anyone who actually runs a business as it doesn’t bring in cash flow in the short term.

Focusing on the present is a good way to stop panicking about tomorrow.

If we only focus on the big picture then we lose focus on what needs to be done now.

Doing your daily tasks should become automatic – just like breathing.

You will find time to examine the big picture and strategic actions, and funnily enough it is by doing the mundane day to day work that you get a clearer sense of what it is that needs to be done.

There are actions that help with sales (i.e. cash flows), then there is supervising and organising your company, and then there is how your company fits in with the competition and the broader market.

Forget tomorrow – what can you do today?

It’ll take three times as long and cost three times as much as you think

Almost nothing ever works out to plan, especially to your business plan – which as I’ve told you before is basically a work of fiction.

Most business plans go down in flames

If you’ve never actually set up a business before, then you are guaranteed to underestimate how long it will take and how much it will cost.

However, I am not sure that many companies would actually start if the owners realised what it would take to get there.

Also, if you spend three times as much money and effort on your original business plan you will only lose three times as much.

When you start trying to sell a product you very quickly realise whether or not it sells. There is nothing as brutal or impartial towards a new business as the market.

Sometimes it really is your explanation or marketing materials. More likely it is something that clients don’t see a need for, or the pricing doesn’t work. Whatever it is that causes problems in sales, if you identify it then you will quickly adapt.

By getting your failures in quickly (also known as the ‘fail fast’ method) then you will be able to refocus your time and precious remaining capital on what actually does sell.

When you get money coming in the door then you can spend any spare cash on growing.

So, stick with your original optimistic plan, but keep in the back of your mind that you need to test the market and any spare funds you have should go towards improving or changing the product or service to what the market actually wants.

Acting the role – don’t mix the role with yourself

You are not your company.

This seems pretty obvious, but most of us mix up our own personality with our company and our job. It’s only human to do so, but long term it gets pretty messy.

Get out there and dance

When you meet with your customers you are acting in the role of salesman or expert.

When you are supervising and delegating you are acting in the role of supervisor or manager.

When you are the CEO you are responsible for decisions and actions that are in the best interest of the company.

These are all roles you need to play, and all of us are in a sense role-playing most of the time. People will respect you acting in those roles because that is what they expect.

Learning to switch these roles on and off is important. It’s not about acting, lying or being distant, this is about doing what should be done in a professional manner.

Learning to take a step back and see your company and people dispassionately is important, and it also helps you untangle yourself from it emotionally.

With practice you will get better at this, and ask your partner and friends to keep an eye on you to remind you to untangle yourself.

Time to jettison the baggage

A lot of the things you do are probably completely irrelevant to the outcomes you are chasing. You may find yourself creating forms and processes for yourself and your employees that are based on what you learned in previous employment.

Are you carrying an unnecessary burden?

There is an assumption of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Business is about putting in the least effort for the desired outcome – the buy low sell high strategy.

During the growth phase of a business procedures and policies are made up on the fly. They are modified where they don’t work, but generally speaking they are effective.  When a company is established the existing procedures somehow become sacred – not to be questioned.

New policies and procedures are added based on experience, and sometimes from bored employees with little else to do. A philosophy of making everything a procedure can take over, and from then on the relationship between procedure and what the business actually does becomes more and more remote.

Now that you have your own company have a good think about the outcomes you are trying to achieve and the behaviours you are trying to encourage. How can you do that without becoming building a large bureaucracy?

Jettison the unneeded processes and those things which create paperwork but are unnecessary. You can make your life and that of your employees a lot better.

Self-help gone mad

We all love reading stories about how to succeed. We do it every day in everything we do. We are always looking for that answer, the method to just fixing up whatever it is we feel we are missing.

Just look what is out there; the detox slimming diet that is the key to long term weight loss; put magnets in your mattress and your backache will go away; subscribe to an infallible betting scheme and you will become a millionaire from betting on the horses.

In business there are self-help books disguised as biographies of the likes of Bill Gates and Richard Branson, Warren Buffet and so on.

There are also case studies about successful businesses.

The implication is that if only we follow their example then we too can be fabulously rich and famous.

If only.

All the success stories and methods for getting rich are based on true stories which are not repeatable. That person was in the right place at the right time with the right attitude and the right product. The exact circumstances are never repeatable.

What you can get out of those books and stories is how those people thought, how they approached the situation, how they dealt with the risks they were facing and what they did to keep going. It is often very inspiring.

Voodoo black magic formula

Today’s blog is brought to you in the name of the philosophy “the perfect is the enemy of the good.”

Marketing often plays on our insecurities and fears to create guilt that we aren’t doing something right. It’s a good way to make sales – can’t knock it.

When you are spending money on your own business, however, you are going to learn how quickly how specious many claims are.

There are many out there – new ways of motivating people, integrated standalone software platforms that will make workers redundant, systems for timing the market, microexpression training for salespeople, and the list goes on.

There is no cure for the requirement to provide a good product to customers at a price they can accept, and to make it easy to purchase.

Next time you find yourself considering whatever voodoo black magic formula that is being offered, take a step back and check that you are actually focussing on the fundamentals and getting them right.

Contain your excitement

New ideas are always exciting.

People who are enthusiastic about new ideas are good to spend time with as you feel energised and excited about the future.

Drawing a long bow - not a great way to put food on the table.

I think the most addictive thing about the formative stages of a business is that you and your colleagues are going through the stage of working out what is possible and challenging yourself and each other to go that one step further.

As exciting as new ideas are, a seasoned entrepreneur will look at the potential to make steady and growing profits out of that business.

However, if you are scornful of all new ideas then you never take any chances and you never learn how to tap into new markets or incorporate technological advances into your business.

I know of a couple of seriously rich entrepreneurs who understand that they can get carried away with someone who has a seemingly good idea and invest in bad deal, so they surround themselves with people who can look at the idea from different angles and provide alternative views. This is why many of the top companies often have a duo at the top – one is the entrepreneur/CEO, and the other is the voice of reason. Yin and yang if you like.

As you progress with growing your business it is quite normal to find it going slower than expected and to then scratch around for new ideas that can help it grow. This is a dangerous phase as the longer it takes you to get up and going the more peripheral those ideas are – many of them are, as they say drawing a long bow.

Look at new ideas carefully, make sure they can directly help your business, make sure they are something you have good control over and ensure that they are only one step removed from your day to day business. Or to use yet another cliché - keep an eye on the future and your feet in the present.  

Lose the lotto mentality

• Get rich or get out.
• Big hairy audacious goals (BHAG)
• The best thing since sliced bread.
• The next big deal,
• Own the category, etc.

We hear these kinds of sayings all the time. Basically they are all a recipe for the same thing, if you have a great idea and you sacrifice enough you will make it big time.

Jumping for joy at winning a big deal

The only problem is that the stories that get told like this are about the 0.0001% of all those who tried and actually succeeded.

If there’s anything I can share with you all it is that business is about the daily grind of providing a service or product to customers who are indifferent at best and outright hostile at worst.

One of the saddest things to watch is to see a budding entrepreneur sell their whole lives - wife, husband, children, house, friends – everything, in order to achieve that elusive goal of the big deal that pays for it all. This is what I call the lotto mentality – the belief that if you keep buying tickets then one day you will win.

Actually relationships are a good analogy.

Business is like marriage. It is very exciting at first, but over time it loses its initial lustre and turns into something else, but something else that is good. You do need to work at it occasionally to get through the hard times, but once the relationship is going well the thought of having to do all that again is too much.  So it is with business. Once you get established, have a regular customer base and grow a bit then you have steady revenues. That is, it is a reciprocal relationship.

Chasing the big deal is like having one night stands and hoping that you have found your future partner to be with for the rest of your life. At best it is a bit of ephemeral enjoyment. This kind of lifestyle is understandably addictive as challenging your own fears to make a new conquest is exciting. And while this needs to happen occasionally most of your job is just the day to day grind. Get used to it.

Think of your business as a long term relationship rather than a short term fling and you will probably have a better outlook on it.

Garage based startups are the exception

We all love the story of the passionate inventor(s) who set up in their garage and invent a world beating new product.  

Sometimes they do, but it is a whole lot harder than the common myths. Here’s why.

Products and services firstly need to serve the needs of the customer – seems kind of obvious and it is.

Next the product needs to fit in with the way the customer does things – whether it is a physical use or a work flow process.

The product also needs to work with and integrate with the way the customer does other things (tasks or physical actions).

Finally the product needs to fit in with the larger world, whether it is an operating system or regulations and standards.

Let me give a couple of examples.

A new piece of software needs to fulfil its required purpose, it needs to be easy to use, it needs to be compatible with other software, then it needs to export and import from other external client’s files, and it needs to work properly on the current version of the major operating system (Windows, Linux, etc.)

A new sofa also follows the same rules. It has to function as a sofa, the height and depth of the seat needs to suit the customer (e.g. a tall sofa will be uncomfortable for shorter people), it needs to fit in with the other furniture, it needs to fit through a standard size door and up standard staircases, it needs to meet government standards and regulations on flammability, etc.

Ultimately this means that bringing a new product to commercialisation and successful marketing is the result of the input of a lot of separate skillsets and experiences. An individual with great depth of experience may be able to pull something off, but the odds favour a group.

All I can say is - ask for help!  It’s a group endeavour.

Niche Markets Mean Niche Profits

There is a lot of nonsense out there about how you need to find a niche and corner the market.

Sheer utter nonsense.

I’m sure there are one or two examples where it has worked, but guess what, the odds are so stunningly low – who cares.

There are more consistent profits in blending in - be part of the crowd if you can.

One of the reasons that your competitors are leaving that niche well alone is that they can’t find a way to get sufficient reward for their efforts.

For example, every year I meet someone who has realised that small businesses don’t get enough tax or accounting advice – and that they really need it. And, yes, they really do need that advice. The only problem is that they are the least likely to pay.  There is a reason that it is mostly an untapped market.

What I’d say to you is to not be afraid of competition. Your competitors are not dumb - they are focussing their time and efforts on those areas with the greatest reward for the level of effort they put in.  Try to be like them, only different.

There’s no point just trying to be different if there are no customers.

So next time someone comes up with a brainwave for a new and untapped market smile politely and move on. Trust the wisdom of the crowds (well not completely, but you know what I mean).

Success and talent – are they related?

The correct answer is – partly.

Let’s take a hypothetical example. There are two students at university who have exactly the same IQ, pretty similar personality traits and score the same marks in the same classes. In other words before graduation their talent is identical.

Twenty years later and one of the students is the CEO of a multinational and the other is a middle manager. What happened here?

The first student was given more responsibility earlier, and on success was given more responsibility. Basically they ended up being on a steeper curve climbing up the ladder.

We want to live in an egalitarian world, and generally the developed world largely is.

The flipside is that when you succeed at something earlier then not only do you feel better equipped mentally to try something harder, but those around you trust you more and give you more resources.

The incremental increase in trust and resources translates into greater opportunities, and so on. This is self-reinforcing.

The above is a bit of a construct, but it is based on research which is proving that success does indeed breed success.

My tip to you is to start your company and try to grow as soon as you can. Don’t put it off.

The reasons above let you know why. Every day you are walking down the path to your goal is a day ahead you are of potential competition. Competition is important too as when you see them walking faster you pick up your own pace to match and all of you do better.

As a mental health check, if you find yourself being upset that someone you know of lesser talent than you wins work when you don’t, remember that it is not just talent that counts. They probably presented better to the customer than you did. Try to be happy for them and learn from them so you can better compete.

Read your star sign – why astrology can break rigid habits

I originally trained in science and have since been working in pretty much analytical professions ever since. I can even tell you exactly why astrology is a load of bunkum, however, I have learned to appreciate one aspect of it. That is – it encourages change and experimentation.

Seems contradictory right.

Many people with a strong technical background get stuck in their ways. Yes, I am talking about you.

You have a limited group of friends, you are rigid about the times you go to and leave work, you generally eat the same foods, you watch the same shows each week, and so on. You are probably stuck in a rut.

Time to introduce some chance into things.

It doesn’t have to be astrology that does this. There was a book called “The Dice Man” years ago that encouraged people to choose what to do by rolling dice.

The Jim Carrey movie “Yes Man” was another example where rather than choosing to follow the normal routine he said yes to everything.

Start mixing your life up a bit.

• Try buying a new brand of toothpaste, deodorant, bread or breakfast cereal next time you are at the supermarket.
• Let your hairdresser or a complete stranger pick your next hairstyle.
• Go into a clothes shop you have never been to.
• Force yourself to go out to a restaurant or café on a weeknight.
• Go meet complete strangers at an event.
• Go the long way to get to work.
• Go somewhere new in your lunch break.

The benefits are huge. You will get used to being out of your comfort zone and you may just meet all sorts of people who can help you on your way.

Get out there and mix it up a bit.

Success is the best revenge

“You’ll never succeed.”

“That’s the stupidest idea I ever heard.”

“You just don’t have the right personality to do business.”

“The market is already sewn up, how on earth do you think you can make it?”

“Ha ha ha… you want to what? That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“What if you don’t succeed. Think about your partner and children. You’re putting it all at risk.”

And so on. If you haven’t heard variations of the above, just wait, you will.

The modern education system is set up to train us all as good workers for the modern industrialised society. 

When you go into business you are stepping out of the comfort zone that we all exist in and others will react.

Ex-co-worker’s reactions can range from seeing you as an inspiration for them to do something to outright hostility.

Family members can try to talk you out of it.

Friends can be quite vicious in terms of comments they make.

Potential clients can be quite cruel during the formative stages.

Guess what – none of that matters in the end.

You will probably develop a long list of people you’d love to tell “See, I was right, you were wrong.”

There may be others you fantasize about getting revenge on – which is fine so long as you only think it and never act on it.

The supreme form of revenge on the naysayers is success. They see the outcome and have absolutely no idea how you did it. Their view of the world is obviously wrong, or maybe you are just an aberration to their world view. It doesn’t matter.

The mere fact that you exist and are succeeding is enough to irritate them so get out there and make it work.

Drop your pants and strike the tiger

Drop your pants and strike the tiger, don’t worry about your life or saving face

This is a wonderful saying from Sichuan in China about the need to be brave.

When you drop your pants not only are you fully exposed, but with your pants around your ankles you can’t run away.

We all build false assumptions in our own minds about business.

• You may think your competitors are too strong.
• You may be afraid to take on the big players in your business.
• You may be afraid to disagree with clients
• You may be afraid to approach a customer in case you are rejected.
• You may be afraid of taking on debt, or more debt.
• You may not trust your work to anyone else.

Whatever it is you are afraid of, sometimes you need to challenge your own assumptions – time to go strike that tiger.

Either it’ll work out or it won’t

At a personal level all you can ever do is what you can – which is in the running of your business.

Pretty much everything else is out of your control.

• You can’t make customers like your product.
• You can’t make the broader economy work out how you want it to.
• You can’t make your staff like you or work as many hours as you.
• You can’t force sales.

All you can do is try to pick an existing market and sell a product that you hope people will like.

At that point to a large degree the ultimate success of your company is in the hands of fate.

For example, for every famous artist there are hundreds of better artists who never got the big break.

So, do what you can, but for the sake of your own sanity understand that you can’t control what you can’t control. So sometimes it is better to just back your original hunch and remind yourself that either it’ll work out or it won’t.