business management processes Archives

Business Management Processes: Simple is Profound

February 1, 2018 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

Admit it. Sometimes you make business harder than it is. You overthink your strategies and complicate processes.

Yet, the simple solutions are the most profound. Simple business processes can position your business for scalability and positively shift your bottom line.

In my experience mentoring business owners, they often have the solutions but don’t realize it. They have the pieces to a puzzle but haven’t put them together in ways that make a real difference, especially when it comes to their marketing and sales processes.

According to a study done for Harvard Business Review, a whopping 71% of leads are never followed up on. A common reason is that most businesses don’t systematize or automate their follow up processes. Let’s assume that each client is worth $10,000 or more, that’s a lot of lost opportunity.

In working with my Profitability Lab Clients, we reviewed the Integrated Marketing Model. It’s one of our proprietary models that show businesses how to marry their online and offline marketing as well as connect their sales and marketing tactics.

When one of the lab members shared that her business would be attending a trade show, we looked at a simple process to maximize their attendance. We mapped the process from start to finish.

Where most companies fail to follow up is after the trade show. They return to the office and get distracted in the day-to-day happenings.

Using an existing follow up system, we reviewed simple ways to capture leads and to automatically follow up with those leads. We also discussed having a simple scoring system that could be used at the trade show to separate the terrific leads from the tire kickers.

Your business processes don’t have to be sophisticated to be effective. In fact, using simple systems already available in your business can make a profound difference in nurturing your leads.

Look around your business. Where can you implement a simple process or optimize the use of an existing system to successfully scale your business this year?

One Highly Effective Habit for Productive People

October 26, 2017 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

Thousands of books have been written on highly effective habits to make people more productive. You may have even tried a few of these habits. You may have even tried excessive amounts of caffeine or purchased the latest organizing binder with mixed results.

With over 14 years teaching business leaders a systems approach, there is one habit that makes a real difference in accomplishing what matters most. It’s so simple, but is often completely missing in your processes, communication, requests, or when giving directions.

What is it?

A date.

It might sound overly simplistic but think about it.

Does your every day language sound like this?

• “Let’s have lunch!”
• “I look forward to hearing from you.”
• “Please get back with me asap.”
• “Sounds interesting. I’ll call you.”
• “I will host a …workshop, webinar, or teleseminar.”
• “Get back with me when you’ve reviewed the proposal.”

Most people can’t and don’t work well with vagueness. Be exact to attract results by grounding requests, directives, or communication in a date.

• “Let’s have lunch, what’s your schedule look like for (DATE)”
• “I look forward to hearing from you. Let’s schedule a follow up conversation on (DATE)”
• “Please get back with me by (DATE)”
• “Sounds interesting. I’ll call you by (DATE) to get that scheduled.”
• “I will host a workshop by (DATE)”
• “Let’s schedule a (DATE) to finalize your decision about the proposal. How long will it take to review it?”

Notice that all of the requests were grounded by a date. The habit doesn’t stop there. Round out your dates with an action. Remember to log the date into your calendar and send a calendar invitation.

When you implement this highly effective habit, you’ll become known for being one of those productive and reliable people others can trust. You’ll also notice that you have improved focus, intentionality, and outcomes.

Business Management Processes: What You Don’t Have Could Cost You Dearly

December 22, 2016 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

business-management-processes-they-cost-you-dearly-when-you-dont-have-them-and-eliminate-inefficiencies-when-you-do You know you need them.

It pays to have them.

It costs you when you don’t maintain them.

What are they?

Business systems and processes.

Good systems eliminate inefficiencies from your business. They even provide solutions to inconsistent cash flow, employee turnover, and customer dissatisfaction.

A systems approach to building a company looks at how each system is interrelated. Most importantly, a systems approach replaces shoot-from-the-hip operations with performance standards, procedures and accountability.

Systems don’t have to be complicated to be effective. A business systems can be as simple as a checklist created to ensure customer satisfaction or more complex, like a CRM or accounting system. Like anything that is built, you’ll want to make sure that it is maintained.

We’ve all been there. You are caught by surprise because you didn’t have a system to monitor or to maintain a business process.

This point reminds me of the story of Tom, a CEO of a growing business. Tom was thrilled to have gotten out of the day-to-day accounting processing and into what he loved most, creating strategic relationships that scaled his business. He got focused on the sales that were generated, but didn’t have a process in place to keep an eye on the expenses.

At the end of the year, he was surprised at the additional overhead, labor and supply expenses. He learned a pricey lesson.

As you move out of the day-to-day activities, remember to develop processes to keep an eye on not only what’s coming into the business, but any waste or inefficiencies that eat away at your profits.

Better yet, create a regular process to ask your team what they could implement, improve, or eliminate. You might just be surprised at what you find.

Build the Basics Before Scaling Your Business

December 15, 2016 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

think-of-scaling-your-business-in-this-way You heard this advice over and over. Work on your business, not just in your business.

You realize it’s important to keep an eye on the details. After all, the finer details can give your business marketplace distinction.

However, if you don’t focus on key activities that move your business forward in a strategic way, you will stall your big ideas. What’s more, is that any lack of clarity, overwhelm, not having an effective team, and missing business management systems can stall implementation of your ideas for months or years.

Before scaling your business, what is most important is to make sure you have a solid foundation in place. This foundation includes clarity around your ideal client, having solid products and service offerings, effective business processes and systems, and hiring a productive team. Then, and only then, scale your business.

Too many entrepreneurs believe that they can scale their business and need just “one more system” or “additional training”. In fact, they don’t have a solid foundation in place.

Think of scaling your business this way: You would never build a skyscraper on a bed of sand, right? Then, why would you want to scale your business on one?

Build the basic foundation before scaling your business.

Join us for a free Teleseminar: Simple Steps to Successfully Scale Your Business
Thursday, January 19, 2017
12 p.m. – 1 p.m. Eastern Time

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