profitability tips Archives - Excellerate Associates

The Cost of Not Implementing

January 28, 2016 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

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When building your business, the fastest way to grow it is to focus on your systems that attract your preferred clients and bring in revenue. As I work with my students on their Business Blueprint, I recommend also putting together a team to accelerate their results.

Some of my clients are initially uneasy about adding the expense of a team. However, when tasks are not implemented they will cost you in:

1. Creative space in your head.

The more your head gets cluttered with all of the things to run your business, the more you will procrastinate on the very systems, tasks or strategies that can build a highly profitable business. There’s so much chaos that gets trapped in your head, that your greatest ideas go unrealized. Some of your ideas could change the world. You may even look for the next silver bullet when all you need to do is have the leverage of a team to implement your ideas.

2. Leads and sales.

You can only grow your business to the maximum amount of tasks you can personally handle. If you don’t have a team and systems, that pre-qualify your prospects, you end up talking with people who may not be your ideal client. You will also lose sales because you don’t have an effective and timely way to keep in touch.

3. Your time freedom.

You would be surprised at how much time you’re already investing in doing tasks yourself that could be delegated. In the Profitability Lab: Introduction, we calculate the amount of time and money spent on doing tasks that could be delegated. One of my students realized exactly how he could spend more time with his family and increase his profits at the same time.

Hiring a team doesn’t necessarily mean hiring a full-time employee. Other alternatives include hiring temporary staff or an independent contractor. These staffing alternatives can help you accelerate your results.

Once you identify your needs, it’s easy to select the right assistance. How can you find the right talent? Try these steps to determine your hiring talent needs:

1. Create a list of all your outstanding tasks.

2. Prioritize the list and identify those most important and urgent parts of your business.

3. Identify the knowledge, skills, abilities and natural wiring the person needs to accomplish the tasks.

4. Tap into your network to attract the right resources or person.

To align your team and all of your ideas into a Business Blueprint that works in building a profitable business, I invite you to attend the 2016 Wake Up Profitable Boot Camp on April 25-26, 2016 in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Register before January 31, 2016 to take advantage of the scholarship tuition. Use promo code “2016earlybird” and press the Apply Button before checking out to get $1600 off of regular tuition. Register at http://www.wakeupprofitable.com.

Productivity: Clever Tips to Keep You and Your Team Laser Focused

August 27, 2015 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

Do interruptions have you sidetracked?

At some point, it happens to everyone in business. You feel like a squirrel reacting to the latest interruption keeping you and your employees off their game.

With widely popular open-floor plans, it’s more challenging than ever to stay focused especially with noisy co-workers and limited privacy. If you have a virtual staff, then phone calls might be your nemesis.

If you’re reacting to each and every interruption or hear from your employees about how they are interrupted by too much office chit chat, then I have a quick tip that works like a charm.

Each day, have everyone on your team outline the 1-3 priorities they need to complete and post it on their door or cube. Be aware not to post any project of a confidential nature.

When your employees visit someone’s work area, the priority list serves as a gentle reminder to the team member to think twice before interrupting.

Consider pairing this priority process with specific blocks of time – from 9 – 11 am on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, for example – where interruptions aren’t allowed unless they’re for emergencies. As a team, you may also want to identify what constitutes an emergency.

These simple shifts in the way you work increase productivity and employee engagement. It also curbs cube chit chat, reminds the team of the priorities of the day, and will ultimately improve your profitability.

What Separates a Mediocre Business from a Highly Profitable One?

June 18, 2015 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

Have you ever asked yourself, “How can I get my business to the next level?”

To answer that question, many people believe that they need a big budget or should purchase expensive equipment. This may not necessarily be the case.

The truth is for many businesses you don’t need a bigger budget. You may not even need to purchase expensive equipment or hire more employees to expand a business.

What you do need is to explore how a profitable business is leveraged. It’s one of the key areas I cover in my Profitability Labs and why many of my clients achieve such fast results.

It may surprise you to learn that one of the easiest ways to leverage has to do with a mindset shift. One of the early mindsets I had to get over was, “If I want something done, I have to do it myself.” You might have even said something like this to yourself.

If you want to move your business to the next level, your business cannot be dependent on any one person, including you. In fact, it is more expensive in the long run to hold on to tasks that you can delegate to someone else for a fraction of what you would bill if you were working with a client.

There are also layers to the mindset of leverage. As you grow your team, you may think you have delegation mastered simply because you have a team. The next question to ask is, “Where else can leverage be found?”

With leverage in mind, you create specific strategies that allow you to work efficiently, serve many more people, and bring in more revenue. This is why leverage separates a mediocre business from a highly profitable one.

Consider these three questions to start leveraging your business today:

What can be given up or eliminated that no longer serves the main goals of the company?

It’s easy to get comfortable in your job and perform tasks each day, but do those tasks continue to contribute to the main goals of the organization? If not, stop doing them. When you do, you just made room for relevant work.

When one work team identified tasks that could be eliminated, they realized that there were numerous reports being distributed but not read. This one elimination resulted in a $6,000 savings.

What can be automated?

Automation is a high form of leverage. Consider exploring how manual processes could be automated. Remember to check out open source software or apps that just may be the ticket to a cost-effective solution.

What can be systematized?

If you have a regular meeting, it may be easier to systematize it. One of my Excellerate Success Institute students realized that she could easily save approximately three hours combined team time each month simply by systematizing one of the employee meetings to the first Thursday of each month. Now they don’t need to waste time finding a common date for the next meeting, they already have it scheduled.

There are many exciting forms of leverage, including refining your work processes, managing your time more efficiently, and utilizing the latest technologies. Leverage is an essential tool to move your business from mediocre to highly profitable.

Do you have an example to share on how you leveraged your business? Share it with us!

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