systems approach to profitability Archives

Running Late for Your Business Meeting Again? What Your Tardiness Is Costing You

February 5, 2015 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

A study for the International Conference on Systems Sciences revealed that agendas for meetings are covered only one-half of the time. It’s not a surprise when you consider 11 percent of that time is spent discussing irrelevant issues.

One of the key problems I often hear from business owners is how much time is wasted by not starting meetings on time. My Excellerate Success Institute clients discover very quickly how much money inefficient meeting practices cost them. Once they calculate the wages for all attendees, overhead costs, and miscellaneous meeting expenses, they are usually shocked to learn how much of their profits are being eaten away in the first five minutes.
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Why We Love These Systems to Maximize Profitability (And You Should, Too!)

December 18, 2014 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

When building your business, the fastest way to leverage it is through systems. If you don’t have systems in place, you’ll also miss out on creating maximum profitability for your business.

When my students first work with me, they think they have their accounting system in place because they have Quickbooks, an Accountant or a CPA.

Yet, this is only part of managing your profitability. It’s important to manage the very systems you put in place to run your business efficiently. Without ways to manage them, you are letting money slip through your fingers.

You also open up your business to a number of liabilities, like defaulting on a loan. When business owners don’t have a systematized way to review their finances, it is usually expressed as a frustration, such as being:

• Confused as to when to hire someone
• Hesitant on when to invest in yourself or your business because you don’t have a cash flow plan
• Undecided in implementing an initiative because you’re already late in invoicing your clients

At Excellerate Success Institute, my clients discover the benefits of having systems in place, resulting in increased profitability. But it’s not enough to set up a system and forget it. I recommend also developing a way to manage those systems.

For example, when a client with a small business missed a tax deadline, it wasn’t only the IRS he had to face. The hardest part was explaining to his employees why their checks were delayed. To remedy future snafus, he set recurring appointments on his calendar to flag when his taxes were due. This way, he had a reminder to manage the critical requirements of his business.

A system doesn’t have to involve machines to work. A simple manual process creates efficiencies and keeps money in your pocket. I used to place receipts everywhere, missing out on tax deductions.

To make things easier for my Accountant, I developed an internal system. At the beginning of the year, we have one expandable folder with expense folders for each month. Each week, I place all of my receipts that have been shoved in my purse, pockets and my car’s coin receptacle, in its folder. Now, my Accountant simply reviews the folders and all of the receipts are accounted for.

The same system can be used for other parts of your business when more than one person needs to handle various parts of the process. This simple procedure works like a charm for my clients, too.

Another new client was missing out on his full business deductions because he didn’t have a way to track mileage. An app, like TripLog for Android or MileTracker for iPhone, makes tracking your mileage easier than ever. Now, he can take full advantage of his business deductions.

Systems thinking is a state of mind. Once you have this state of mind, you’ll close the gaps, create efficiencies, and develop prosperity-based habits. Then, watch as you enjoy maximum profitability for your business.

The Biggest Marketing Blind Spot That Plagues Every Entrepreneur

April 17, 2014 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

Most entrepreneurs are experts in their particular area of genius but not experts in marketing. Yet, it is the marketing that can make or break your company’s bottom line.

Marketing your company doesn’t have to be hard or expensive. With a little creativity, you can generate interest that leads to more customers, more money, and a greater return on your investment.

There is one marketing blunder, however, that all business owners make at some point. Business owners take a look at all of the marketing that needs to be implemented and forget that each marketing initiative, whether it is a direct mail piece, social media marketing, or a promotional item must be integrated into other business processes or systems to get the biggest bang from their buck.

For example, many companies are encouraged to start a blog. When they do, they quickly realize that the blog does nothing but create a lot of work for someone. It’s often because they haven’t determined if the blog will be used as a customer relationship builder, lead generator, a revenue generator, or all of the above.

Further, as your business grows, your marketing attracts prospective employees who want to work for you. If you have a fantastic marketing strategy and brand but forget to give the same experience to your new employees through your interviewing and onboarding processes, that can lead to a disastrous mismatch and turnover issues.

Small businesses are in a great position to leverage their marketing, but get fixated on hurry-up-and-implement tactics without considering how that one initiative affects the whole company.

One event planner learned the hard way how important it is to think through your marketing plans. When she mailed a direct mail marketing post card out to prospective clients, she forgot to marry her offline and online marketing by including a way for customers to download a free eBook she created for them. She missed the boat on adding value to the customer through her eBook and also getting their name and email in return. A few days later, her call center was surprised to have a volume of unexpected phone traffic because they weren’t aware that a post card was mailed out, leaving the customer feeling a less-than warm welcome.

So, the next time you want to implement a marketing idea, think through your process:

Map out the ways to marry your offline and online strategies, maximizing your direct mail and online presence
Make it easy for the customer to contact you by phone or email
Anticipate and communicate the impact of your initiatives on your internal operations

When you think through how to integrate all of your marketing initiatives, you’ll see brand new opportunities previously missed and a maximum return on your marketing investments.

So Exactly How Does a Systems Approach Work for Small Business Owners?

October 20, 2011 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

When you adopt a systems mindset, you begin to look at how one area of your business affects the other areas simultaneously. So what’s this systems mindset and how does it work, you ask? According to the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook, a systems thinker “knows how systems fit into the larger contents of day-to-day life, how they behave, and how to manage them.” “Systems thinking is a unique perspective on reality – a perspective that sharpens our awareness of wholes and how the parts within those wholes interrelate.”

Unfortunately, effective business systems are the most underutilized tools by small business owners. Last week I was chatting with a gentleman who also worked with small business owners. We started talking about the importance of creating systems to leverage business (a subject I’m passionate about). He mentioned that a number of his clients, like mine, are former corporate employees who have decided to start a small business. The one comment he hears from them is how much they disliked working in a large system. However, they realize that when they aren’t bringing in income or clients just how important it is to have systems in place to leverage their small business.

We can all agree that when systems are broken, they can be the biggest frustrations. If your computer system has ever crashed, then you know what I’m talking about. Just one day without email and everyone is wondering how work ever got done. However, when there are no systems or limited systems, you’re working much harder than you actually need to.

There are different kinds of systems. In a previous article, I wrote how to tame your email monster by using a simple system that helps to sort email which is built right into many email systems. Whether its phone management, email management, client management, time management or business management, there are systems to leverage each of these areas.

One client learned the hard way just how critical having automated systems were to her business. When a new client started to work with me, she needed to care for a sick relative leaving her little time for her business. Unfortunately, she had no systems in place. Before she knew it, her client list dwindled. After learning how she could systematically and automatically market, she built up her client list in less than 60 days while caring for her sick relative.

The reason many small business owners struggle is that they are not systematizing their internal business or implementing processes to leverage their time or resources. One client who was a Coach was incredibly frustrated over spending way too much time with her intake process. She estimated 60-120 minutes or more with each prospect. Unfortunately, many of the people she met with were just kicking the tires and weren’t committed to moving ahead. With a few tweaks to her intake system, she learned how she could automatically pre-qualify her clients through her own lead generation system and how to use her website more efficiently. Within just 30 days of implementing her systems, she spent just 20 minutes with a prospect before converting them into a client all because she implemented systems to help pre-qualify prospects.

A system doesn’t have to involve machines to work. A simple manual system creates efficiencies. One of my referral sources devised a system to make sure his bills get paid on time. When he receives a bill, he reviews it, approves it, and puts it in a special bin. Each Thursday, his bookkeeper arrives and takes the bills in the bin to be paid. It is an internal system that utilizes his resources efficiently and makes sure his bills are paid on time.

When you adopt a systems mindset, you will fundamentally look at your business through a clearer lens. You’ll begin to see how each part of your business flows into the other. Your perspective will sharpen your awareness of your whole business and how the parts interrelate.

What kind of systems have you implemented that work in growing your business?

Four Simple Steps to Tame Your Email Monster

October 13, 2011 by Lisa Mininni 3 Comments

Have you ever sat down at your computer, pressed the send/receive button on your email only to have it download a laundry list of emails that you know just by glancing at them aren’t important or urgent to growing your small business? First you look at them. You feel the pressure build up inside. Then, in haste, you start deleting each and every email without opening them just to relieve the stress.

Unfortunately, that relief is only temporary. However, there is good news. You’re only four simple steps away from taming that email monster for good and creating focused time in your schedule regardless of the email system you’re using.

These four simple steps include a combination of automation and systemization:

1. Categorize your emails. Not all emails need to go into your folder marked Inbox. For example, start with emails that are non-urgent and that you can read weekly.

2. Create a folder in your email. In this example, we’ll call your folder “Weekly Reading”. Click once on your folder marked Inbox. In most email systems, you only need to right click to see a popup window. Click on New Folder and name the folder. Once you implement the next step, any future non-urgent emails will be automatically transferred to that folder.

3. Transfer the email to the “Weekly Reading” folder by creating a rule. When you receive an email that you would like automatically routed to the Weekly Reading folder, create a rule that assigns it to that folder. For some email systems, it might be as easy as left clicking once on the designated email you want to transfer to that folder. Then, right click your mouse where you will see a window pop up. Click on “Create Rule” and assign it to that corresponding folder. For instructions on your specific email system, conduct a search on Google. You’ve completed the automation part.

4. Designate a recurring appointment on your calendar called “Weekly Reading”. This time will be reserved for you to catch up on those emails that you just assigned to this folder. This last step completes the systemization and reminds you to take action.

With a combination of automation and systemization, you will start managing your email overload. What’s even better is that you will:

• Stay focused on what is most important to grow your small business
• Improve your productivity
• Relieve stress

One client estimated a time savings of 2.50 hours a day just by implementing this simple email management tip helping her achieve her personal and financial goals more effortlessly. You will easily free up space on your calendar and tame that email monster. Do you have a favorite tip to reclaim your email? Share it with us!

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