In my last blog entry I discussed number five (Failure to Think Strategically) on my list of the Top Five Barriers to Business Growth. Today I will discuss number four – Failure to Focus.

4. Failure to Focus
Failure to focus is one of the paramount deficiencies small business owners rarely address. This is – I suggest – why only five percent of all businesses make to a million dollars in revenue and way less than one percent (0.08%) ever reach five million in revenue.

What is meant by “Failure to Focus”? Several things. First let’s think the typical business owner, with all their day-to-day fires and crises, in addition to their nearly all-consuming concentration on the Technical and Fulfillment aspects of their business. Is it any wonder with the staccato of issues that arise every day that they never focus on growing their business?

You might ask “How can they focus on growing their business if they are up to their eyeballs is daily issues?” or “Aren’t they focusing on the correct things now?”

I take these one at a time. “How can they focus on growing their business if they are up to their eyeballs in daily issues?” First, they have to train themselves to take time to grow their business. If they don’t they will remain one of the 95%. How do they train themselves to work on growing their business? They make growing their business their top priority, not something they will get to after the day-to-day is done. Address it first thing every day, they need take an hour (or whatever) and work on something that will grow their business. All it takes is discipline and determination.

Now as to “Aren’t they focusing on the correct things now?” Only if they want to stay where they are! Only if they want to keep doing the same things over and over and expect a different result – isn’t that what Einstein defined as insanity? They may have to use a majority of their time working on the day-to-day, but if they don’t take the time to work on growing their business they will never change. This time can be as little as one hour a day, five lousy hours a week – is this too much to ask? You would be surprised what improvements you can in five hours a week. The improvement will be small but they will be improvements. And the cumulative incremental improvements they make over the course of a year would be huge.

You might think that you don’t want to “Grow Your Business” any larger than it is now – and that’s fine – you should fit your business into your lifestyle and not your lifestyle around your business. But there are all kinds of growth…

What about growing the bottom line – making more profit for the same revenue. Who among us would want that?

What about growing smarter – working less or working in a less stressful environment?

What about growing stronger – being able to withstand the constant ups and downs in your business cycle?

There are many kinds of growth and all business owners should make it their number one priority to spend some time focusing on growth – those two or three items that could make a lasting improvement in their business.

In my last blog entry I showed what was in my opinion a flawed survey on Barriers to Business Growth. Maybe I was a little tough on this survey, I think not. Now I will put forth what I think are the Top Five Barriers to Business Growth - In reverse from number five to number one.

5. Failure to Think Strategically
Most owners are so caught up in either the tactical, the day-to-day machinations of their business or in the purely technical side of their business that they never think of the overall impact or the long-range goal they want to accomplish.

Why, well first of all they are extremely comfortable in the Technical side – this is where they “grew up” in the business, this is where they are the most competent. And few people really like getting out of their comfort zone.

Second, the day-to-day fire drills, keep them “busy” and therefore they define this activity as accomplishment – it is not. We all know or have know people that are so busy rushing from pillar to post, but they never get anything of significance done. Activity is not accomplishment – effective activity is accomplishment.

Notice I didn’t say efficient activity is accomplishment, you can be very efficient at staying “busy” – at being completely reactive instead of proactive. Answer every email the second it comes in, let the phone interrupt you every 30 seconds, let your peers and subordinates destroy your train of thought and so on. What good is this – NONE!

Without a Strategic mindset how are you going to upstage your competition and dominate your market? Without a Strategic Objective in mind how do you know where your business is going. Without a long-range vision how can you communicate to your employees your expectations of the business and of them?

Thinking Strategically is a skill the same as fixing a faucet or installing a particular software, but few business owners take the time, effort and commitment to truly learn how think, act and be strategic.

It takes 4,000 hours to become a master of a skill but when I talk to business owners about Strategic Thinking the typical response is “Well we tried that once and it didn’t work out as well as we thought so we stopped”

Was the lawyer as good at a task their first time through as they were on their 1,000th time, how about a plumber, a physical, a electrician? Any skill takes time, effort, commitment and practice to learn and become comfortable with. Yet we as business owners don’t take nearly the time we should to master strategy.

I am astounded by the nonsense that “consultants” are putting forth these days. The bilge that some of them are putting out hurt all coaches, consultants and advisors… Charlatans and professionals alike.

Recently someone (the names have been withheld to protect the guilty) published the results of a survey which is the following:

The top five barriers that stop or slow the growth of UK businesses with a turnover of £5-25 million.

The top five barriers are
1. A lack of understanding of customer needs. Responses show that it is far more common for businesses to think in terms of products and attributes than in terms of the customer needs being satisfied. 

Well DUHHHHHHHH…

2. A failure to develop compelling value propositions. Very few companies could say that they had strong value propo¬sitions and competitive positions for each product they offered and each customer group they wanted to serve. Many failed to differentiate and instead used a ‘one-size fits-all’ approach, while others used very general statements such as ‘best value’ and ‘high quality’.

Yeah and…

3. Poor new product development processes. There was almost universal agreement among respondents that identifying and developing new products and services would be a huge benefit in achiev¬ing sustained growth.

Just how many businesses are really stopped from growing by their product development process???

4. A failure to price for value. Many businesses price on a ‘cost-up’ basis, while others take their lead from the competition and price according to what the market will allow.

Same as number 1

5. A lack of market insight. For many respondents understanding the market translated as understanding the competition.

Can they get any more obtuse…

In my next blog I will put forth my thoughts on the above and what I thing are the top five issues that prevent small businesses from growing.

Picking up from my last post on time managment…

I got into some bad habits as to my own time management was concerned.

First, I started doing the small and or unimportant things early in the morning, rationalizing to myself that this would leave me some good blocks of time for my more difficult and also more strategic issues.

WRONG – the best time to work strategically (working on your business) is the first thing, this is when you are sharpest, when you are your most creative and when your concentration is highest.

Second, even though I do monthly, weekly and daily planning and schedules, I stopped reviewing them always at the end of the time frame. I was telling myself that there were good reasons for not reviewing them – heck, I am always productive, I always get things done.

WRONG – the lined out items became fewer and fewer which led to…

Third, I started pushing things to Saturday – “my free day” again rationalizing to myself that there were good reasons for this – I’m busy guy. And fourth I stopped using my accountability partner to check my progress.

WRONG on both counts… again! This caused a major upheaval in my household, my put her foot down about all work and no play.

My solution – go back to the basics:
1) I got back together with my accountability partner. It’s too easy to rationalize to yourself. It’s much harder to blow smoke at your accountability partner.
2) I started working on the strategic things first thing during the day – depending on coaching appointments.
3) At the end of each day I went back to reviewing my schedule to see what I got done and why.

The results are in, for the last month I have been more productive than I have been for at least six months. My sense of accomplishment and achievement were sky-high. My Saturdays became semi-free (I still have two major projects that I knew would take some Saturday time) and I am a much happier camper.

So, the moral of the story is – never, never, never get away from the sound fundamentals of any discipline. There is a reason they are sound fundamentals – THEY WORK!!!
 

As a business consultant, one of the first issues I address with clients is Time Management. Entrepreneurs typically don’t have good time management. Most of them are used to doing what they want, when they want, where they want, and how they want.

I’m not saying they lack discipline, after all they started a business and they built a business to some level or another. But and this is a big but, they generally don’t have a tight structure that they operate under. This structure is not necessarily a rigid and dogmatic structure, but structure nonetheless.

Somewhere along the way they lost an amount of the discipline that made them so effective in the start up and building stages of their business. So as a business consultant it is my job to help them rediscover that structure and discipline that will help them become effective time managers again.

Some of the pillars of good time management are
Be strategic first (working ON the business), tactical second (working IN the business)
Work on the most important things earlier, rather than later
Work on the same type of thing (strategies, tactics, sales, marketing – whatever) at a consistent time, on consistent days of the week
Measuring themselves as to their effectiveness

These pillars are there to put the entrepreneur in the right frame of mind, to give them a routine, to help them gain a sense of accomplishment and achievement and allow them to check themselves against their plan and course correct as necessary.

In my next post your humble correspondent will relate some personal observations on time managment.
 

This is part two of a two part blog…

When advising business owners one of the issues we insist they do is periodic reviews of their business. While year-end is a great time to take stock of the past year and lay plans for the New Year, you should also do mid-year and even quarterly reviews.

Here are the last four of the seven tips to get you started!

Create a Marketing Plan - Evaluate your marketing mix for the past year, and make changes for the better for the coming year. Freshen up your marketing message and strategy. Are you consistently getting the right message out to the public, or do you find your strategy and materials are sending out mixed messages? ¬

Update the Database - Review your database, updating information as needed. Renew contact with lapsed customers, and touch base with your existing customers. Ask for more referrals from some of your best customers; connecting their associates business with yours is a win-win situation. It is a quick and inexpensive way to increase business.

Review Staff- ldentify staff behaviors and accomplishments that should be acknowledged or even rewarded. Also, identify those whose behaviors or work need to be addressed and improved. Everyone wants feedback on: how they are doing. If you have difficulty remembering pertinent examples, schedule a few minutes each day or week to update notes (both positive and negative) for performance reviews for each of your direct reports.

Learn Something New - Resolve to update or improve your profession¬al skills. Take a class or plan to read a book or two in an area in which you feel you could use more training.

Eliminating products or services? Let affected customers know the reasons and provide alternatives (even a competitor) for their needs. Some of these customers may also purchase from your more profitable areas now or in the future, so do not alienate them or adversely affect your reputation.
 

This is part one of a two part blog…

When advising business owners one of the issues we insist they do is periodic reviews of their business. While year-end is a great time to take stock of the past year and lay plans for the New Year, you should also do mid-year and even quarterly reviews.

Here are three of the seven tips to get you started!

Run a Financial Check-Up - Are you where you had hoped to be finan¬cially for the year? Check your Profit and Loss, Income, and Expense Reports. Review your sales reports to determine the more profitable areas of business and areas where sales were sub par. Create a plan for increasing business in more profitable areas during the coming year. Either prepare to eliminate less profitable ventures, channels, or market segments or create plans to increase their profitability.

Prepare a Budget - Examine your projected budget and actual expenses for the year. Prepare a budget for the New Year, and resolve to stick to it! Factor in expenses for computer and software updates and purchas¬es of new equipment. Be sure to allow for changes in your marketing strategy for the upcoming year. Prepare a list of areas to cut if profits or cash flow start running below expectations and a list of contingent opportunities to add or increase if cash flow runs higher.

Plan to Succeed - Businesses that fail to plan, plan to fail. Create that fresh business plan you’ve been thinking about. Or, if your financial check-up shows variances, fine-tune your existing business plan for the coming year. Set aside some quality time in January to lay the ground¬work for future sales.
 

As a business advisor, when I work with decision makers on one of the more difficult issues confronting them – managing change, I give them a few key items that they must address early on in the process…

If you are trying top steer a new course, be sure your seasoned veterans and new recruits are on board.

It Takes Many Hands to Move a Ship - Maybe you have heard from, or commiserated with, other owners and managers who have been trying to "turn the ship" and feel that it is a solitary endeavor. Steering a new course is always challenging, but if you agree with the premise that it is easier to steer a ship when all hands set the rigging toward your intended heading, then it makes sense to bring your "crew" up to speed with your plans and not to consider them as adversaries. If you see yourself as solely responsible for bringing about change, your employees will probably wonder where, if at all, they fit into your plans. When they know "something" - but not "what" - is going on, they may fear that any action might hinder rather than assist your change, or they may take incorrect action. This can take the "wind out of their sails" and cause them to step back and avoid any actions that you may potentially welcome.

Keep an Open Mind - If you are coming into a new situation, keep an open mind about an individual employee’s performance. Most people perform differently under various circumstances. Evaluate any informa¬tion given to you by previous management in light of your own obser¬vations. Communicate and interact with employees to learn more about their strengths and weaknesses and how they interact and work with others. You may be able to inspire a disgruntled or underutilized employee to step up and meet new challenges. Going into a new endeavor with a "clean house" approach usually becomes a self-fulfill¬ing prophecy and can cripple your business, leaving it short on valu¬able experience. Better to go with a "clean slate" approach.

Address Employee Fears - Employee resistance to change is largely based on fear of change. If your employees appear to be resisting change, ask questions to find out why. They may fear that the company will not survive a change, or that they will lose their job. Change may bring specific challenges to them that they feel ill equipped to meet. Communicate your reasons for bringing change to the company and the negative consequences of not taking action. Listen to and acknowl¬edge your employees’ thoughts. Try to minimize the hardships of change for employees. If job responsibilities are changed, offer an opportunity for training. If an employee wants to take this opportunity to try something different, see if this can fit with, or even facilitate, your plans. If you need to cut staff in come areas, retained staff will judge how you handle it. You might shuffle staff in different groups; give ample notice; or provide outplacement assistance, severance, or re-training.

Tips for Time Management

As a business coach and advisor I have found that Time Managment is one of the most difficult issues for the harried entrepreneur to master.  Here are some tips that should help. 

We all begin our days with the best of intentions to be as productive as possible, but we frequently find our¬selves "sidetracked" by the day-to¬day unforeseen circumstances that tug us in different directions. Here are some tips to help you navigate around day-to-day time "hazards."

* Set aside 15 minutes to a half hour at the end of each day to review what you’ve accomplished and to make a To-Do list for the next day. Prioritize! Either list the tasks in order of importance or assign a letter to each task "A" being urgent, "B," important, and "C," of less importance. The next day, pull out your list and take care of your priority tasks first.

* Some times it’s good to get "lost," because you can’t be found and interrupted. If possible, schedule blocks of time out of the office to complete important pro¬jects. Work at your library, your home office, or a local coffee shop. Or set time to close your office door and let employees know that time is sacred.

* Coming and going from the office to run errands can be a time¬waster. Group errands to the post office, store, and bank to make the best use of your time, or, if possible, delegate them to an employee.

* Take a break or two. Take time to breathe, relax, or stretch. Don’t skip the morning coffee break. If you work on a comput¬er for long stretches of time, be sure to stand up and stretch your arms and legs.

* Are you in control of your paperwork, or is controlling you? If you have difficulty finding important papers, hire someone to help you set up a simple filing system.

* The manner in which you organize and plan is up to you, whether your choice be a detailed planning system or simple To-Do lists. Electronic devices are great when you’re on the go and computer software calendars and organizers are useful for those who travel with a laptop. You might find a program like Microsoft Entourage, which provides project management tools, helpful. The important thing is to choose a system that works best for you.

* Technology is a godsend, and a curse. E-mail, the internet, and faxes are fantastic business tools, but they can be great time¬wasters as well. Unless you have urgent outgoing or incoming communication, check your e-mail and faxes after lunch and again later in the day. Respond to the most urgent and put the others on your agenda for the next day. As much as possible, set aside a scheduled time for e-mailing, faxing, or surfing the net. This will make it easier to set limits.

* Communication is important, but too many phone interruptions can leave you with a feeling you’ve accomplished nothing. If your days are fragmented with incoming and outgoing phone calls, and if your business allows, schedule blocks of time dur¬ing the day to return or make calls. Consider hiring a secretary to answer and screen calls, or allowing calls to go to voice mail if you’re in the middle of a project. Cell phones are a great way to keep in touch, but again, allow yourself some down time; don’t be afraid to turn your cell phone off.

"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you."
Carl Sandberg

You can’t create time, however, you may be able to better manage the time you have. Here’s how:

Choose a Destination - Increasing time spent on one task or project requires you spending less time on another. Take a moment to re-examine your long-term goals. What are your work and personal goals for the year? List five things you would like to accomplish, such as: cultivate clients in a different sector, boost sales of an existing product, or spend more time with family.

Prioritize them, giving as much thought to your "wants" as to your "needs." Focus first on the goals that are most important or urgent-the ones you value most and are willing to commit to.

Make Each Mile Count - Choose one or two goals to accomplish over the next few months, moving on to other goals on your list as the year proceeds. The majority of your time should be spent in completing goal-directed tasks.

Create a list of objectives, or "steps" towards each goal. If your goal is to expand your business a new sector, schedule time to research potential areas of profitability or identify and meet new clients.

Schedule tasks such as soliciting a number of clients each month or attending a networking event to help you keep moving forward. You’ll stay on target if you ask yourself daily, "Am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing in order to reach my goals?"

Take What You Need - Consider the equipment or services you need in order to reach your goals. Use of accounting software such as QuickBooks or Peachtree, could allow you to spend more time soliciting clients and less time going over the books. Minding the store could be delegated to a capable employee. Hiring an expert to update your website or help with other areas could free up more time to concentrate on goal-oriented items.

Pack Well - Everybody has their own organiza¬tional style; some offices are cluttered and others pristine. As a general rule of thumb, organize the tools of your trade in such a way that they are always at hand when you need them. Don’t lose a half-hour searching for the "one thing" you need in order to complete a simple five-minute task. If clut¬ter bums up excess time, bring in a file clerk or professional organizer for a "tune-up."

Always Look Ahead - Keep your calendar handy and with you at all times. If you make an appointment, get some news, or have an idea, jot it down immediately. Set aside some time at the end of each day and week to assess your progress and to strategize for the following day and week. Schedule tasks, meetings, and, most importantly, blocks of uninterrupted time to work on your short- and long-term goals. If you have work due for a client, allot enough time for completion. Don’t forget to factor in important personal and social obligations!

Fuel Up - You can’t run on fumes forever, and you can’t run on empty at all. Be sure not to drain yourself by overbooking, over-committing, skipping breakfast, or sacrificing exercise or family time on a regular basis.

Plan quality time with family and friends. If exercise is important to you, schedule it. Allow yourself substantial time to complete tasks. After work on a big project, take a break. Meet a friend for lunch, take a walk or shift to work that requires less thought or energy. Put yourself and your needs "on the agenda."