Make them remember YOU

In the service business (and most businesses), it’s best to market your company, not a product.  Your competitor can market the same or a similar product, but they can never be you.  And when the product goes away or changes – there’s still your company’s brand.

Are you marketing your company and the associated benefits it provides, or are you marketing a product?

Human Accelerants

All other things being equal (and they don’t have to be), a group will slow their performance down to the slowest that is accepted by the leader or other team members. 

Find people that get things done to be on your team.  You know the kind…they walk into a room and things speed up and get accomplished.  It’s their nature. They are hard to find, but without one here and there in each department, things tend to drag on forever.

Who is an “Accelerant” on your team?

Vision

“Seeing is believing” they say.  That’s a problem, because you only tend to believe what has already been done.

Vision is seeing things that haven’t happened yet.

What is your vision?

Employees who don’t want to be here

If all, or a lot, of employees don’t want to be at your company – it’s you.

But if a small minority don’t want to be there, you should send them out to find a place they do want to be as soon as possible.  They are poisoning the water for everyone – customers and other employees alike.

Don’t make that hiring mistake again.

How do I create value for me?

Create value for others.

How much are you creating?

Give up

When things aren’t going well for a long time despite your best efforts, you should give up.

Give up doing things in ways that don’t work.

Give up being stubborn.

Give up fighting the marketplace.

Never give up.  Just give up the things that aren’t working.

Don’t give up

So many great men and women over the years have told us, “Don’t give up.”

As for me, I can tell you that when there were dark times I adjusted what I was doing, adapted to the challenge, but I didn’t give up.  The results eventually always came.

Don’t give up.

Hobbies are a lot of work

What is your hobby?  A sport like football or tennis?  A craft like quilting or models?  Collecting something?  Restoring things?  Coaching a team? 

Chances our our hooby requires a great deal of preparation and work – but we do it anyway even though it doesn’t pay, but it likely costs us money.

What does that say about your attitude towards the job you do for money? 

If you could make money at something you’d do for free – wouldn’t that be something?

We could find something we’d do for free and figure out how to make money at it, or find something we can make money at and figure out how to design the job that we’d like it a lot better.

Which?

The "accidental non-profit"

Did you ever start a non-profit by accident?  Maybe it’s the business you’re working on now.

If you’re breaking even now, congratulations!  You are successfully managing 90%% of your cash flow. 

Now just tweak it to get a little better at offense – 2%% more efficient at marketing, 3%% better at sales, 2%% better at converting phone calls into business.  Then get a little better at defense – 2%% better at productivity, 2%% better at quality, and 2%% better at reducing materials and overhead costs. 

Bam!  You’re profitable!

What CAN you get?

If you are struggling to get enough of the kind of business that you originally set out to, perhaps you should ask “what kind of business CAN I get?”

It could be about not fighting the market, but serving what it wants, where it wants it, how it wants it instead.

Think on it.