PRODUCT

Whatever happens, no one should ever be able say that your product or service was second rate. There are many reasons for losing business: You failed to understand the problem. You pitched your service instead of presenting a solution. You lost control of the sales cycle. You did not understand who all the influencers were. Whatever it may be, having a shoddy product or sloppy service, should never be the reason. After all, if you cannot deliver what you do, everything else is irrelevant. 

PROCESS

Your business needs  processes for everything. It sounds obvious but so many times I've met businesses who get things wrong because they don't have processes in place. With processes comes responsibility, effectiveness, efficiency and with processes comes profitability.

Whether you are manufacturing a product, designing a service or creating a specific solution, all need a process as does  sales. With processes  expanding and growing becomes easier.

NUMBERS

You must know your numbers. Knowing the financial status of your business allows for intelligent decision making. Where to cut spending, where to increase spending and where to invest. Overall, are we making money? But it’s not just the accounts. What are your targets? So many businesses do not set financial targets for their business each year. What are the sales targets? Salespeople want to know, what is my sales target and how much commission will I earn? Know your numbers.

Another old cliché is ‘sales is the lifeblood of your business’. I therefore find it incredible how so many businesses leave this in the hands of the uninitiated and talentless with little or no training and no management hoping it will work out and the sales will come in. And yet in my decades of experience working with a myriad of businesses, sales is  still the biggest failing.

As a business owner make sure you know what the sales numbers are and that the focus of the business is driven by the next order.

THE MANAGEMENT

There is much written about management and leadership. For the most part it can be convuloted.  Managing people requires setting out a vision & purpose. To manage effectively you have to be clear about what your  expectations are and the rewards. Summing things up succinctly makes it’s more effective and more likely to be acted upon. If summing up management and leadership in one line is possible, I suggest this could be a start:-

 ‘This is how we do things around here’.