Extraordinary People

Learning is Never Ending

2010-10-26T08:46:50+01:00

We start, as infants, learning to hold up our head, count on our fingers and sing our A,B,Cs.

In school we learn about our government and maths equations and how to dissect a frog. In university, our learning continues with more complex concepts and an exciting element of social learning but once we hold the degree in our hands we think, “Ah, school is finally done.”

The truth is, if we are open to new experiences, we have the ability to learn far more than our elementary school teachers ever dreamed.

I’m a great believer in life long learning.

Up until recently all the courses and training I’ve done have been related to my occupation, but I’ve just started a University course in The Arts Past and Present, if all goes well I will continue towards a degree in maybe history or classical studies. I had my first tutorial recently; that was a new experience!

The interesting thing is how business skills are easily transferable to a study environment, regardless of the study theme. It’s been a very long time, since I’ve done anything like this, so I’m sticking a toe in the water so to speak.

I encourage you to consider the same opportunity. Think back to when you were a child; was there a skill you always wanted to learn? Tap dancing? Fencing? Cooking? Watercolour? Golf?

It is never too late.

Lifehacker wrote an article about the benefits of continuing your learning and development. The article suggests selecting a new area of learning each month:

It can be easy to get overwhelmed with all of the business topics out there. Just one trip down that aisle of a bookstore can make you dizzy. That’s why every month you could focus on just one area. Maybe you want to learn more about leadership or creativity or finance. Make sure the books you read, the web sites you visit and the videos you watch focus on your chosen subject. You’ll be surprised how much you can learn in just 30 days.

When we force ourselves to add new learning to our everyday life, we give ourselves the gift of thinking differently; viewing a problem or challenge from a new angle or different perspective. Copyblogger wrote an article about the benefits of creative thinking and offers ten mental blocks that keep us from thinking differently about our business, our lives, our goals.

I love #9 – Being Wrong is Bad. It is comforting to know that it is alright to make a mistake for it is in making mistakes that we can have our biggest breakthroughs in learning.

We hate being wrong, and yet mistakes often teach us the most. Thomas Edison was wrong 1,800 times before getting the light bulb right. Edison’s greatest strength was that he was not afraid to be wrong.

So what new thing will you seek to learn this month? Will it be for personal growth and enjoyment like my course in The Arts Past and Present or will it be work related; perhaps a webinar on social networking or a book on leadership.

What ever your choice – embrace the opportunity to learn something new!

Systems versus Best Practice

2010-10-05T12:37:01+01:00

We’ve been talking about the importance of systems; creating, measuring, adjusting systems to help your business run like clockwork.

But what about “best practices?” Are they the same thing? Are they important? Just what do we mean by best practice?

Best practice means finding - and using - the best ways of working to achieve your business objectives. It involves keeping up to date with the ways that successful businesses operate.

Applying best practice means learning from and through the experience of others. One way of doing this is through benchmarking, which allows you to compare your business with other successful businesses to highlight areas where your business could improve.

Learn from Others

Just like you’ve heard the value of “using other people’s money,” the same is true about best practices. We aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel. There is very little in the business world today that hasn’t already been tried by someone else, so why not learn from their experiences?

There is a phrase that is currently being bandied about in the social media world called “co-opetition.” It is a combination of competition and cooperation. The beauty of social media is this wonderful ability to connect with others in your industry around the world! You can literally share similar customer or business operations experiences with people in the UK, Australian, India, Canada or the US although the wonders of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

As you began to develop the business systems for your company, what challenges did you encountered? What questions do you have? Consider posing those questions to your global community for their advice.

Ask a Best Practice Question of your Network

LinkedIn offers the chance to ask a question and receive answers from your network. From your LinkedIn home page, select “more” from the menu bar and then “answers.” Click on “ask a question” to pose a specific question or chose “advanced answers search” to see if anyone has asked a similar question.

Send a “tweet” out to your Tweeple on Twitter with a question or search existing comments by visiting http://search.twitter.com. Select “advanced search” and type key words into the form to see what is being said about your industry or particular operational question. Or check out this article on 5 ways to get your questions answered on Twitter from Mashable.

You’ll also want to research and read about what others have accomplished.

Best Practice Resources:

Of course, we would love to help you with the bench marketing process – defining where you are today versus other businesses in your industry. We can help you set a game plan for moving forward using the best practices of others, refining your business systems and moving toward your ultimate goal. We’d love to chat with you about that.

However, here are some additional resources you may find of value:

Entrepreneur Magazine has a variety of articles that share success stories from various business types.

Visit the Best Practices page of Addict-o-matic for an ever changing list of discussions on best practices from the social media sphere.

Work.com offers a variety of articles on Best Practices and Bench Marking.

An article about Small Business Best Practice Bench Marking.

Systems versus Best Practices

They aren’t in competition. They work hand-in-hand. Assess your business, create your system, measure the results, adjust as necessary by examining the best practices of others and then compare your results by bench marking in the industry.

We believe that your systems strategy is your business strategy, and the business systems you put in place are your business. At the heart of this idea is - that if you do it right, your business will run like clockwork, systematically and predictably.

Tweaks, Refinements and Trash

2010-09-16T08:28:42+01:00

We’ve talked about the value of having a system.

Then we talked about the importance of measuring the results.

Now we need to talk about the importance and the art of “tweaking.” We call it Systems
Innovation.

Systems innovation is about creating new systems, enhancing existing systems, and doing things in a better way. The truth is that every system can be improved and systems innovation will keep your business healthy year after year.

Using the indicators you developed in your systems evaluation process, you'll be able to immediately determine whether or not new ideas are having a measurable impact. And in today's challenging economy, you may need to make quite a few adjustments to your business.

Periodically you will need to evaluate your existing systems and ask yourself:

Is the system still providing value to the customer – better, more efficient, easier to use?

Does it still provide the results expected (or better)?

Are employees comfortable with the process – does it makes sense physically, economically and time wise?

Is the system still financial viable?

Is there a different way we can achieve the same or better results with a minor change?

Start by asking your employees their thoughts on the system. Is a change necessary? Why? How would it improve the process? What is the financial and time commitment necessary to make the change occur?

Survey your customers if the system directly impacts their experience. Was the experience satisfactory? How could it be improved? Was it easy to do business with us?

If you keep your finger on the pulse of the systems in place you will be able to adjust for economic or competitive changes in the industry without a drastic impact on the company. Regular evaluation will result in a few tweaks or refinements.

Know When to “Punt”

There will come a time when a system or process or program just doesn’t work. If you are evaluating regularly you will be able to “trash” the system quickly before too much time, effort or money is invested. However if you aren’t measuring, evaluating and changing your system as the need arises, very soon you will find the company has veered off course and the changes necessary to get back on track could be considerable.

Rob May wrote about the Heinz Ketchup story and he has this to say:

Heinz, like many entrepreneurs, considered profit only one of many yardsticks used to measure business success. Here is why Heinz thinks he was successful.

"To do a common thing uncommonly well brings success," he said. Another of his credos echoed the same sentiments: "Quality is to a product what character is to a man."

Therefore, if we are to follow in the successful footsteps of Heinz, we must measure and create a system for more than just sales and profits.

At the end of the day, your systems have to serve your business and your customer. They should help you by minimizing costs, maximizing profits and ultimately increase the value of your business.

Systems are the Solution

Implementing systems doesn't have to be a scary process that you put off for a rainy day. Remember, implementing your best practices (a.k.a. systems) will help you build a thriving turn-key business operation.

Measure the Results of Your Business System

2010-09-08T12:33:29+01:00

Last time we talked about the importance of having a system and putting the system in writing in the
article Run Your Business Like Clockwork.

Now let’s explore the value and importance of evaluating the success of your business system. Defining and documenting your business system takes hard work and dedication; but the work doesn’t end there. You need to ensure that the system is effectively working for your business. The best way to do this is to measure the results.

Would you spend £5,000 on a direct mail advertising campaign and then not measure its effectiveness?

Did the phone ring?

Did it drive traffic?

Did it convert shoppers into buyers?

Did it bring new people to your business that wouldn’t have known of you otherwise?

Did the cost of advertising pay for itself with incremental sales?

Did it further your brand awareness?

What was the return on investment? (ROI)

Once your system is defined, documented and in place – it is time to evaluate the effectiveness.

Evaluating Systems

Systems should be dynamic. When you notice that you aren't getting the results that you expect from a particular system, you might be tempted to jump to an innovation phase, to step in and immediately implement changes you think will help. Resist this temptation! Don't even think about it until you've taken a good hard look at what's really going on.

When you document your systems, you must have clearly defined and quantifiable results so that you know how to evaluate your efforts.

It's the only way to truly determine if you're systems are effective.

Real Life Example of the Value of Evaluating Your Systems BEFORE Making Changes:

One of my clients owns a conference centre. After great deliberation, she and her key staff developed a system that was supposed to be producing a lot of new leads. They documented the system, they trained everyone to use it and they rolled it out with a lot of fanfare — after all — the intended result was to increase leads in a big way — this was going to have a huge impact on their business.

After rolling out the "new and improved" system, sure enough, they did attract some new leads. But during one of our coaching calls we took a good hard look at the data — we quantified the results and realized that although it felt like the systems were working, in actuality, they weren't getting any more leads than they were before. Even though they had spent time, energy and financial resources aimed at producing a better result, the bottom line was that it just wasn't working. If we hadn't taken the time to evaluate the system, they wouldn't have been aware of the problem and they wouldn't have been able to go through the process of innovation to fix it.

Systems evaluation is an essential (but often forgotten) step in understanding your business better. By taking a good hard look at your systems and their intended results, you can determine where innovation (or possibly elimination) needs to occur.

Stop back, because next time we’ll build on this idea of having a business system and continually measuring and evaluating by talking about how to know when change is necessary.

In the meantime, here are a few additional articles on evaluating your business system that you may find of interest.

Daniel Kehrer offers tips and techniques for giving your business an Annual Check-up in an article of the same name.

Looking to measure the financial success of your business? Carter McBride offers Five Tips for Measuring Your Business Success.

John Jantsch offers 4 Metrics for Measuring Your Business Success as it relates to your brand awareness.

SIMPLE IS HARD – Is Complex Really Better?

2010-09-01T09:26:00+01:00

Last time we talked about the importance of focus in helping to make Simple really simple! Today we want to examine the myth that says “complicated means better.”

There is a misconception that says if a process, service or product is more complex, than that must mean it is better – faster – more high tech – trendy – the only choice.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone who delights in using four syllable words when a simple one would work just as well? John Jantsch talks about that as well in his Simple is Hard post:

As any regular Twitter user will tell you, you have to work sometimes to get your point across in 140 characters, but the real demon is that we feel the need to make things sound more important than they are or to demonstrate in verbose ways how much, in fact, we know about something that others don’t. I can’t tell you how many times the editor of my book suggested that I needed to ~~utilize~~ use simpler language.

The reality is that our customers, co-workers, employees, life partners, just want to have a conversation. Big and fancy, isn’t always better. Sometimes when we put ourselves in the shoes of others we realize that using simple language and recognizable examples make for a more effective conversation. Rashel Dan talks about that in his article entitled How to Make People Understand Complicated Ideas. The truth is, when we make our conversation more complex, rather than impress, we tend alienate our audience by making them feel inferior. Not a great plan of action.

Just because it is easy, doesn’t mean it is bad. In fact, using a simple approach can help you achieve your goals and communicate more effectively. John Jantsch ends his article with this challenge:

Turn to a 6 year old and ask them what you do and pay close attention to the answer because it’s probably not draped in the mask of importance that we so seem to cling to. Simple has far more value than complex, try it on and see how it feels.

Keep the K.I.S.S. principle in mind when thinking about your business. Ellen Jones warns: Be careful what you wish for... She shares this simple message:

Every day I work with horses and people, I learn. Learning what not to do is sometimes the most important part of growing. I've learned from every person and animal I've been fortunate enough to work with. The resounding lesson? Simple is always better.

So how will you simply your business and your life today?

Run Your Business Like Clockwork

2010-08-31T09:33:08+01:00

Does your business have systems in place? In the next few articles, we are going to explore the value of having systems by which you run your business.

Just what is a system?

System (from Latin systēma, in turn from Greek '''' systēma) is a set of interacting or interdependent entities forming an integrated whole.

Simply put, a system is an organized collection of parts that are highly integrated to accomplish an overall goal.

At Extraordinary People, we believe that your systems strategy is your business strategy, and the business systems you put in place are your business. At the heart of this idea is - that if you do it right, your business will run like clockwork, systematically and predictably.

If you're new to this idea, it's easy to feel overwhelmed when you take a look at your business and try to figure out where to begin. There are literally hundreds of things you could systematize, but only a handful of things you should, at least right out of the gates.

You have to think strategically about what systems will have a meaningful impact on your business.

Strategy will be different for every business; the key is to exercise your best judgment on what system to begin with that will create the result with the biggest impact on your business.

Here’s the Main Point: a business without a system isn’t really a business that can stand on its own without you being involved in every little detail. Michael Gerber, author of E-Myth, talks about the importance of working “on” your business, not “in” your business.

If all of the details of how your business works, who the best vendors are, what products/services offer the best margins, who your best customers are and what direction you hope to take the business are all IN YOUR HEAD, then you will never be able to grow your business beyond your own abilities.

There are only 24 hours in a day. Even for you!

To that end, you need to:

Determine the systems important to operate your business and document them – put them in writing.

Evaluate your systems – change is constant and so your systems must reflect the changes in your industry, the economy and most importantly, the changes in what your customer needs and values.

Look at ways technology can innovate your systems to make the process better, faster, cheaper, etc.

How Do You Get Started?

It’s just like you’d eat an elephant…one bite at a time. Start with determining what the systems are and then developing a plan to put them in writing.

Ask yourself this question: if my business was for sale – what would the new owners need to know in order to continue to operate the business and eventually grow in sales and profitability?

As I said before, each business will have different systems. A one person, home based business will have fewer systems to document, but they still have systems:

Who is the target customer, where do you find them, how do you contact them, what do you say when you do, what is the follow up process?

What do your proposals look like?

How long do you wait after submitting a proposal to follow up?

What does the contract look like?

What is the billing/receivables process?

What is your process for paying your vendors and setting up new accounts?

If you need to outsource part of the process – who are the primary vendors?

What do you look for in a vendor?

What is your customer service philosophy?

How do you handle upset customers?

Do you have a refund policy?

Companies that have full and part time staff will have additional systems to document: policies and procedures, hiring practices, benefits, etc.

What are the Benefits of Documenting the System?

Imagine that you have managed to take a long weekend break with your significant other. You are enjoying an invigorating day of downhill skiing when suddenly you loose control and end up in the hospital with a broken leg. You are going to be laid up for far longer than originally intended.

Can your business survive without you managing every detail and in some cases actually doing the work yourself?

If you have systems fully documented – you can breathe a sigh of relief. Someone can come in and pick up the pieces while you mend.

Bottom Line

Unless a system is documented, it can't be repeated properly. You may have a system that has naturally developed over time, and it works pretty well because the people who do it have been doing it that way for a long time. But if that process is not written down, how can you train others to create the same results?

Documenting processes is absolutely essential. And it's not necessarily about the structure of the document, so don't get caught up in that aspect. Just do it in a way that's effective in your business and can be easily followed. Actually – grab a voice recorder and just talk it all into the recorder and then hire a virtual assistant like Elance or Odesk to transcribe for you.

The important thing is to get the systems out of your head and down on paper so that you can begin working ON the growth of your business and get out of the weeds of working IN your business.

Next time we are going to talk about the importance of evaluating your systems.

SIMPLE IS HARD – Focus Is Everything

2010-08-18T07:41:09+01:00

In my experience, there are two primary reasons why we overcomplicate things. The first is a loss of focus. When you lose touch with why you’re doing what you’re doing, you inadvertently sentence yourself to trivial pursuits. The second is that we fool ourselves into thinking that more complex means better.

In this post we’ll FOCUS our efforts around the value and importance of being focused in your thinking, planning and execution.

FOCUS helps to simplify

In a recent blog post by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing he talks about why simple is so hard. He challenges entrepreneurs and business professionals to be so focused in their message, in the value they offer, the solutions they provide, that they can narrow the statement to one simple phrase:

Open your business up and ask yourself how you could land on one easy to understand and communicate thing that you stand for. One simple, single purpose for doing what you do. One audacious innovation that takes people’s breath away. Don’t complicate it, no matter how trivial it feels.

To be focused in your message, you have to be focused in your efforts as well. Chris Brogan starts each year off with three words that represent how he will approach his business for the year. Although his words were selected in January and this is August – it is never to late to DECIDE to be focused in your business approach. Once you’ve determined your three simple words that represent your goals, ask yourself this question throughout the day: “Is what I’m doing right this minute a reflection of those three words?” If not – you may be making life more difficult than it needs to be.

Having trouble getting started? Leo Babauta offers 10 tips to simplify your life. My favorite? Drop one commitment. We all have found ourselves saying “yes” when we meant to say no. Look at your list of commitments. Is there something you can take off the list that doesn’t move you in the direction of accomplishing your goals; personal and professionally? Give yourself permission to cross it off!

Henrik Edberg penned a post in which he outlines 10 Common Mistakes We Make When we Think. I love this article because he not only identifies the problem; he offers specific solutions. There are a couple of favorites on this list, but the first mistake – over thinking – is classic. We analyze a problem, opportunity or task from so many directions that we talk ourselves out of making a move, thus making something that should have been simple – HARD!

I challenge you to rethink how you view your business and even you life. Are you spending more time multi-tasking and less time accomplishing? Start today by focusing your efforts on one specific goal. Think “simple.”

Stop back – next time we’ll ask the question – does complicated mean better?

Gordon Ramsay Brings Family to Work

2010-06-26T08:21:50+01:00

Just over a year ago, I kicked off this blog with an article titled, Are you the next Gordon Ramsay? Would you want to be? Essentially, we talked about work-life balance and whether or not the balance that comes with celebrity would be the type of balance you would want in your life.

I addressed some common misconceptions and shared that balance is a moving target, that it’s not 50%-50%, and that what is balance for one person is not balanced for another. If time at home with family and privacy are important to you, then celebrity likely isn’t your ideal work-life balance.

The latest season of Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen just launched in the United States and the most recent episode made me realise that I forgot about another common misperception – that a happy home life is a life separate from your work life.

Gordon has included his family in 2 of the first 3 episodes; and it’s not the first time he has included his family in his television shows. If Gordon can take his family to work, then why can’t you?

Now, it’s not necessarily the best solution for everyone, but it is something to consider. One of the reasons we become business owners is so that we can control the rules by which we work. So why not have a playroom for the kids in the office or a TV lounge for the family to hang out in while you’re working?

Your family should be just as comfortable in your business as they are at home. When you blend the family and the business together, you no longer see them as separate parts of your life. Further, they see and understand your work life; which means that you’re eliminating the likelihood that think you are choosing one over the other.

When we look back in history at the first successful businesses, they were all family owned and operated businesses. All family members felt like they had an ownership stake and were invested in the business being successful whether they directly worked in it or not.

The question I have for you is, does your family feel like owners of your company? They should! When everyone in your household is committed to the success of your business – even at the age of 5 – then instead of guilt, you will have the support you need during those times when you have to put the business first. Remember...a happy business is always a successful business!

Are You Burned Out From Working in a Business with No Boundaries?

2010-05-19T07:45:13+01:00

Boundaries…another major issue that many small business owners struggle with. I’m talking about self-imposed boundaries that keep you sane, keep you productive and keep you from not giving away the store.In this difficult economy, many businesses are so afraid of not getting or losing a sale that they let prospects and clients alike walk all over them and get anything they want. Have you ever had a client negotiate a project down in scope to get a lower price and then come back and want you to add on the stuff for which they didn’t want to pay for free? Did you give in?

It’s very important that you set boundaries around the operation of your business. These boundaries should fit in with your general business plan such as minimum fee amounts or the total number of active clients you can carry at one time.

Other operational boundaries could include what days you do and do not work, when you are and are not available for phone calls, and when you respond to email messages, instant messages, tweets, etc.

Operational boundaries tend to be clear-cut, black and white guidelines, but there are also more subtle boundaries to consider as well. Subtle boundaries often revolve around things like what clients you’re willing to work with. For example, a prospect who cancels 3 times on you, or a customer who complains every single time they walk in your business' door.

The best part about clearly identifying all of your different boundaries is that you’ve now created “policies.” Policies take the “personal” element out of the equation. When you tell someone that this is your “policy” it means that it is applicable to everyone and you’re not just choosing to treat this particular client or prospect in this manner.

The word “policy” often tends to be of concern to small business owners because they see policies as rigid and non-breakable. That’s not true! It’s your business. You can make exceptions! Simply clearly communicate that an exception is being made and the reason for the exception.

However, you must also be careful about exceptions to ensure that you are not just making excuses to avoid sticking to your boundaries.

Instead of thinking of your boundaries as a leash restricting your activities, think of them as your suit of armour. They are what protect you from bad business practices and bad clients that are the main causes of burnout.

Are You Ready for the Economic Turnaround?

2010-05-10T17:13:26+01:00

Regardless of the ups and downs of the financial markets, economic indicators have clearly been pointing to the fact that we’re on the way out of the recession. Light is now visible at the end of the tunnel! Before we move too close to the recovery, have you taken advantage of the opportunities of the downturn?

Although many have been, not all businesses have been suffering during this recession; sales may have been down, but they haven’t been in dire straits. In fact, they’ve been positioned to grow and capture opportunities while their competitors have been going out of business! If you’re a smart business owner, you’re taking steps now so that when the next recession hits – and it will – you’ll find yourself in a much better position than you are in now.

The average small business owner acts very much like the average investor – they buy high and sell low. When the economy is booming and revenue is flowing, they invest in growing the business and buying new assets. The problem is that they’re paying top dollar for those new assets – buying high. Because they invested all of their excess resources on expensive assets instead of saving it to buy when the economy is down, they often have to liquidate when the next recession hits – selling low.

The smart business owner is looking around and taking advantage of future growth opportunities now! If you’ve been telling yourself that you’ll expand and invest in your business only when the economy turns around, you’ll have missed out on some great opportunities.

You may not be able to do everything now, but chances are there are opportunities within your reach that will save you money and increase potential for future revenue. If you want to truly position yourself to optimize the growth potential of your business when the market is good, you need to find a way to make some investment now.

It may require sacrifice, but it will fundamentally change the future of your business for the positive. Now is the time that it will be most painful. However, when the market turns around, your work isn’t complete. Instead of spending, you’ll need to take those excess proceeds and put them away so that when the next recession hits, you’ll be strong and really positioned for huge growth.

Smart business owners who are positioned correctly take advantage of the opportunities present in every part of the economic cycle! Yes, there is a “good” side to a recession. What can you do now to move your business closer to benefiting from the roller coaster ride and not suffering because of it?