It’s very frequent for someone to look for that one diet to help them lose weight or the best cream to get rid of those wrinkles, but when you think about it there’s usually more than one thing which needs to be done to accomplish your goal.  You need to find a balance of options to truly make things work, right?  More often than not, e.g. to lose weight you not only need a diet, but exercise. 

The same is true with your business.

Many people are searching for that shiny penny.  In fact I have found many business owners spend thousands of dollars a year on programs that are going to make them rich or take away the pain, only to find out it didn’t work.  There really are many reasons of why programs may or may not work, but in truth part of it is that your business doesn’t typically have only one issue to be solved.

There are five to six core elements to your business.  While some believe they act independent of each other, they actually have an interdependent relationship. Like everything else, your business requires a balance.

Let’s look at one example, the difficulty of finding good employees. How are you recruiting?  Are you looking for skill?  Are you looking for personality?  The key is to look for someone who has the right skill set (or is trainable) AND the personality and values that fit your company’s culture!  If you’re missing one of these pieces, you will not have the right person for the job.  Something to keep in mind, many businesses don’t know the company’s values; they haven’t defined the company’s mission, let alone shared it with their employees.  Another issue. This eventually effects the operations of the business.

Let’s take another example.  Lead generation and/or social marketing media are two common programs that business owners jump into as that shiny penny of 1,000s+ per month of new leads or 10x revenue are promised to them. Ignoring the issue of whether or not the program actually works or that you actually work the program to test it, ask yourself are you ready to handle the additional load if you do receive the 1,000s+ leads or 10x revenue.  You’re probably laughing at me right now.  “Of course I can handle it; who wouldn’t want this?” I can hear you saying it now.  I’ll go a step further. Let’s say you get 1,000s+ more leads a month, do you have a process in place to follow up on those leads?  Do you know what the cost is of converting those leads into clients, e.g. do you need to hire more people and/or purchase new management tools?  Now you can see, not only are your operations affected but your finances as well.  Before you know it you have the snowball effect of issues you weren’t planning for. 

Another misconception is having that 10x revenue means I’ve grown my business and am more successful, but are you?  The next question to ask yourself is have my profits increased as well, and by how much? There are many businesses out there making millions in revenue and yet losing money.  How can this be? Clearly there are other underlying issues that need to be resolved in order to really make this work for you.  It doesn’t do you any good to earn that 10x revenue if you don’t have the systems in place to handle it or the tools in place to manage your cash flow.

In reality there rarely is just one issue that needs to be dealt with and there typically has to be more than one action that needs to be taken to solve each issue. The key is to identify what order to deal with each issue and determine the best solution for each area of your business.

This is where strategy comes into play.  Without strategic development in your company, linking all of the key elements of your business together, you are risking the loss of balance you need to truly succeed and add profits to your bottom line.

To schedule your “Ultimate Company Check-Up℠” which evaluates the overall health of your company, contact us and we’ll be happy to help, https://bit.ly/2KGNUci

Peggy Niles