Sunday, February 22. 2009
Basics... Every small business operates on some basic business principles. Each business may be unique in offerings, delivery, and culture, but the basics are the same whether you are in Orlando or Omaha. When times are tough, I always go back to the basics of business and start the process of review. Vince Lombardi used to start each season with the Green Bay Packers with a speech that started with ...."This is a football." Coach Lombardi was a stickler for the basics of football, blocking and tackling, and he became a legendary winner, by performing the on the basics. In business, my basics begin with a few questions. How you answer them will determine how you can deliver and even grow in a difficult economic time.
1) What need are you filling? This is not "what to you do, or how do you do it..but what need are you filling for you client. Do you know? I used to provide searchlights, but the need I was filling was to attract attention to events and businesses. The need that McDonalds fills is for quality food, quickly, and consistently. How they do that is giving you the same experience every day, at the speed of the drive thru. Get back to defining what need you are filling and then examine if there are things you have added that do not support that mission.
2) Are you making a profit? Sales numbers can be deceiving. Do you still have a profit margin? what is it and what specific products or services are producing the most? You may want to change your marketing message to support sales of the product line that makes the most money.
3) Examine all your finances. Anything that you do not absolutely have to have, needs to go! Do you have inventory, vehicles, or surplus goods that might be sold? What about renting out part of your space? Is now the time to re-finance, or is it time to pay off debt?
4) Urgency is the word for this year. How urgent are sales to your sales force? How urgent is customer service to your service folks? This is the time to instill an urgency in your team to take care of business, take care of your clients, and see who you can attract to do business with you today, not next week, but TODAY!
5) Cultivate your clients. This is the time to contact anyone and everyone, that has done business with you in the past. They have already used your services, so they might be ready to use you again, and if not, they may know someone who might be ready for your services,, so ask them for referrals. When you keep the right ATTITUDE, and get back to BASICS and I am sure you will begin to see a transformation in the way you conduct your business each day, and your clients will begin to see it too.
... Try it and let me know how it is working for you....