Pajamas or business suit?
by Keller Hayes, Certified Coach
At a business after hours, I overheard someone say that the biggest concern a small business owner faced was whether to wear pajamas in his/her home office. Do I need to tell you that he wasn't a small business owner? The biggest problems that I see small businesses face are: 1-Identifying what they REALLY want; 2-Developing systems; 3-Establishing key goals; 4-Lack of professional advisors.
Colorado has the second highest rate of entrepreneurial activity in the country. There are 530 entrepreneurs per 100,000 people. The U.S. Small Business Administration says that more than 93 percent of all businesses are small businesses.
Do you remember what made you laugh when you were 13 years old? Research demonstrates that whatever made you happy at 13 years old will probably always make you feel good. Often business owners forget to factor into the vision of the business what they REALLY want. I worked with one business owner who wanted to retire in another 10 years. He felt a lot of pressure to be “successful”. He had only defined that in terms of company revenues. So, he believed he had to grow the company. But an in-depth look at his operations revealed he could actually make a higher profit right where he was. He was ecstatic. He hated to deal with a lot of employees and growth would have forced him to hire more. Now that he had focused on what he really wanted, he also had time for golf and his wife.
What systems do you have in place? If you were to win the lottery tomorrow and left your company for a great beach, would the company still keep running? (Provided you even remembered you had a company as you were ordering your next umbrella drink.) Without systems, we can get bogged down in doing things the hard way…again and again. I worked with one individual who had a staff of 30 and was easily paying the bills. But when she examined her finances, she saw that the length of time she was carrying her receivables was damaging her profitability. After implementing a system, she was able to collect $140,000 in invoices that were over 90 days past due…in only 8 days! Now she has systems to keep her finances flowing on a timely basis. Another business owner was incredibly frustrated that his employees weren't handling as much business as he thought they should. By implementing systems, he was able to focus his employees and grow his company by 400%!
Do you write down your goals? Roughly 95% of the population doesn't write down their goals. If you don't write them down, they simply aren't going to happen. A study done on Harvard graduates back in the late 50's tracked the progress of those who wrote down their goals. The individuals who wrote down their goals had more wealth and more success.
Did you participate in sports when you were in school? Every team has a coach. John Elway would never have gotten to the top of his game without a coach. I sat on the warm up bench my entire high school career. The only game I got to play was the one that recognized senior players. The coach shuttled me in for one serve and then yanked me back out again. As an adult, I learned that I had the ability to play volleyball. Because I had no training in junior high, the coach saw no need to waste her time on me. Now, I demand a good coach. Find a coach, a mentor or a trusted advisor. But make sure that this individual has the guts to tell you that you're wrong. Just hearing that you are doing everything right won't change your business or your life. The definition of crazy is “doing things like you have always done them and expecting a different result”.
Good luck at getting in the game!
Keller Hayes, certified coach, may be reached at 303-903-2905
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