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Archive for category Excellence!

What are you Addicted to?

May 16

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Human Resource Management, Leadership, People! | No Comments

Why should addiction matter in business? It helps to appreciate what people are ‘excited’ by so you can understand and therefore work with them more effectively.

Let’s take a look,

Mostly addiction is about chemicals – Illicit drugs are the obvious ones, but the brain is ‘excited’ by all sorts of chemicals, Serotonin, Dopamine, Caffeine, Alcohol and Adrenaline to name a few. Some seem to last just a short time, while others may be longer lasting.

The power of these chemicals is often VERY strong (some more than others) and while in most instances these lead to positive outcomes, the opposite may also true. The upshot of the chemical addiction is the physical acts which come as part of that process.

Years back I worked with unemployed people on Job Search programs, occasionally I could get them ‘excited’ and in a ‘buzz’ about jobs and life in general and see their eyes light up. I would then joke about me giving them ‘free drugs’ (Serotonin, Dopamine etc.) just from having a chat, that generally gave them a chuckle. Some came in the next day with stories of telling their partner and or families that I had given them free drugs, we got a good laugh at the shocked responses they got. After that, all I had to do was say “more free drugs!”

With workers (and yourself) it would pay to know about the administration of these drugs to enable your team to be the best they can be.

So how do you cause these ‘chemicals’ to be released, the right ones at the right time to get the right result? Read more free business tips that’s how. Then implement a bunch of initiatives to get the ball rolling. Before long you could become the drug dealer of choice! If it worked really well, customers will arrive in droves and you will have more resumes from willing workers than you can ‘shake a stick at.’

Meditation in Business

May 1

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Human Resource Management, People!, Personal Development, Risk Management | 1 Comment

I recently saw some information on Mediation being used in schools. Where it’s been trialled they suggest the outcomes are very favourable, lower anxiety, less stress and calmer students. They go on to say the students have become more respectful, communicate better and have ‘less issues’ in the playground. I then took a look on heh web, it seems there are a bunch of businesses doing it “in the boardroom”.

Anyone who has done some meditation and have experienced the benefits will soon tell you this is nothing new. For me what could be new is using its benefits to enhance your business, less stress, less anxiety, less hassles, that can only mean less staff absenteeism, and therefore greater productivity. Couple that with “less issues in the play ground” and you could be on to a big winner!

The challenges would be to cause your business culture to alter enough to accept it, followed by which method to use, when it would be used and if the whole team started the day with a meditative session or not.

Once the initial questions have been pondered you might start out by offering an in house learning session with a mediation teacher who would give some simple short sharp options people could practice readily. Add a few links to articles on the web and perhaps a handout as a reminder they can pin up at their desk could be useful.

For those who think there could be issues with certain religious types not taking to a ‘new form of prayer’, set them straight by letting them know that very little meditation is related to religion and more to do with the science of holistic relaxation and better health.

Do a quick search on the net and find some simple strategies on how to do this, then follow up with your team every few weeks and discuss the benefits, issues etc to see how it works for your business. You might just get a pleasant surprise!

I get a picture of whole office spaces filled with cubicles of staff starting the day with 10 mins of chill time, following some basic steps to ‘Breathe in, breathe out and repeat…” all to aid the health and well being of all concerned. Perhaps all of this might add to the teams sense of belonging, connectedness, sense of achievement, a feeling of having a unified purpose and a sense of organisational integrity, all due to one simple process repeated daily… nice.

Do Your People Put In?

Apr 30

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Human Resource Management, Leadership, People!, Planning | No Comments

Do your people  go the ‘extra mile’ and add greater value to your organisation? Well why not? Here are some clues to work from.

People will do more, if certain things happen, often these ‘things’ are not too much to consider in the scheme of things. Let’s take a look.

People put in when…

  • They can see the business is well led – People respect good leadership, clear decision making and planning is taking place and they know about it.
  • The business is secure – They know they have a solid income base and can see the products and services they provide are of value to the consumers. They also sense the future is rosy because of good planning, use of innovation and the profits not being squandered somehow.
  • They are respected – People who sense they are respected often go the extra mile, “You respect me – I respect you”. This happens from the leaders in the organisation and is infectious across all in the team.
  • Communication is clear, open and honest – Keep people in the dark for too long they may not see the light at the end of the tunnel. Therefore keep them in the light, let them know what’s happening.
  • They know the business cares by… – They provide quality resources, tools, technology, good work environment, good systems, policies and procedures. This of course includes OHS as a given, not a ‘have to have’ add on.
  • Their work environment is stimulating – Comfortable, well maintained, safe, secure and interesting enough to keep them engaged in what they do.
  • The cultural values and beliefs provide a solid foundation – At the core of the business, the culture is driven by the values and beliefs, if your team know these have suitable guidelines to live by they will fit to and often exceed expectations, especially if these values and beliefs are spelled out and details provided of scenarios of the values and beliefs in action to serve as positive examples.
  • Sense they are part of the solution – Customers have wants and needs and if these can be met and the team feel as though they were a positive contributor to the solutions then the results can be the team feels they have a sense of purpose.

Now set to work and focus on each point as a matter of urgency so your people can be all they can be and set stunning examples for new team members. Your customers will love the people who go the extra mile and return with more cash more readily in the future. That can only spell one thing, more business success.

Wanted!

Apr 24

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, People!, Planning, Risk Management | No Comments

A great business to work for…

A great person to work in our business…

I find it rather strange that businesses will say “You can’t get good people these days” and people will say “You can’t find a good business to work for”

Both statements have an element of realism about them, yet both are unrealistic views all at the same time. I know for a fact that great businesses exist, and they can find great people to work for them, and the same for those looking for work, what’s different is the approach.

I guess it’s the ‘self talk’ taking place in people’s heads (your business does not think…) the sort of talk that causes self fulfilling prophecies to happen. Yes you ended up with another team member who won’t work how you want, and the worker ends up with another business full of poor work practices and low pay.

Let’s turn that around… “I keep finding great people to work with me to make this business great” or “I love looking for companies with great credentials who provide a great environment to be a part of.”

The more you look the more you find, if you search for great things then that is probably what you will find, and remember the opposite is also quite feasible.

People who have the ability to ‘land on their feet’ seem to be the ones who make it their business to know where to look for good outcomes, others amongst the population may be so used to less favourable outcomes they land on their feet, but up to their knees in mud…

The answer, develop a set of outcome ideas and focus on that. e.g. a worker looking for a great company to be part of, make a list of the qualities they have, where they would most likely be and then do research to find out about them and what they do.

The same in a search for a worker, list the qualities, abilities and skills sets you want and search from there.

In part it’s creative visualisation, followed with great guidelines for finding more ideal environments and situations which suit our needs.

These simple tactics enable you to be focused on your outcome, rather than leaving things open to interpretation by ‘the powers that be’, so you stand a much better chance of finding what you want. Remember the more you look, the more you will see.

Collaboration

Apr 9

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Growth, Human Resource Management, People! | No Comments

Across all levels of your business collaboration takes place. Sometimes it’s putting two people together to work on a project, working with customers to get a good outcome to a service issue. Perhaps it’s liaising with external suppliers to get products and or services how you want them (on time up to quality and at a good price).

How do your people collaborate, and are they aware they do it, almost constantly in your business? Are they aware of how well they do or don’t do it?

Collaboration: Leverage collective genius – work cooperatively with others – Comply with all legal and statutory authorities – Explore ways to develop profitable business relationships.

Collaboration is like some sort of guideline, knowing the boundaries and exploring the lines and levels of communication so people can do what they do well. The more your people communicate in a collaborative manner the more chance you have of the organisation really exploring it’s strengths and abilities. over time weaknesses and poor skills will be replaced by a more positive approach.

Collaboration as a value is important to recognise and find ways to make it prosper and grow.

Tolerance

Apr 9

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Growth, Human Resource Management, People! | No Comments

People tolerate each other, but to what degree? If you have customers who are ‘intolerable’ what are you doing to be able to handle them better, either as a goal to move away from them or ways to make their experience with your business better?

On the staffing side, how well do your people tolerate each other, perhaps they shouldn’t need to tolerate bad behaviour (bullying, harassment and such and should have ways to work positively with these kinds of issues.) But how do differing nationalities get on? and the difference in values people might have due to a range of personal beliefs and values.

Tolerance: Of others, their views, beliefs and values.

In business we have to deal with many things, handling differences is part and parcel of things and our ability to be flexible in our approach is probably key to making differences work.

Take a look at what people in your team tolerate from each other and customers. Do they handle the differences well or not. If not what can you do to show people there are differences and that they can simply be other peoples beliefs and values, they are not good or bad, just different. Then yo will have a great starting point to build from.

Respect

Apr 9

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Growth, Human Resource Management, Planning | No Comments

I see this as one of the biggest words in the dictionary, although only seven letters long. It can mean so much, be bandied about so frivolously and thrown at people when they least expect it. In business it can mean the difference between things happening or not, or people willingly following a great lead or not… you get the idea, it has an effect at all levels across all aspects of your business, the more you  look the more you will see respect at work.

Respect: For each other, the people we serve and the environment – From the way we communicate to the way we act on all levels.

How then do you build respect? Explore it’s meaning to you and others in your organisation first, then look at ways of implementing high level respect. It could be better communication, from you as the business leader to to your team communicating with you. Then to the way everyone communicates with the customers.

How do your actions encourage respect, are you too laid back, not clear in your communication, not clear about your goals, the organisations goals, the way the team/s interact… and the list goes on.

If you value the notion of respect you will find more ways to make it happen for yourself and your team. May I suggest you make a BIG list of the ways respect shows up in an organisation and how these can be tweaked in your organisation to foster some growth. the bigger the respect gets the better chance you will have of creating a positively buoyant organisation, and that has got to be good for the longer term stability of the enterprise.

Leadership

Apr 9

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Leadership | 1 Comment

There are many things an organisation needs to be ahead in the profits race, Leadership and the positive values it instills is the first thing which should come to mind, with no lead, how will anyone else know what needs to be done, when and by whom? It’s a great value by which to build your business from.

Leadership: The courage to shape a better future by taking positive actions – The ability to motivate people to explore excellence – Lead by example “see something, do something”.

Take action to be all you can be as a leader, even if you don’t think you have what it takes, learn fast, get better at communication, making decisions, building rapport, service, motivating, influencing (Positively!)

How will you encourage others to lead, so that others can see things happening and take action to create a better outcome, (see something, do something). How will they respond when you ask them to ‘step up to the plate’ and take the lead?

Your ability to take action may mean you have to make a time commitment to learning something new (in a book, a class or online.) as well as having to sacrifice some things in the short term to get better business results. Your ability to be an ‘exceptional leader’ will make the difference between a group of people who work together and get results to a team of stunning individuals who come together and work on incredible projects everyone loves to be a part of. The difference between the two, HUGE, the catalyst, you… go ahead and lead, knowing that your goal is to create an awesome team right now.

Jangled Nerves and Your Team

Mar 28

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Leadership, People!, Risk Management | No Comments

Your people mean everything to your business, your customers and profitability, of course you look after them (you know better than to treat them badly) but sometimes things slip.

You have been plodding along nicely, watching things tick over and out of the blue you messed up, instead of chatting to an employee about an issue normally seen as small, you jump in and give them a written warning on a blue card. You figure you have chatted to them about other issues in the past and the person in question has been with the organisation for over 5 years so they should know better and you jumped in with the written warning. Perhaps you were feeling short tempered, lots of things providing pressure to your daily routine, perhaps other things were playing on your mind.

In hindsight you were busy and this seemed like an easy way to resolve the issue. For the employee however it hits hard, like a quick slap in the face.

The issue, normally resolved fast with a quick chat, where they soon admit they slipped up, now becomes something more. Perhaps the employee will say something like “Hey, how about a verbal warning first…?” But things turned out differently.

Perhaps the employee will say nothing and the issue will fade, or it might fester and become a thorn in their side, niggling at them. Trust once at a high level has now been downgraded, cynicism can kick in and things could start to slide. Let’s hope the issue fades fast.

A few issues here which need to be looked at. The procedure you would normally follow (a few verbal warnings before a written warning) has been ignored. Your usual stance of getting more information to fully evaluate the issue was also missed. You were under pressure to perform other tasks and to some degree have failed your own high standards.

It’s a pity this has happened, but interesting to note that a small issue can get out of hand fast.

For the Employee the situation can set off a small ripple of disgruntled communication to colleagues who can react in a variety of ways, hopefully it fades out (you hope) but if it multiplies the ongoing effect on productivity and morale can be devastating. The worst part is you may not even know about it until it’s too late.

Of course there is always the issue that you may have introduced a new procedure, policy etc and forgot to tell people “For major issues a written warning on a blue card is all about raising awareness of our Duty of Care… note it’s not for disciplinary action purposes, but simply serves as a reminder.” but you wouldn’t forget to tell the folks now would you. Of course you would also make sure that someone else reads the info first to see if it appears threatening, but no it has in BIG letters Written Warning across the top and it looks like a disciplinary action.

You can’t be perfect, but one way to resolve an issue like this is to get regular feedback on what’s being communicated, to you from them and from them to you. This way you can be on active alert for issues when they arise.

The ideal business

Mar 22

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Growth, Leadership | No Comments

Sounds like a great title huh, you probably thought, oh is it one that makes great $$ (yeah) and does it have incredible profits (well YEAH!) and does it mean I have to hardly run it… and don’t have to have many skills???? umm probably not.

What I’m thinking of here is the structural side of the business idea, rather than the sort of business it might be. So no it’s not the far out super freaky pizza business that serves east west Tex-Mex surprises with a Thai influence.

Imagine a business, where you have made things tick over nicely the staff are stable (and happy), your customers like what you provide and the way forward looks good. Income and profitability tick over nicely and you wonder about the bigger picture now you have more time to, you replaced yourself multiple times with great people and can sit back and “enjoy the view”. Now it’s time to look that bit further, or perhaps differently to cause your business to do more of what you want it to.

You know when to put on new staff, knowing when the rest of the team are pushing the limits, and you can handle the ‘lag time’ until they are ‘up to speed’ in the role. You have great measurement tools in place to know what’s working and what’s not. You know what the profit margin is and where it goes to.

What next? Is this it, is this the holy grail of your business goal/s? Are  your challenges at an end? Do you simply sell it off and retire (early?) or do you go for the thrill of the chase… the adrenaline injecting process of doing more, and creating anew to push yourself that bit further.

Let’s go for the latter… Lets explore how you can replicate the process to explore success in business and do more, be more have more. After all we live in a world of abundance and by the sound of things if you have read this far you have probably said to yourself yes I do all these things and I am in that lovely lofty position to be able to do more.

You have created an ‘organism’ which grows, it’s more than just sustainable and you can stand back and enjoy the benefits of it’s growth. Now take out a pen and pad and jot down the mechanics of the business, what makes it tick, what makes it profitable? What sets it apart from your competition to the point where you don’t have to even be there anymore to enjoy it.

Take that list and ask, Can I develop a formula from our current successes to be able to reproduce that in other businesses… short answer will probably be yes.

I suggest at this stage  you take a look at the list in a way which deals with the essence of the success and not just trying to think about other businesses you might like to try out or test. Look at the structure, how information flows, the team and culture, the values and beliefs, all the things which can cause the internal structures to remain steadfast and provide the right sort of support for growth.

Now you know what makes your current business tick and the building blocks for ANY new business, it’s up to you to act on the information.

If you create a new business or five, hold this thought in your mind… “in war success has never come to those who fought on more than three fronts” (go on prove me wrong…) it’s said this was Hitlers downfall in the end. So how will you as a business owner develop more businesses without this happening.

Firstly you will be mindful of it, secondly you will probably recognise that each business will not be run by you, you simply provide the ‘right structure and resources’ then step back and advise on ways to tweak the enterprise to generate greater success.

Go on, give it a go, if things go well through great planning you will end up with a site of businesses making good profits you will be able to share around with others, therefore creating more positive abundance in the world.

 

 

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Your Brilliant Business

Mar 13

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Growth, Leadership, People!, Planning, Starting out in business | No Comments

Your brilliant business is caused by people doing more of the right things – Thinking – Adding value – Loving what they do – Taking initiative – Exploring options and Providing great service to name a few.

Well that’s my view.

We could spend ages debating the issue, what a brilliant business is, how it’s measured and the results it provides. But I want to focus on the ethereal things which caused it to be a brilliant business. The initial points I put up are a big part of that.

Let’s go back to the start, a business you set up started with an idea, you could see what you wanted, probably saw yourself running it how things would turn out. In your minds eye you saw a plan of action coming to reality and all the key pointers I started this article with are what bought the dream to reality.

It was you in the beginning who put in the effort, you did the thinking, the planning, took initiative, explored options and provided great service to ensure prospects and customers would come back for more.

The next step in your business was a big one, you took on staff, partners and or associates who could see what you saw, felt what you felt and heard the positive accolades for the products and service you provided for customers. You managed to  encourage your ‘team’, they got motivated, excited and became driven to follow in your footsteps.

The results spoke for themselves, happy customers, great products and services and the bottom line reflects the top level positive work everyone puts in.

There it is, your brilliant business, brilliantly utilising your ‘soft resources’ to ensure the ‘hard resources’, products and services, are in the right place at the right time for your ideal prospects and customers.

Sadly all of this is not a common occurrence, in fact it’s a rare situation, one sadly lacking in a world where hope, excitement and the ‘thrill of the chase’ has been eclipsed by businesses which start up and fade, some fast, some slow.

All of the above points and so much more in formation is available to those who want to ensure their ‘business idea is given the best chance of survival in the ‘formative part of the business process’ and thriving in the maturing part of the process, yet too many fail fast.

What annoys me the most is that people who have great intentions in starting their business find the sense of loss palpable. All that was required was the right sort of research, a solid plan of action and the ability to cause people to follow your brilliant lead. Alas too many businesses do not have that and what could be a great start soon becomes millstone.

Let’s ask then, what sort of business do you want to have? One with brilliant prospects and outcomes or one doomed to failing fast? Now ask what will you do to make sure it’s not the latter!

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The Open Plan Office Failure

Feb 16

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Health and Safety Dept, Innovation and Creativity, Risk Management | No Comments

Open plan offices offer a lot if your team communicates openly with each other share conversations with customers and offering information or advice between a small group of staff. The challenge comes when you expect the team to work without distractions (planning – on the phone with customers etc.)

Ok so what was the big deal with going for open plan in the first place? Cost? Having the chance to break down barriers? More open communication? Other…

Let’s go the other way, what’s the deal with a ‘closed’ office? Greater privacy – Easier to concentrate – Cut down on noise – More wall space (for planning charts and so on…) – Your computer can be oriented so only you see what’s on the screen (ok not the best reason but surely quiet important!)

Perhaps the best way is to go halfway (is that possible?) creating spaces which offer users the ability to have privacy, a sense of security, still have some degree of communication openness, not have the cost of a full office, and provide the user with that sense of ownership or personalisation without having everyone look at your personal items etc

Maybe we could go for the cocoon, or pod, I seem to recollect back in the 70’s the Illustrator Roger Dean (Did lots of futuristic and fantasy album covers) created a whole bunch of futuristic spacey spaces and one of them included a ‘Learning Pod’ and individual cocoon shaped like a giant seed pod. Is that a way to go…

I believe the answer probably lies in clearly looking at what the business, your business, is all about and exploring the ideal way to make what needs to happen, happen, in the most effective way possible.

If your team really work as a team, then maybe a team space is required with separate areas to compile info for the team.

If your team are working directly with customers, then perhaps they just need a space where they can do that with minimal fuss.

If your team are a bunch of slackers and serve no real purpose to your amazingly big conglomerate then perhaps a bunch of hotel rooms with Wi Fi connectivity might be the go…

I guess what I am really saying is to ‘go deep’ and look at the specific reasons your team need the space they need and how they will interact (or not). I guess I am also thinking make the space adaptable so things can be altered when the need arises.

Oh and let’s not forget the concept of status, where the ‘boss’ gets the ‘closed office and privacy’ and the others get ‘open space and prying eyes’ surely we can think beyond that and come up with spaces which cause people to believe they are highly valued contributors without any loss of status.

Perhaps open plan failure is just a starting point to creating office space success.

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The problem with customers is…

Dec 14

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, People!, The Customer Service Dept | No Comments

They want to be loved – Yes you read that right, loved.  Think about it there are few who don’t want to be loved. So to make sure your customers are going to be great fans of your business and come back to buy time and time again, love them.

Here are some ways to give it.

  • Make things to go smoothly – If there are hassles things can go bad fast.
  • Give them timely responses (not waiting) – Make sure you connect with them as fast as possible, they will appreciate it and you will stand out from the crowd.
  • Show great courtesy (the best service wins) – Manners matter.
  • Respect, their views values and ideals – That does not mean you have to change yours to meet theirs just respect them.
  • Give them clear explanations in their language style – Speak at their pace using their tone etc.
  • Keep them informed – We have ordered that for you, we will call when it comes in…
  • Acknowledge them – Hello – Someone will be with you soon.
  • Listen to them – Active listening means you pay full attention to what they are saying, be there (in the moment as they say) so they feel as though you are focused on them

If your organisation is doing this part of customer service  right, then you have a chance to impress people and provide them with what they want, solutions to their needs and wants. Now that’s another story…

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Connected people

Nov 23

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Growth, People! | 1 Comment

You have staff, you have customers, how connected are they?

How connected are you to your team?
How connected are the individuals in the team…

Does it matter, yes… and here’s why.

Your people are your biggest asset, they do the things required to cause customers to pay for the products and or services you provide. No connection, means no communication, no communication no sale. Here’s the issue, its all about having a ‘suitable’ depth of communication.

The same thing applies to the internal customer communications, no communication, no connection, therefore there is probably a low care factor. (seems obvious now I spelt that out huh…)
Change it, discuss it, explore it, push it, use the term “Care Factor” and raise it to a suitable level (too much can push things over the edge).

 

Now take a look at your “Care Factor” for ALL your team. Here’s some pointers to consider.

  • How much do you know about your people?
  • Ask them about their day, weekend, issues, thoughts, perspectives etc.
  • Chat about their hobbies and interests.
  • Discuss work issues face to face every now and then (not just by email or a brief chat as you pass in the hall way).
  • Invite them (not literally) to ask you about your interests etc…

Some of you will find this easy, others will struggle and have probably stopped reading for fear of connecting with their staff! Think about all of this carefully, because at the end of the day no connection means no sales, and business needs sales! (one way or the other).Your next questions should be how do I/we connect better! :)

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Innovation how does it work?

Nov 22

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Innovation and Creativity | No Comments

Some recent findings on innovation by Dr Ralph Kerle raised a few questions about the state of innovation in business. Let’s take a look at what he found after running a workshop with world leading organisations His workshop was titled Understanding the Discipline of Innovation in Organizations

Four interesting findings about innovation emerged from his workshop.

  1. Most large organizations have or have had innovation processes in the form of idea programmes in place. They work to varying degrees, none appear highly successful.
  2. Most organizational innovation produces isolated successes, yet does not sustain organizationally over long periods. I used a case study with a 6 year life cycle and that represented a lengthy period according to the participants.
  3. None of the innovation programmes discussed had benchmarking or on-going measurement associated with them enabling decision makers to value organizational innovation. Once the innovation had been implemented, it was regarded simply as a part of the business regardless of its impact. As a result, it appears decision makers in organizations are not able to meaningfully assess over time the value of innovation programmes or processes.
  4. Whilst innovation programmes might be considered part of an organization’s core values. if they don’t have senior leadership driving them in a coherent and disciplined manner, they have little chance of being considered truly strategic and are likely to die if there is a change in leadership.

Dr.Ralph Kerle

 

Let’s start with what innovation is, it’s either a quantum leap or incremental process, either way it’s about finding ways forward to produce an organisation which can function more effectively.

The big thing, it’s often about using creative thinking processes to spark the change, however most business processes follow logic and are not often linked to creativity even though they look to innovation for a “way forward”.

There’s the challenge, to take a logical organism (business) and marry it with creative thinking (ideas and processes which may have only a few logical processes as part of them). Especially if there are few examples of creativity making big inroads into business development. (Some would argue market leaders like apple computers fly against this).

 

Some thoughts

  • Use innovation
  • Value innovation
  • Push to innovate
  • Explore it!
  • The board should be creative junkies
  • The board should be implementing it at every level
  • The team don’t get it because they are following the lead (fail on creativity guys)
  • Forget JUST innovation go for creativity and see what happens (does it lead to innovation, usually yes).
  • Measurement, take a look at the bottom line, are there more dollars, is there greater retention of staff (therefore some reduced costs), are staff happier? You get the idea make a big list and see if the creative invasion has made a difference
  • Ask your team to brainstorm the difference innovation and creative approaches might make, then measure that
  • Does your organisation have a culture which can handle creative approaches, if not why not and how might you alter that?
  • How does the main team get to value creativity and innovation?
  • Do your team say “Oh no another silly thingy we have to deal with from ‘upstairs’” or do they look on with interest.
  • Plan do check act – try – do check act plan…
  • Improvise adapt overcome – try – adapt overcome improvise…
  • Replace “They won’t go for that” with “Go for that it might just make a BIG difference”
  • Replace “do it now” thinking with “do it yesterday?”
  • Think save the world with our actions because we can, via innovation
  • Think… explore… create… and or ANY combination of those
  • Ask, is the ball rolling effectively or are there any obstacles in it’s way? Now innovate that for results. BIG results
  • Pose creative questions at all levels, all the time
  • Ask for creative responses to challenges (you shouldn’t have to after a while)
  • Ask, what creative process do I not know about that we can use now…
  • Hire for creativity first skills, passion and abilities second…
  • Hire based strongly on “What creative or innovative thing propelled you in your last role?” (even if they are applying for a menial role)

Enough, either see the road blocks or create the road ahead, make it a golden one with all the trimmings thanks.

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Beyond the value of values

Nov 19

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, People!, Risk Management, The Board Room | 2 Comments

I love values, we all have them, for most bigger organisations they write them up and muddle on from there. I seriously wonder sometimes if they know much about them.

For smaller organisations there is often a reluctance to write them out, fiddle with them etc, as they see it as an unnecessary thing to do. (basically a waste of time) until something happens and then they wish they had a list of them to fall back on as a support, to provide guidance.

Here is a bunch of values an organisation chasing the aims and ideals of excellence might list and utilise. I will expand on these and offer a few examples to give some ideas and options for their use.

  • Leadership: The courage to shape a better future by positive actions – The ability to motivate people to explore excellence – Lead by example “see something, do something”
  • Respect: For each other, the people we serve and the environment – From the way we communicate to the way we act on all levels
  • Tolerance: Of others, their views, beliefs and values
  • Collaboration: Leverage collective genius – work cooperatively with others – Comply with all legal and statutory authorities – Explore ways to develop profitable business relationships
  • Integrity: Consistency of honest working principles and beliefs – Build trust through our positive actions – Build our structural integrity to ensure sustained growth through a solid foundation – We build with a culture of mutual respect for all – Aim to be ecologically sustainable
  • Accountability: If it is to be, it’s up to me – See something, Do something, take action to make things right – Think globally, act locally – Hold true to a high level duty of care
  • Passion: Committed in heart and mind to get great results we can all be proud of
  • Quality: What we do, we do well – We openly explore ways to improve at all levels – A commitment to personal and professional excellence – A commitment to great service at all levels – Aiming to be a highly professional team
  • Adaptable: We are able to take initiative and embrace projects and challenges with the guideline of “Improvise – Adapt – Overcome”

These cover most areas of human interaction, and at any time an issue arises they can be called upon to offer guidance as to which direction things might go.

I figure these are vital to a contemporary organisation and offer a wide range of options for future development. Want to move forward, check there is a value or two you might want to follow and use it to  your advantage. A wise guiding hand in times of need is one which offers flexibility and direction, Look no further folks, here is the start to being guided by wisdom.

Stunning looks but what happened?

Oct 22

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Growth, Leadership, People!, The Customer Service Dept | 2 Comments

Have you ever had a friend who looked stunning but over time they ‘faded’, perhaps the look they once had is now ‘not in vogue’ or they have aged and the look does not fit the image, they should have altered to an image which suits their age, level of maturity etc…

I was out shopping today and started to see a few, “not quite Walmart’ people” but some a bit too close for comfort. Then a few who were the opposite, I started to put two and two together and thought… “Isn’t it interesting how the looks convey so much”. What I was now seeing was confidence, poise, pride, conviction, energy, warmth, integrity, strength, trust, beauty… “Guess which group this was!”

While on the other side there was, sloth, lack of care, little confidence, an unruly ‘dis-ease’, coldness etc.

It then struck me, it was a reflection of the shopping experience I had been having recently. Some businesses were, poised and confident while others, uneasy and fragile. Wow what a comparison, on the one hand people and the other hand businesses, yet there was a correlation to the way I felt about them both, a sort of emotional connection, ethereal and subtle but somehow strong at the same time.

Well that’s how I feel sometimes with some businesses I observe. The businesses I love are the ones who are consistently on top of their game. The ones who take care to present well, keep up with the times without following the latest fad. The ones who have pride and professionalism without an air of arrogance.

One quick example, I parked near a shop which sells Chef’s essentials, it’s open to the public so I took the chance to browse (I’m an avid cook so hey it was a great fit). On entering the store, one of the staff (although serving others) nodded and said “hello” I reciprocated and continued to browse.

As I went further into the store another service professional approached and said “It looks to me as though you are happy to browse, unless there is something specific you my like assistance with?” I smiled broadly and said “I’m quite happy thanks you read my interest well!” She smiled back reassuringly.

I wandered some more and selected a few things which took my fancy, on arriving at the counter, I was assisted with some light chatter and some ideas about one of the items I had selected “You can also use that for…” it was welcome info. I felt confident to ask a few silly questions without the store people rolling their eyes and I was met with some great responses which answered my queries well and helped me feel as though they were not silly questions after all.

I left the store pleased with the purchases and information I sought, nice… Mind you I have had the opposite on more than one occasion. Oh and by the way the store was well stocked (range and qty of each item) and beautifully presented, with items clearly labelled with price and other details.

To get back to the original idea of the post, I reflected on a not so good experience in a store earlier in the day, not enough staff, taking too long to serve and trying to find what I wanted in their crowded space was annoying, If I did not want the item so much I would have gone elsewhere. I walked out of there with a sense of disdain and grumpiness. Mind you this store had started out well a few years back but is fading off my radar the more I go back and suffer the little things which annoy me.

Stunning looks, but what happened? Take the time to figure out what’s happening in your business so  you can prevent this from happening and keep on top of your game.

 

Dear Customer Relationship Executive… ERGH!

Aug 11

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, People!, The Customer Service Dept | 6 Comments

Dear Customer relationship Executive.

Many thanks for the phone call recently, I note the last CRM person did not last long in the role… Pity, like you, he sounded  good on the phone, sent me a business card and an intro letter. He also asked me how my car was going. Nice…

Slight problem, the only time anyone has been in touch, has been to send me a Christmas card or to let me know the CRM person has altered.

Sure you did ask if I was thinking of upgrading my vehicle… (nope but I figure you get that kind of ‘smoke screen’ from a lot of people).

I figure you probably make such a lot of calls and get so little from it, iot would look good for your weekly stats however. The good thing about your call is it set me thinking, (And thanks for the nudge!) here is what I thought.

Nice that you called, but where’s the add on, the incentive, the relationship building, the “Hey next time you’re near here drop in for a coffee.”

Ok, so being the generous soul I am, may I give  you a few free chunks of info on how this could all alter.

  • The email program your dealership has is okay, but can it be tweaked to take into consideration my interests and let me know about things related to my interests? – Maybe
  • Can you send me a birthday card, a hand written one? – Yes
  • Can you chat to me about my interests and send me little snippets you might find (other than via email) ? – Maybe
  • Can you send me updates on programs your organisation is supporting? (Oh, so you did send me something once… er… what was it again?) short answer… Yes
  • Could you share stories of other people using the same type of quirky little vehicle I buzz about in town in… er yeah!
  • Could you have an in store tea and bickies session to chat about the latest version of the quirky little car, and developments in the future like an electric version? – Maybe
  • How about adding a photo of yourself on the intro letter so I can find you in the dealership and say hi, and thanks for the info, the invites, the great stuff the company is doing? -  Easily, so that’s a yes
  • Maybe you could ring me and invite me to be surveyed at a time which suits me… to find out what I love (and possibly hate) about the vehicle. – Yes (I’m a sucker for a good survey!)
  • Perhaps you could find a whole bunch of ways to build the relationship with me and others like me, ask me when my anniversary is or any one of a number of events which are of value in my life so you can assist me to celebrate these events and feel like the relationship with you is a special one. – Yes
  • How about the anniversary of when I bought that special quirky little car from you, how about we celebrate that too! :) – YES

So take that to your team and brainstorm a few more ideas, so you can blow me away with excellence, sweep me off my feet and find out what I have been up to lately.

Sure there are a few maybes and a few ‘yes’s’ but it’s a whole lot more to go on than simply one phone call a year and one card… BLEH!

So take a look at your card and see your title, ‘Customer Relationship Executive’ now build that relationship like you mean it. NOTE! The highest level of any relationship is  unconditional LOVE… so get on with the role of loving me, because I might just want what you, have and it could be sooner than you think!

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Your culture is showing… so who looks after it?

Jul 15

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Human Resource Management, People!, Planning, Risk Management | 4 Comments

In your business, the culture is determined by a number of things, but getting it to develop and not go sour is vital… So who looks after it?

If you are a small business then you’re the person handing it (along with everything else) but if you have a HR person then they should be poised to provide services in this area.

Often people see the HR function as, recruit – select – payroll – rostering – ohs – industrial relations. Clearly however there is more and loosely put it’s about staff well being – Training and development, induction programs, skills updates, policies and procedures, performance management and lastly our topic, working the culture – In short the internal relationships and the things that make them go well.

So the HR team looks after the culture… (ask about that next time you interview a person for a role in HR and see their response…) But what is ‘it’ that they have to tweak to make it work?

Basically it’s about behaviour adjustment, (to match to the organisations culture)  but before that happens the HR team need to figure out if anything needs to be adjusted (an ecology check), assessing the current situation and looking for ‘gaps’ or areas of ‘risk’ which are or could become an issue, they need to understand and figure out ways to develop internal relationships so they can know the who, how, why, what and where of what needs adjusting.

Then they need to plan ways to tweak the culture so it’s healthier and can stay that way. If you look at organizational culture in this way, your team should be able to develop a sure fire development plan which is based not just on developing role based skills and abilities but enhancing the philosophical, intellectual and emotional intelligence of the team too. E.g. a leader may need to have more ‘people’ skills to be more effective in their role, so a program which allows better ‘reading’ of people and explore what makes them tick, might be useful, yet not something which may be directly business related when you look for courses or workshops to develop these skills.

If the first step is an assessment of the team culture, the second step is developing a program which explores  and develops all relevant aspects of the analysis.

Perhaps the program is a series of information sheets – a revamp of the organization’s value statement – a new section in the induction program – and or new Key Performance Indicators – or a more personal development based approach to training and development. Let’s not forget it may also be an adjustment to the physical aspects of the business, colours, furnishings and the like can have a huge bearing on how staff perceive a business and therefore relate and respond to the environment.

Whatever approach you take to the notion of developing your business culture, you should give it due concern, the positive flow on effects can make a big difference to the way things happen in your business.

Remember this little statement… (thanks Tom P)

Excellence, always! If not Excellence, what? If not Excellence now, when? :)

New Leadership Book – Leadership Excellence

May 3

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Human Resource Management, Leadership, People! | 2 Comments

Released recently on Amazon here’s an e book with a leadership twist, it’s a how to manual so you can develop the skills of an excellent leader.

Ok I wrote it, so lets get that out of the way… (awkward moment) but hey If I don’t tell people how will they know? Here’s the link

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XTTUMS

Or for those without a kIndle to view it on, you can also get it here in a variety of formats to suit your needs from Smashwords, great for ipad and iphone users.

I hope you enjoy it… :)

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What do You Need to be Doing in your Business?

Jan 28

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Growth, People!, Planning, Risk Management | No Comments

What do you need to be doing in your business? It’s still early enough in the year to be thinking about planning and implementing.

I often think about what I would WANT to be doing in my business, yet the need to’s cut through the wants and nag me to pieces… Often it’s the wants which cause us to go off on inappropriate tangents.

Should you be…

  • Getting more new prospects.
  • Streamlining systems.
  • Finding ways to make things more profitable.
  • Developing cash-flow projections.
  • Looking after existing customers better.
  • Checking OHS issues and risks factors.
  • Implementing a staff happiness program.
  • Developing a marketing plan.
  • Implementing the marketing plan with your friendly branding expert.
  • Tweaking your business plan.
  • Developing your customer service strategies.

You know there are a whole lot more options you need to be doing, so what stops you?

  • Hate to do things which are forced on you?
  • Figure it will go away somehow?
  • You want to hire some one someday who can look after these things for you.
  • Don’t know where to start because the list becomes overwhelming?
  • You refuse to delegate?
  • You like to chat to suppliers rather than face the reality your business might slowly be going down the “gurgler”?

Looking for excuses will not help, you should take control and get the team together and make a list of what needs to be done and hand over as much of it as possible, then get on with doing your part of it.

In the end your business is just that your business, so it requires you to take on the responsibility which comes with the territory.

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Business Basics

Oct 8

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Finance, Growth, Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business, The Operations Dept | 4 Comments

I love chatting about business, and love to see people put an idea or three into action and get results, but unfortunately far too many people go to get started and so blindly follow the idea their heart runs off with the head and they fail. I don’t want them to fail but they do, the business owner does not want it to fail but it does… Fail, fail , fail… its not a good look!

Therefore, any chance I get I like to mention the basics of business in the hope to make a difference, I like to harp on about the basics and let people know…

  • Idea – Research – Action – Spend $$ – Make $$ – Have some left over – Invest – Repeat. (or close to that.)

Still people get it wrong, some end up with an image like this…

  • Idea – Action – Spend $$ – Make SOME $$ – Spend more $$ – End up broke. (Or some similar pattern to that.)

What’s the point of having a great idea and seeing it crash and burn? None, it hurts and can easily hurt others, so stop doing it. The challenge is however people don’t see the “crash and burn phase” they see a rose coloured world of $$ and happy customers.

Consider this, you want to learn to fly, you have the idea, you have the cash to buy a plane, you know full well you can’t fly the sucker until you have been trained and pass the test.

So why the heck do people jump into business (of any size) without the right training… Because they can, and you know what, you can sign up to get business registration on line, get a bank account and so forth and be in business in no time flat. Problem is no training, probably some skills, possibly and few helping hands to get started. and the rest seems to be “fly by the seat of your pants” and hope for the best.

Do some basic research BEFORE getting started and make sure you KNOW what you are in for PLEASE. too many failures in business seems such a waste of resources folks.

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Does your business have a heart problem?

Sep 10

Posted by Bren Ryan in Excellence!, Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business, The Board Room, The Customer Service Dept, The Operations Dept | 2 Comments

I live and work in Geelong. I have for 15 years or so. In that time, we have pretty much been in drought conditions, and under water restrictions.

This year, month, week, that’s pretty much changed. The word is, we are fast moving towards breaking the drought. With just “average” rainfall mind you. Fantastic! However, it’s caused a bit of chaos this week. You see, Geelong is a city divided by the Moorabool River. It runs roughly West to East, and dissects the North from South.

Of course, there are multiple points at which to cross the river, but one (apparently) vital one. It’s called the Breakwater Rd & Breakwater bridge. As the name suggests, it’s a breakwater, and it floods every time the Moorabool River reaches a certain level. It a pressure release valve so that the river doesn’t flood as badly as it might.

It’s a two way, one lane intersection. It’s tiny. It’s insignificant. It doesn’t appear to be that busy in the scheme of things. I take it everyday in my 5 minute trip to the office.

When it floods, it throws the City of Geelong into Traffic chaos! This week has seen a lot of Geelong employees late for work. My daily 5 minute drive has turned into 45-60 minutes!

My City has a heart problem. Like our Hearts, the city depends on all it’s arteries to follow un-hindered – block one, and you have a heart problem.

It made me think about my business (while i was stuck in traffic :-) ) Sometimes, we have arterial blockages in our businesses. It might be that the phone messages stall at reception and don’t quickly get sent to the sales guy, it might be the order release message from the accounts dept stalls and doesn’t get communicated to the despatch area, so an order sits on the back dock two days longer than it should.

An arterial blockage in our business is simply a part of the system that gets blocked up, slows the rest down, and sometimes even stops the system dead – grid lock!

The first step to clearing such a blockage is to identify it. Sit back, take a breath, and objectively look at your business and how an order goes through your system, even place an anonymous order and see how your system looks to an outsider. Once identified, you can take steps to alleviate the pressure and work out ways to prevent future issues.

In my business for example, the artwork process can be one of those areas that can bog down and block the system. It might be the client is slow to send us appropriate files, or our email breaks down, or a contract artist does not do the job fast enough – there are any number of ways that part of my business can (and has) block and stop orders from proceeding. I don’t like it, but knowing it is an area for a higher potential for screw ups, I pay more attention to it to avoid said screw ups.

Another area with potential for blockages is delivery. I rely on third parties often for delivery. I have clients all around Australia and even a few Internationals. Therefore, I am often reliant on third parties like manufacturers and couriers. If the guy on the back dock at the pens factory is having a bad day, my urgent delivery might not go out, just as the courier driver might have a flat tyre or only pick up 2 of 3 boxes. Even a foggy night made us miss one deadline when the plane holding one box was grounded.

I can’t completely avoid potential blockages, but if i know exactly what they are, I can put safe guards and pressure valves in place to reduce the risk.

So, does your business have a heart problem? It’s one of those questions just like your own health – it might not be comfortable to self analyse if you are at risk, but well worth the effort.

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Elegant service communication

Sep 10

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Innovation and Creativity, Leadership, The Customer Service Dept | No Comments

I love it when I meet people who chat about things of instant interest to me. Recently I got chatting with a person about service, particularly the first few delicate moments when you connect with people in that all important exchange where you aim to connect and attain an idea of what they want from your business.

The chat started with the difference between “May I and Can I…” May I assist you, or Can I assist you, what happened next was a BFO, (Blinding Flash of the Obvious).

You see it was so simple when he explained it. “Imagine you are at the top of a cliff and your task is to push someone off, would you say “Can I push you off or may I push you off…” ” Can I”, relates to skill and “May I” relates to permission to do a thing.” I was engaged in the conversation now, what a great hook! Yes he clearly knew his English and the lesson was simple but so good. Actually on thinking about it none of the above would get you far in the pushing stakes but it makes a point also about service being more about offering, rather than demanding. Chances are you would not ask a person if they wanted to be pushed!

I asked him for a view on my old favourite, “help and Assist” he agreed, Help is needed when you are in dire straits, assistance is softer and more readily taken up unconsciously. So many people will say “Just looking thanks” when you offer help, but more people take up an offer of assistance “May I assist you…”

It could go further you could say “May I assist you to find what you are after today?” That way you are being specific about what you are offering. Without the specifics it is so open you might get in a bit of a bind, like this… ‘May I assist  you?” asks the store attendant… “Oh yes, you can give me a million dollars, that would be great assistance…” replies the customer.

Take the time out to consider the small things like this which may impact on people  you deal with so the service you offer is as elegant and correct as possible. We also chatted briefly about G’day as a greeting, I will leave that one for another article.

Well time got the better of our conversation too quickly and circumstances meant we had to part ways, all I can hope is that I said goodbye in an elegant manner!

On providing great service, “I don’t know if you can but you may…” :)

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Blitz your business now…

Aug 6

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Growth, Planning | 1 Comment

If you are like many people in business you are probably flat out keeping your business ticking over and doing your best to get and keep, ahead in tough times. you have all the usual things you do to keep things going and if you have a profit happening then you are doing some things right.

However it is also easy to miss out on getting things right in your business and in fact it can be VERY difficult to get ALL things right. Perhaps this “Blitz” idea might make a difference to how you go about things.

Businesses often have “blind spots”, in retail circles it’s often called “Store blindness”. It’s where particular parts of the business are not up to scratch and often go unnoticed, it might be one area of a display which has become tardy but is not noticed so we form a blind spot to it. My answer, “blitz your business”.

How? Simple, in retail for instance, draw a rough plan of your store, and have a blitz attack on sorting things out in that section, check cleanliness, stock levels, layout, lighting, signage etc… Then to other business aspects, marketing, operational systems, and management to name a few. Go through all of these one at a time and sort them out bit by bit.

Perhaps set up a blitz team to work on each part of  the business so the organisation can see the fruits of it, knowing it has taken solid action to get those results. Start now with a simple checklist of areas to focus on. Oh and remember to mix up the areas you focus on with your team so they avoid getting into a rut and follow a boring routine.

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Great profits…

Jul 31

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Leadership, Planning | No Comments

‘
“Great profits come from great products and services…”
Seems like a simple enough statement, but what makes a great company??
.
Simple…
.
Great people.
.
Therefore great people make great companies, so it stands to reason if great companies recognise this they will do their utmost to make sure they make greater people out of the ones they already have.
It also stands to reason a great company will be passionate about people because of this knowledge and provide a “loving environment.”
“What’s a loving environment…?” Lets brainstorm for a minute. (Go ahead I’ll wait…) Enough of the waiting here’s a list to contemplate.
  • Elegant systems people love to use.
  • Great training which works with the team to provide relevant skills and information for each level they are at.
  • Great support, especially if you want your people to succeed to the max.
  • Elegant communication, your people talk, and not just about the weekend sport or other activities, they talk work and they do so with great interest.
  • The chance to put in, to give, to be an active part of the organisation. Why because they like to achieve, they want to achieve they CRAVE achievement. Why? because it gives them a greater sense of purpose.
  • Great service. Your people go all out to be exceptional, and new recruits get to model the exceptional behaviour of your best people, if they don’t do it or get it they are out and you search for better people.
  • Great examples. Your best people are champions and the rest of the team aspire to be like them, yeah? Of course, if not…. keep training them.
To do all this takes time and expertise, you have to make sure you get the expertise and share it. You know what, I don’t care if you have to do courses after hours, work on your systems on weekends, tweak policies or procedures at 2am, do it.
Do it because you have to make sure your business is the best and will stand the test of time and tough business environments (like a recession and or depression.)
Do it because to live in utopia we need utopian thinking and we need it to start somewhere. If you are not thinking utopia, what are you thinking? Mediocre? or something less than great… why?
Okay it requires effort, but if you already have a team put up this list (add to it if you want) and have them provide ways to get the list into action. Then act on the information as soon as possible.
Now look for the gaps, gaps in the attitudes, gaps in the systems, gaps in the budgets, profits, processes, service provision… Then fill the gaps fast, before long your company will be exceptional and not just great.

7 Mistakes new businesses make with IT

Jul 23

Posted by Bren Ryan in Excellence!, IT Dept, Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business, The Operations Dept | 1 Comment

Any new business likes to get off to a fast cheap start, but it important to keep an eye on the prize and be wary of cutting too many corners that will end up costing time, money and possibly loss of data and even your businesses ability to adapt to a changing business landscape.

So here are the top seven IT mistakes I have seen new businesses make:

  1. POP email

POP email accounts are those email accounts that you get when you sign up with an ISP. Often you get a few free email accounts that you can associate with your company domain. The problem with POP accounts is that they don’t get backed up and leave you with a false sense of security. Ultimately much of your businesses value lies in the contacts that you have, as much as the conversations you’ve had. POP accounts only store the conversations, and in many cases even those are cleared from the server by your email application. So now all of your data is sitting on the one vulnerable hard disk in your computer and unless you know what you are doing, this does not get backed up.

Shop around. For less than $US15 per month you can get a hosted 5GB Exchange mailbox that stores all contacts, calendar and email. It gets backed up each night and it can be made to synchronise contacts and appointments as well as email with your mobile PDA. If you have multiple employees you can share contacts and calendars and email. This can takes office productivity to a whole new level. Outside the office, on the work site, having access to your email, contacts and calendar is fast becoming as important and as expected these days as having a mobile phone was five years ago. From the work site you can place a booking with a client into the Calendar on your PDA and within minutes staff back in your office can see that booking by looking into your calendar on the server. And Vice-Versa, how good is that. No more checking with the office then calling the client back to confirm, not to mention the to and fro reduced if the booking did not suit.

Of course if you lose or break the mobile phone al of the contacts and appointments that are synchronised to the server are not lost. Just get a new phone and set up again and all the contacts and appointments will be synchronised back onto the phone.

OK, setting this up may require some help from an IT consultant but when you factor in the productivity gains and the reduced risk of data loss in the event of failure the gains are worth it for most businesses.

2. Peer to Peer networking

There is a plethora of fantastic cheap devices on the market these days that let you store copious amounts of data on a networked hard disk. If you like you can also share the hard disk of your own computer so that your co-workers can store all of the data in a single location.

But please don’t forget that you need to back that data up and, just as importantly, you need to be able to restore from that backup should the data be accidentally overwritten, corrupted or you just have a good old fashioned disk crash. Most IT professionals don’t like keeping all of the eggs in one basket. So we devise ways of making systems redundant. A ‘real’ server solution will have redundant hard disks, so that should one fail, your data does not go with it, resulting in days of downtime while the system is pieced together from that backup that you regularly do.

Too many small businesses still store scary amounts of critical data on a single hard disk inside a regular workstation (usually the oldest one in the office).

3. Free software

Free software sounds great. And it can be. I am not against it in itself, but with most software it is not the license that will end up costing you the most money, that will actually be a small part of the cost. You need to consider the longer term costs of implementation and running your systems utilising that software. For a small basic single user application that may be fine. But for something that will be implemented across your business to become what we call ‘mission-critical’ you need to consider the longer term implications. How easily can I get outside help to support this system should those who know it move on (key-man risk)? Can I recruit people who know how to use this system, or will I need to train them up?  Will updates for the software be available when I come to upgrade the platform on which it runs?

These are some of the questions you need to ask before taking on what may appear to be a cheap solution.

4. Mates Rates advice

It is hard to pass up free advice. However free advice rarely translates into good support. At least not the kind of support you can depend on from a strategic point of view. Your mates may be available after hours and on weekends but if they are holding down a full time job they may not be as accessible as you need them to be. There are also often strategic and technical differences between how IT is setup and run in a small business environment compared to that of larger organisations. There are specific product bundles available from vendors such as Microsoft, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Symantec and many others that facilitate excellent solutions for small business when implemented correctly. However while these bundles may appear to be a collection of products that many IT experts may be familiar with, they often include some additional bells and whistles that allow you to get real leverage with your IT investment. I have seen many implementations Microsoft’s Small Business Server where a so-called expert was unfamiliar with the use of Remote Web Workplace and so had not known to implement this for the business. Yet Remote Web Workplace is one of the core offerings of small business server and one that many administrators of large organisations would give their eye-teeth for. It allows small business workers to connect to any workstation within the office and run all of their applications from a remote location.

So how could this have been over-looked? Remote Web Workplace is not a feature available on ‘big’ business systems, so if your friends work in big business, they may not know about it, or many other things.

Another important function I have seen ‘knowledgeable’ mates overlook is the ability of Microsoft’s Small Business Server to enable BlackBerry type functionality with regular iPhone, Nokia and Windows PDAs. Perhaps the mate thought they would need to buy a BlackBerry server to do all of this, perhaps because the company they work for has one.

5 . Backup-backup-backup and offsite-backups. Then test them.

It makes me cringe to see what some people consider a backup plan.

Too often I have heard people telling a reporter that loosing the house to a fire was bad enough but loosing the family albums and memories was devastating. The rate of business failure after a major IT disaster from which there was no backup is very high. I have seen figures like 80% in the two years following the disaster thrown around.

So I guess lesson one is make a backup of all of the family photos and take them to a location away from the home. And then repeat this regularly. And check that you can access the copies that you have made. Lesson two is to do the same for your business.

6. In-house software / DIY Systems

All too often I see people who believe that their systems and their way of doing things is so special that they must create their own software just to manage this. Accountants probably bare the brunt of this when the new business owner fronts up to them with a box full of receipts and an excel spreadsheet full of fancy macros that nobody except the business owner knows how to use. Or the very very special Access database for managing stock levels and generating very very special reports.

All businesses want to feel that they are unique. But encoding that uniqueness into a software application that can only be modified by one select person can turn out to be a serious strategic mistake when you try to sell the business or when that ‘key-man’ risk is realised because the person who knows the system can no longer maintain it.

Ask yourself how your business will make money. If developing this special piece of software and selling it is not on the list then don’t go there.

7. Lock in.

No deal in IT is so good that you should sign up for more than two years. The market and your business moves too fast for that. What is a great deal today can be serious drain on cash flow in as little as six months from now. So whether it be a mobile phone plan, an internet connection, a PABX system, a server hosting plan or an IT support plan, two years is just too long a commitment to make. If we think a deal is good today, you can be assured that a better deal is just around the corner and if you’ve locked in for a long time you will be regretting the lock in for at least half of that time.

And it is not just the money. Once you’ve locked into a plan you’re often locked into a technology. Then along comes the next best thing and your business is now not as dynamic as you thought it was.

Svend Petersen is the Managing Director of Excelan.

Excelan provides a personalised level of IT support and strategic consulting for small to medium sized organisations in and around the Sydney CBD.

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My Favourite Web tools Pt 2 – Goodsync

Jul 19

Posted by Bren Ryan in Excellence!, Innovation and Creativity, IT Dept, Planning, Risk Management, The Operations Dept | 1 Comment

Last week I told you about Roboform, the stress saving password encryption and saving program. This week i’m looking at Goodsync, Roboform’s first cousin.

As the name would suggest, Goodsync is a syncronisation program. It will syncronise Folders & files on a PC, Network, and the internet.

I use it on a daily basis to back up my most critical files. Everyday, I copy my accounting back up, my CRM data, my clients art files, copies of my quotes and invoices, our procedures manual, my Roboform data, and my quoting program data – a lot right? It is a lot, and frankly, if I was simply making a back up or copying all those files every day, it would take all day!

I also make multiple copies – I have the original files on my mail PC, I have a back copy on a “storage PC” on the work network, and I make a copy to my laptop (so that I have a mobile copy of the file in case of something like a fire at work). That’s how I use it, you could just as easily use a portable hard drive.

The beauty of Goodsync is; it only copies over files that have changed. This means it doesn’t get bogged down copying files that are already there in the back up destination, a big time saver.

First, Goodsync analyses the source files compared to the destination files, after the initial analysis, this takes only a few seconds.

Then Goodsync creates a list for you to check. There are default settings like always forcing the sync one way, or force the newest revision of the file to override the direction of the sync. You can either manually make the decision, or let Goodsync decide for you based on your preferences.

At the click of a button, it copies the right files to the right place super fast – the only limitation of speed is the speed of your connection. My hard wired network syncs faster than it does to my laptop through the wireless router for example. Still, it only take 3-5 minutes per day to back up all my critical files to two different locations.

Goodsync is super easy to use, A few minutes to set up the initial settings, and then once that is done the daily task takes only minutes. Take this link for a quick overview of how Goodsync works . There is also a MAC version of Goodsync, which I haven’t tried yet, but if it’s like anything Apple, it’ll be easy :-)

I haven’t used the portable version, Goosync2go, but i have used the protable version of Roboform, so I have to assume the portable version is every bit as good as the PC version.

Of course, there is a free trial of Goodsync, it has full funcionality, just a few limits on the volume, so give it a go!

Bren

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Your business, your image, so who’s in charge of it?

Jul 15

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Leadership, People! | 3 Comments

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Many smaller businesses get to the point of understanding that to be a business owner and not just a business operator  you need a team of people to run the business and you are now reaping the rewards from doing just that.

While you have been busy doing it and aiming to do it well, is there anything you may have forgotten? For instance the image of the business?

It could be the display space in the window, or the signage which has slowly faded, or the vehicles your delivery people charge about in. No matter what it is, it represents your business image which in turn reflects what people (customers!) think of the business.

Who’s in charge of the image is an important and often overlooked area. Simply put most organisations say it’s the job of the Marketing Dept, while others will shove the responsibility to a junior to “set up the window display”.

Think about the situation and consider having a person (perhaps with a back up person) to ensure each week the “professional image” of the business is run through a checklist. It can be simple to begin with and build from there to become a fully blown in depth process, but please make sure it is a top priority as customers can be quick to judge and long to forget.

Here are some key areas to consider:

  • How well is the cleaning done in all areas, the slightest thing can put people off.
  • Are delivery drivers forbidden from smoking in a vehicle at ALL times?
  • Do vehicles with the business name on them present really well, or do they need to be cleaned and checked more often?
  • Display areas for stock, how good are they, and what are  you comparing them too?
  • Signage, fading or in need of a clean?
  • Your uniforms… up to standard or?

Start a checklist up and ensure the person in charge of the overall image of the business uses it regularly to effectively assess the business image.

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What are your people doing, working… or?

Jul 12

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Leadership, People!, Planning | No Comments

Everyone seems busy right… But things are not moving very well, the people are all busy? Should I put another staff member on…

These and a whole bunch of other questions could be bothering you if your business is a bit bigger than a few employees.

You think back to the early days of doing everything yourself, you worked 12 hour days and then some, finally getting some breathing space when you took on some staff. You trained them and you could see great progress but now things seem different. What’s happening?

Perhaps your people have found a comfortable place for themselves and are keeping themselves busy (it makes the day go faster…) and not overly concerned about the effectiveness of things.

You have a meeting with your key people “Blah, Blah Blah!!!” you go on about how the key guys should lead the team, how they should get up noses, rattle the cage so to speak, and for a short while you see some “scared rabbits” run about and things pick up and then fade, now they are all back to busy but not overly effective.

Your method of getting people to do things seemed great at the time, but knowing it failed after a few weeks was disappointing, you feel like you have to watch the team the WHOLE time, and that’s not what you want to do.

The answer…

Take a look, wander about, listen, observe start making mental notes. What’s working, what’s not… and what are they doing to look so busy yet be so ineffective!

Ask  yourself…

  • Are they doing “administrivia” and dragging it out to fill time.
  • Are they calling suppliers to get useless info for customers who probably won’t buy anyway, or only want a small quantity of a low priced item.
  • Chatting about ‘garbage’, or doing silly rubbish, which is personal, rather than getting to the tasks, which really need to happen.
  • Are your management team, managing too much and not leading enough? Are they not in a position to connect with staff due to too much paper work, or other garbage which is really just a waste of time.

Any of these can take the wind out of the sails of your business, but before you call one of those “rant and rave” meetings to put the wind up people (which will just buy you more enemies anyway). Consider a different approach.

(And yes here’s the answer/s…)

  • Check out if the team has great technology to support them and make the tasks easy to achieve.
  • Make sure your systems are easy to learn, follow and implement.
  • Use multitasking to keep them mentally stimulated and able to do various new tasks from time to time.
  • Chat to them about what works from their point of view, become a “one on one focus group leader” with each person and get REAL information, not the sort that filters up through the ranks and becomes watered down as a result.
  • Ask what keeps them coming to work, and not just money and holidays.
  • Coach your management team to do the same, train them to build rapport, not build ramshackle bridges to nowhere.

In all honesty if you set up a great business to begin with, you will probably find it can remain that way, but it may need some of your original passion for the business to shine through, so the results you want to achieve can be very tangible, you just need to have the right things happening in the right way… Now go out there and make YOUR business highly effective and get the people doing more of the right things in the right way. Then and ONLY THEN will you really profit from the business you started out with so passionately.

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Is your business happy?

Jul 9

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Innovation and Creativity, People! | No Comments

Yes it’s a serious question, is your business happy, when you get there at the start of the day are you happy about being there? Are the staff happy too…

If not what’s missing?

- Great projects to work on.

- Great clients.

- Great workspace…

One way or another things may not be quite what you want to make the business a happy place to be. Insert a happiness officer and invite them to find out how things could be happier in the workplace.

Perhaps start with the list above and see if things evolve from there.

Take Action!

Get the happiness officer and perhaps a few others to figure out some ways to break the “sad” cycle.. and get happy.

  • Try a google search of ideas for a happy workplace, make a list of a few you can implement now (at low cost).
  • Ask how to make meetings fun, then have one just for the hell of it and see if you can get people to laugh (for all the RIGHT reasons…)
  • Have a fun morning tea (no need to get elaborate just yet just have fun).

Guidelines

  • Having fun at someones expense is only short term and useless, one’s pain is NOT another’s gain.
  • Keep it cheap and “cheerful”, quick and easy… Organisation should take the shortest time possible to keep it hassle free.
  • Try moving the job about so the whole team can be the happiness person.
  • Jokes sent via email is not really a bonding option, it’s more localised but funny quotes might be a different option, sparking debate perhaps.
  • Give out laughter awards, simple and easy a great way to keep the team engaged in the whole idea and boost morale!
  • Push for creative and innovative options, you might just find some great ways to lighten the mood at work and keep things pumped and effective.

That’s it for now, let us know what sorts of things you come up with in our comments…

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Evaluating Your Small Business Strategy

Jul 8

Posted by Bren Ryan in Excellence!, Growth, Innovation and Creativity, Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business, The Board Room, The Operations Dept | 1 Comment

Countless people set themselves personal goals in life, but in many cases, small business owners don’t do themselves the same favour.  Without setting time aside to consider, plan and implement a solid strategy for any business, its success can be often hindered or compromised.

In these tough economic times, owners are struggling to make their business grow, but strangely enough, there is great opportunity for companies to make leaps and bounds while the market is down.

Take a Step Back

Being in the day-to-day running of your business can alter your perception of how effectively it is run.  Take the time to look at every facet of your business to gain the most unbiased perspective.

What kind of relationships do you have with suppliers? Is there any way you can leverage the associations you have with them to gain better pricing or additional extras (like longer trading terms to increase cash flow) that they don’t usually provide?

Do employees see their position as a job or a career? One of the most difficult tasks an employer can face is motivating their staff so that they are more productive.  Try to introduce creative, cost effective ideas to improve staff morale, which will ultimately allow your business to be more successful in so many different ways – higher customer satisfaction, increased work output, less mistakes and a much nicer place for everyone to work.

What are your sales margins? Taking a realistic look at how much you are making on your products and services is crucial to allowing your business to grow.  A small increase in sales margin may not seem like much in isolation, but calculated over a year, this additional profit can make quite a difference to your bottom line.

In many cases, customers will expect to see increases in prices every few years, purely because of inflation.  If you do apply increases, be transparent to your valued clientele – it will only reaffirm why they should continue to spend their money with you.

What are your competitors doing? If they are blazing trails in your area or industry, find out why and how.  Start to follow their lead and see where you can even improve on their practises.  But another, far more powerful way to knock down competition is to find out what they are doing badly.  By being exceptionally great at what your competitors do badly, it will soon put you miles in front.

Planning – What to Consider

After all the research has been done, it’s important to spend some time planning how you will turn all of these findings into meaningful actions.  There is a fine balance between continuing to maintain a high service level in your business and being able to implement new processes, procedures and projects.  Figure out what elements can be immediately implemented into your business and what will take more time and resources. Once you’ve determined this, you can then allocate timelines to these more lengthy projects so as not to interrupt the flow of your business.  Many strategies tend to stretch over several years, so make sure you build some level of flexibility in to allow for changes in your business, the economy and the marketplace.

Implementation – Getting Your Hands Dirty

It’s all well and good to research and develop business strategy, but sometimes the hardest part can actually be doing the work involved.  The best way to avoid being overwhelmed with implementing the strategy is to break up each task and set key goals and milestones.  Once you have completed the task or project successfully, make sure you take the time to look back on what you have done and be constructively critical.  If you have an upcoming project of a similar nature, it will allow you to become more efficient in implementing your business strategy.

All in all, developing a business strategy gives you the chance to recognise opportunities and shortcomings that may not have been realised otherwise.  While each business can be very different, the foundations of a solid business strategy are ultimately the same and can be applied to most companies, regardless of their service offering or industry.

An article provided to us by one of our site sponsors – NRMA Business Insurance

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My favourite web tools. Part 1

Jul 2

Posted by Bren Ryan in Excellence!, Innovation and Creativity, IT Dept, Starting out in business, The Board Room | 2 Comments

My Favourites tools for the webThis isn’t a long list. In fact it’s only a few. However, they are products that I use every single day, and i’ve actually come to rely heavily on them, so I guess a short list of quality is better than a long list of lower quality, right? This is part 1, part 2 & 3 will follow in the coming weeks.

Part 1 – Roboform.

If you are like me, you have dozens, if not hundreds of log ins and passwords to remember.

I have several websites and blogs to manage and they each have a log in for the blog, one for the forum, one for the admin etc etc, I bank accounts, supplier sites – the list goes on. As of today, I have 212 log ins to various websites, all needing me to remember the URL, the log in name, and the password – yeah, that surprised even me :-)

I also use the web a lot these days, like most of us, for purchasing, researching, enquiring products and services. So i’m constantly filling in forms – Name, address, age, hair colour……. – very time consuming.

About two years ago, I found the very nifty product – Roboform. Roboform is a little bit of software you load straight onto your PC that securely stores all your personal info.

RoboForm’s Key Features are;

  • So Easy – You remember one password, RoboForm remembers the rest. I suggest you don’t use your beagle’s name, ok?
  • Saves Time – With ONE CLICK RoboForm goes to a website and logs you in automatically. I can log into any site on the list – no finding the site, no remembering the log in, no remembering the password.
  • Saves More Time – RoboForm also fills long registration and checkout forms with one click. Roboform will fill in just about any form you find on the web. I save lots of time when signing up for service, newsletter, buying a product, making an enquiry. I’ve found a few it wont work with, like java applet stuff, but even then you can copy and paste faster then you can type it all in.
  • Secures Your Information – Stores passwords on YOUR computer, protects them with AES encryption. Hey, nothing is bullet proof, but Roboform’s encryption is far stronger than having your browser store your passwords in the cache.
  • Strengthens Passwords – Generates random passwords that hackers cannot guess. A strong password has, letters (a mix of upper and lower case), symbols, numbers, is min 8 digits long, and is apparently random in appearance. So, a strong password looks like this – 1&xT44B! – a weak password would be – Franklin (your beagle’s name that you use for every password, banking, your blog, your facebook, the lot!) The problem is of course, how do you possibly remember a password like the strong one, let alone remember dozens or hundreds of different ones? Roboform features a password generator that you can set to generate passwords of different length, different types of digits (numbers, upper / lower case text, symbols). It will fill the forms on the fly, and copy the password to you clipboard if the form you are using won’t allow auto fill in (some more secure sites like banks won’t allow auto fill in to stop robots)
  • Fights Phishing – Phishing is when you get those emails from a bank or PayPal or some such asking you to log in and confirm your details. Often these fake sites look so real that many unsuspecting users will “log in” and hand their name and password to the thieves on a silver platter.Fills passwords only on matching web sites. Just for the record, your bank will NEVER email you and ask you to log in.
  • Defeats Keyloggers – Somewhere along the line, we have all been infected by a malicious virus. A common threat are keyloggers, simply put, a virus records every keystroke, and send a small text file to the data thief at a pre-determined time. Roboform doesn’t use the keyboard to fill in your passwords, or to fill forms (like credit card forms), so keyloggers are rendered ineffective. You can also use your mouse to fill in the master password, so even that can be kept secure.
  • Simple to Use – Just download RoboForm and learn as you go. It really is intuitive and easy to use. Even if you are very new to the interweb, you will be Roboforming like a pro in no time.

There are a few other features – you can find more details here – too many for me to detail, but the three above are the ones I use every day. In fact, i’m using it right now. I can quickly and easily skip between different sites. At the moment i’m working from home, so i’m skipping between logging into the work network, Vertical Response, the WordPress log in for this blog, and the admin for www.freepromotips.com.au. Too easy!

The good folks at Robofrom also have a portable version – Roboform2go – for installation onto a usb. You can take that with you and log in on any PC (the portable version doesn’t work on your Mac)

When you buy Roboform, you also get access to the online system, which means you can even log into your account from anywhere without Roboform2go (I find having a USB easier and more convenient myself)

It’s ready to go for PC’s, but they haven’t yet produced a MAC friendly version. I’m told that will come, but for the moment they have created a system utilising the online product, and a java applet that sits in your safari or firefox menu bar (it may work in other browsers, but I don’t know. I only use Safari of Firefox on my Mac)

If you think that sounds good, you can trial it free or buy it here.

That’s my favourite web tool.Part 2 next week – Goodsync.

Bren

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Featured forum member

Jul 2

Posted by Bren Ryan in Excellence!, People!, Starting out in business, The Board Room | No Comments


1. How did you get started in business?

I think I got started in business from birth. My Mum and Dad had corner stores and I was taught business skills at an early age. (I can remember balancing the till while in primary school… It was one of the ways we learnt to count).

After school I worked in One Hour Photoshops, working my way to Manager by the time I was 19. In 1995 I was offered a “job” at a lab as manager.. Turned out they wanted someone to buy it, so I did. This led to the expansion to 2 suburban Kodak Express stores. In 2001 someone offered me an offer too good to refuse so I took it ? (I took a year off and then took up a position as the EA to the Managing Director of the No 3 Photographic Supplier in Aus.)

Meanwhile my hubby, Mick, had been working in various companies doing Security Screens, Window installation, Blinds, Awnings etc. In 1998, I convinced him he should go out on his own. This business – Abacus Screens and Security – while successful, it suffered from my lack of time to manage the business side of things. (Advertising not planned, very much RE-active rather than PRO-active).

In 2000, he was offered a job at one of his suppliers so he took it. Lesson 1: ONE business at a time ?

Fast forward to 2005 and we moved from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast. Mick secured a position at a local screen company. (I am still travelling to Bris 3 days a week). Mick learnt very quickly, the coast was grossly under serviced in the security screen business, so we resurrected Abacus Screens in October 2006

Understanding the problems from “Abacus Mach I” we put a number of things in place up front.

  • We made sure we had enough money to start. Printing, advertising, good ute, etc etc etc. Also enough “buffer cash” for 3 months wages, just to take the pressure off.
  • We joined a couple of networking clubs, so we had people to talk to and bounce ideas off.
  • Mick spent a fair bit of time scoping out who he knew (Lots of his old colleagues have moved to the coast and are now in management and decision making positions with building, window or aluminium companies)

Nearly 2 years down the track and all in going along VERY well.

2. What inspired you to become part of the FBT forum?

Gosh it is soooo long ago now ? From memory I was googling something to do with business and came across FBT. I am a forum junkie and join anything !!! Most though get deleted from my Favourites after 3 months or so when I get bored. So I guess the fact I have been a fairly active member for the past 24 months or so is testimony that the forum is vibrant and above all RELEVANT!!

3. What have been your three biggest business challenges (so far) and how have you overcome them?

  • Finding staff- As with many communities, we have a skills shortage on the coast. (Hmmm Well maybe not We have a “committed worker shortage”. Talk to many business owners (especially “tradie types” in any coastal community) and , if the surf is pumping, the sickie rate is high ?)
  • We have overcome this by asking prospective employees LOTS of questions (I asked the forum to give me some questions to ask – Thanks Guys!!) and following up references. My number one telling question with references is “Would you be happy to have “Fred” work for you again?”
  • Marketing – With my background in retail I have great skills in creating a rapport to keep customers coming back and back. Abacus presents a different scenario wherein, generally, we only see our customers once or twice Overcoming this is an ongoing process. I ask a LOT of questions of similar, non-competing businesses. Eg our local winner of “Young Woman in Business” is in the steel shed business, so I rang her up, took her out for coffee and picked her brain.
  • Managing Growth – Mick is getting a reputation among builders for being good ? So being able to say NO is difficult. We have learnt to say No gently, “No you can’t have it in 5 days but is 7 ok?” If he delivers in 5 Great!! But at least he doesn’t have to. Having a buffer allows us to outsource the manufacturing if need be.

4. What five tips would you give to a person starting in business?

  • Know your craft. (It astounds me how many people have NO idea about any part of the business they are in – Often seen in franchise owners)
  • Learn the basics of book keeping. It is VITALLY important to know the basics of profit and loss and the difference between Gross profit and Nett profit. I see too many people who think they can buy something for $10, sell it for $20 and think they have made $10!!
  • Work ON the business. Of course you will read that everywhere, but what does it mean? It is the time to do bookwork, time to think of marketing strategies, time to work on staffing, time for networking. You need to MAKE time. If you feel you have no time because you are actually doing the job- get some staff and let them do the job!! If you have staff for 1 day, use that day to work ON your business.
  • Make sure you (and your family)are healthy. As an employee, it is ok to have a day off to be sick or look after the kids when they are sick. It is much more difficult to do this as a small business. Keep fit and eat well.
  • Balance family life Keep a diary. USE it. I have been known to schedule family time. But it IS important to block time out in your diary for yourself. Remember that in the overall scheme of life, your kids and family is worth FAR more than any business. Little Billy’s birthday party is infinitely more important than any business meeting. If you already had a meeting with Client A and Client B wanted to meet at the same time, you would reschedule… Family is ALWAYS Client A!!.

5. Is there anything you would like to say about being in business, and or being an active part of learning more from Internet type forums?
Internet forums can be a good source of information and networking. FBT has a great cross section of industries and people who are ready to help. There is no such thing as a silly question!

6. The best part about being in business is…
The journey ?
I like to think of any of our businesses like a baby. They took a year or so of sleepless nights and teething troubles, then they walk all by themselves and eventually don’t need you anymore ? Along the way you need to guide and point them in the right direction, they won’t just grow on their own. Discipline is important and , if you get it right, you raise a healthy self sufficient entity, with a life of its own.

Mick Moynihan & Sue Josephson

Abacus Screens
25/6 Beerburrum Street
DICKY BEACH Qld 4551
Ph 5491 5489
Fax 5439 4125
www.abacusscreens.com.au

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Bitter, grumpy annoyed… get over it!

Jun 24

Posted by Steve Gray in Chill out!, Excellence!, People!, Personal Development, The Customer Service Dept | 2 Comments

I have been on about good customer service for years now, and while I recognise it can take a lot to make it happen, it’s a thing, which needs to happen.

In my more recent travels I have noticed bitter, grumpy and annoyed people operating businesses. It’s one thing to have grumpy staff, but quite another to see the operator of the business in this “state”. Seriously if you want to be in business and be a grouch stay out of site of the customers…

I guess it’s in part due to the Global Financial Crisis or at least compounded by it, to the point where people are wondering about where the next customer and cash is going to come from. Okay so you may not be able to do much about that, (especially if you have spent all your marketing budget already!) So you have to sit and wait… BUT if that can’t change, what about you?

To alter being a “grump” you may have to take a stance and force yourself to be happy. try a few of these.

  • Write a sign for yourself “Be Happy!” and put it where it can be seen by you and not the customer, make a bunch of them, put them up and act on them.
  • Make a list of things that make you happy and each day “do” something on that list somehow… and DON”T give me the line of “Oh I don’t have time…”
  • Get or make a CD of a bunch of funny things, jokes etc by comedians you really like and laugh at even though you have heard them a zillion times, play it on the way to the office, and LAUGH heartily!
  • Look up, yes it’s that simple, look up and try to not feel good, hard to do eh? Note how glum people tend to look down a lot, makes sense right…
  • Tell  your staff to tell you to smarten up… Go on I dare you to.
  • Make a list of the things getting you down, now write a bunch of ways to fix them, then act on it… go on do that now! Keep adding to the solutions list.
  • Take a five minute stroll, go out of the office or store, walk briskly and get the blood pumping.
  • De stress, mediate or do whatever thing helps you to de stress (without hurting others or things…)
  • Get an unreasonable friend, one who can hold you to your promises, and chat to them about ways to work around your challenges, share a few jokes etc.
  • Kick a footy, It won’t de stress everyone, but It might work for you, heck even going to a sports shop and buying one might break your routine enough, no cash? Borrow one off a kid in your street… hey imagine going door to do and asking “Does your kid have a footy I can borrow for an hour?” Heck that kid has probably been looking for a kick to kick friend for ages.
  • Go to an Art Gallery or five for a few minutes, I used to do this when driving around in a van all over the city, I would drop in to see contemporary art, (no cost!) and I knew where heaps of them where so I could get to one fast for a break in routine. Oh and turn your mobile off for the few minutes you are there. ;) Seeing other people’s “views” on and about the “human condition” can be useful.
  • Put a picture of yourself up on the fridge at home and yell at yourself… Did you like that? Now think about the last time you yelled at someone, did that feel good? Perhaps for you, how about them? Get the point, it’s not good.
So make yourself a “grump free zone” and get out amongst the customers with a happy disposition and see if that impacts well on sales or even just staff morale.

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Business is…

May 23

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Growth, Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business, The Board Room | No Comments

There are many types of business primary, secondary etc… but I have just had a thought about other “types” of business and felt it useful to share.

In the most part a business is about creating a device to provide a product or service and make a profit from it, however it goes a bit further than that. I feel it’s important to make a few distinctions.

  • Job – not a Biz – Turn up – do work – go home – repeat.
  • Low level Biz Operator – as above – not much scope to get ahead – Some franchises can feel like this.
  • Low level Biz Owner – Some growth as the biz operator gets some leverage by having staff do the work, with input from the owner.
  • Mid level Biz Owner – Better growth limited input to the biz as the staff do it all with a manager in place or similar – perhaps develops other businesses or franchises of one business.
  • Upper level Biz Owner – As previous but developing assets to utilise the growth’s potential.
  • Top level Biz Owner – Utilises others to do the work, from developing more assets to creating more businesses.
Which level do you want to be at and what will it take to get you there? Notice it’s all about growth and profit leading to leverage, with leverage you can do more. When you learn the skills and mindset required to do this you get to play at a new level each time learning more skills and mindset tweaks to assist you. Note at each level and with more leverage you can assist more people, develop greater security and achieve more.

Happiness – workplace style…

May 19

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Human Resource Management, Leadership, People! | No Comments

Just for a moment think about your life, do you do things better when you are happy or grumpy/sad? Now think about business, do  you prefer to deal with people who are grumpy/sad or happy?

It’s a no brainer really, however there are many people looking to change jobs, move on, move up, move out! Why generally because they are unhappy. As an employer it’s part of your unwritten “duty of care” to provide an environment where staff are happy.

A small family business might seem like a great thing and how you treat family can be quite different from general staff. You might be happy to work at an old desk loaded with irrelevant papers and bits and pieces, but an employee probably will be put off by that.

I guess the moral of this is think about it. Take time to evaluate, if a new employee is due to start next week, make it a major priority to make their starting off in your business fantastic.

Here’s a few reasons why:

  • Change can be difficult for people, new surrounds new names, new everything! It can take a while to get used to.
  • Moving jobs means altering routines, wake up times, transport changes, family routines alter.
  • A new job with different systems can take quite a while to adapt to.
  • A new role may mean there are changes to who is leading who, this can cause challenges.
So imagine starting them off in the ideal situation…
  • Start them with half a day’s work, late in a week, so there is little monday rush and weekend panic.
  • Be their “work buddy” show them where everything is and how things are done.
  • Check in with them regularly to see what stands out as issue, then aim to resolve them fast.
  • Make sure all the “paperwork” is sorted for their superannuation and so on, early…
  • Advise all other staff to wear their name tags more often in that start up phase so the new person does not stress about things like names.
We could make a really long list here (please do!) and I hope you get the idea. Happiness even in a recession is vital to ensure your staff perform to their best ability, perhaps not in the short term but later on when they are up to speed.
Make time to be there for the new recruit and ensure as many things as possible go right for them so they feel at ease.

I told you so…

Apr 28

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence! | No Comments

Lots of people being sacked, redundantised, etc… due to the GFC (allegedly). In the past those who are regulars will realise I have been an advocate for cooperative business models. So ask yourself this would a coop put off a staff member for no good reason? short answer no.

So is the answer to make all business a device owned by the community? Well probably not. but the bigger issue is how businesses are perceived. xyz Co put off x No of staff oh woe is the state of things, they are bad guys etc…

Here is what I see are the real issues here, outsourcing, and diversification.

If a Co outsourced all but it’s core activities, things would not fall far in one organisation. and if they diversified they would not be relying on one income stream. Lets explore that.

Co a sells widgets and makes a profit, the profit goes into an investment fund and they buy property to rent out. They get another income stream. In producing the widgets for one market they recognise a different target market needs a similar widget, and they can do it with a few tweaks, therefore they develop another income stream. So with the profits being (hopefully) greater, they can put more into other investments e.g. term deposits with a bank.

That’s the basics folks, make some, add some, make some more and so forth. The aim being if one goes down, the biz is still intact to some degree. it’s simple but it should work. If it was a cooperative then it might just work better with the right foundation and philosophy supporting it.

Companies shirk responsibilities

Apr 18

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, People!, Planning, Risk Management | 1 Comment

Ok so this is my view… but how dare a company employ people and not cover their entitlements when the whole thing goes belly up…

Here’s an example from our local newspaper, on Melba Industries.

The company does not have the funds to cover their staff entitlements now they are being liquidated. As business go along they find the money (put it away earlier) to cover tax requirements, and allegedly the same with Superannuation payments etc… so why not put away an amount to cover entitlements.

Or at worst I guess it could come out of a DRF (Debt Reserve Fund) of some kind. How about some form of insurance they have to pay into, or a compulsory savings plan for employee entitlements, that way the real profits could show through and the issue could not be so big.

Hey folks don’t hold your breath waiting for the government to do something about it, do the right thing from the start, take the whole duty of care situation more seriously and cover those entitlements.

Sustainability, a thought or two.

Apr 8

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Planning, Risk Management | No Comments

In tougher economic times the idea of sustainability may take on a fresh meaning, the big car guys didn’t get it, they have put their hands out… many other companies are down the tubes to, they also have their hands out.

Before a revolution kicks in and angry mobs demand “jobs and justice” I am reminded of a “trend” a few years back which offered some promise but seemed to rarely deliver.

A friend was telling me about grants his organisation was applying for (not for profit) one of the criteria was based on “making the project your grant will be used on, sustainable.” simply put he said on discussing the issue with work colleagues, the best they could do was come up with a few ideas around energy efficient office equipment, using recycled paper and that sort of bent on sustainability.

I said, “It’s funny but I get the view they want you to take the $$ and be able to sustain those $$ for as long as possible.” Simply put if they give you $100K towards a worker and some resources, you would then get at least double that return from that workers output, therefore sustaining their job and building more resources.

He went wide eyed for a moment, first thought was “How do you get $200k from a $100k ‘investment’ in a person?” while his second thought was “But we would have to do some project which was going to make us money from sources other than the grant…”

He was stuck, or at least his current paradigm was stuck, he had to now think outside the square as to how either of these might happen.

Sometimes we have to look out for fresh ways to tackle things so we can make our organisations more sustainable, and whichever way you look at it both are useful. In tougher times those that made the transition to being more fundamentally sustainable will reap the benefit, those who created a “want type” business where people walk away when spare cash is not about, will (in the main) feel the “pinch”.

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