Monday, July 28, 2008

Have a Daily Snap Shot Report-Out To Make Your Small Business More Successful!



Do you know right this very moment what performance metrics your business unit is achieving? Use a snapshot performance (daily snapshot) report as the tool that contains the important and volatile numbers, which must be reviewed on a regular and continuous basis for you to achieve successful expense adherence and revenue projection.

What performance metrics do you want to monitor for your business unit on a continuous basis that are the most important and are very volatile for the achievement of operational and sales success? Also ask yourself what kind of precise micromanagement report you want, to whom should this report go to, and when and how often should this report be viewed when determining your businesses function and achievement ability.

On no more than a couple of 8½x11-inch pieces of paper, have a “snapshot” of the top five to ten critical statistical metrics that determine your business unit’s success available with comparisons for your daily morning review. If you do not have this report, you cannot be proactive in management. With a daily statistical data sheet, you have the ability to spot trends, and thus, small corrections in the operations or sales can be initiated to neutralize the adverse effect of any negative component. When you have daily statistical sheets that are simple, to the point, and full of the “most critical” metrics that you need, you can guide your business unit daily, which will lead to greater achievements of the business unit’s budget and stretch goals. Focus on managing your business unit today, so that today will be tomorrow and tomorrow will be your everything.

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Pennies Really Do Add Up In Your Small Business



I remember a story told to me as a young boy. It goes like this: In a far off land, many years ago, there was a very poor man that went in front of a king of a very rich land and offered to work for the king for that day for just one penny, and if the king liked his work, the poor man would continue to work for the king every day after that first day for a total of thirty consecutive days.

The only contingency to this payment plan for the king was that for every day that went by that the poor man worked, the king would have to double the poor man’s previous days wage from the first day’s wage of one cent for thirty consecutive days. After those thirty days, the king would then pay the poor man in full for his thirty days of labor (example, day 1=.01, day 2=.02, day 3=.04, day 4=.08 and so on). Well, the king just knew that he had a sucker in front of him. He thought that he could get the poor man to do a lot of work for him without paying him very much money.

Do you know what happened next? At the end of those thirty days, the poor man made $5,368,709.12 a day and the king owed him $10,737,418.23, due in full at the end of the thirtieth day! The king forgot the exponential factor of the money doubling and never asked about what the poor man was earning daily throughout the month, because to the king, a penny meant very little and could never add up to any real amount of money.

The story ends like this: the king was broke, the poor man rich, and the moral of the story is that a penny really does add up. So focus your attention on each penny within your business unit.

If you save just two widgets a day by training the staff not to waste those widgets, and those widgets cost fifteen cents each, you would save $109.50 a year. This would be just the tip of the iceberg for savings within your business. There is a penny to save here and a penny to save there. Just look around, and when you are done, over time, that penny will multiply to thousands of dollars a year that your business unit can bring down to the bottom line, by simply remembering that “A penny really does add up!”

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Market And Sell Your Small Business 24/7/52 To Be More Successful!



24/7/52. What this phrase means is twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and fifty-two weeks a year; this is the golden rule if you are marketing and selling your business unit's product line. Your marketing and sales efforts should never close, which means that you have 525,600 minutes a year to be open and to make sure that your business markets and sells itself in the best and most efficient way that it can, be it through on-line or off efforts.

No matter what the posted hours on the doors are for your business, you must be in the mind-set that your business is always “on, open, or alive,” 24/7/52. Think of it this way: When your business doors are closed, do potential, current, or future customers (economic decision makers) stop spending their money? Do outside and inside factors affecting your business and your competition stop, or is someone out there creating a better widget than you, ending their day when you do? No, they are not!

Obviously, many factors come into play as a big part in determining your operational hours. But when was the last time you truly looked at your business unit’s hours with a critical and objective eye and made sure that they were appropriate to make your future goals? Or are those hours just posted for “your convenience?”

If you get into the mind-set that you are always “on, open, or alive,” 24/7/52 when marketing and selling your business, you will then start to think about how to make the most out of all that “extra” time you have to increase your business’ success model.

The traditional hours of Monday through Friday, nine to five, are a very antiquated way of thinking. This is a global economy that is always “on, open, or alive,” 24/7/52. When you are sleeping, someone from halfway around the world is working.

Your business unit must have a 24/7/52 mentality to be more successful. Only when you embrace this mind-set will new ways “to do more” arise, because you are now always “open” to more success in your marketing and sales efforts.

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Run Your Small Business Like A Hotel To Be Successful!



Do you know right this very moment what performance metrics your business unit is achieving? This kind of snapshot performance (daily snapshot) report out is what we call a “house count” in the hotel business. Within a hotel’s house count, hoteliers look at rooms rented, number of arrivals/check-outs/clean rooms, A.D.R., occupancy, and so on. Hotels see this “house count” report as the tool that contains important and volatile numbers, which must be reviewed on a regular and continuous basis for the hotel to achieve its successful expense adherence and revenue projection model.

What performance metrics do you want to monitor for your business unit on a continuous basis that are the most important and are very volatile for the achievement of operational and sales success? Also ask yourself what kind of precise micromanagement report you want, to whom should this report go to, and when and how often should this report be viewed when determining your businesses function and achievement ability.

Once you have these questions answered, installing the S.O.P. to monitor this “house count” becomes second nature to the business unit and in turn will radiate the importance and acceptance from your associates that these are the metrics that will drive their business unit to success and acclaim.

On no more than a couple of 8½x11-inch pieces of paper, have a “snapshot” of the top five to ten critical statistical metrics that determine your business unit’s success available with comparisons for your daily morning review. If you do not have this report, you cannot be proactive in management. With a daily statistical data sheet/”house count”, you have the ability to spot trends, and thus, small corrections in the operations or sales can be initiated to neutralize the adverse effect of any negative component. When you have daily statistical sheets that are simple, to the point, and full of the “most critical” metrics that you need, you can guide your business unit daily, which will lead to greater achievements of the business unit’s budget and stretch goals. Focus on managing your business unit today, so that today will be tomorrow and tomorrow will be your everything.

http://theprofitrepairman.com/