Business Growth Lifecycles
5:30 to 8:30 pm
The Pacific Club
4110 MacArthur Blvd
Newport Beach, CA 92660
5:30 to 8:30 pm
The Pacific Club
4110 MacArthur Blvd
Newport Beach, CA 92660
4:00 pm to 7:00 pm
6501 N. Broadway
Oklahoma City, OK, 73116
So far this week I’ve met with two women entrepreneurs who are consulting clients and they both have the same problem.
They want their business to grow and they’re stuck. They work hard – both of them are putting in 60+ hours a week.
They are so busy with day-to-day tasks and responsibilities, that just getting through their weekly “To Do” list or fighting fires consumes all their time and energy and then some.
More time won’t solve their problem.
Their businesses are too dependent on them.
Is your business too dependent on you? Until you start to break this dependence, your growth will be limited. (And you may be overworked!)
Here’s the good news: learning one important (and overlooked!) concept will help you break this dependence.
What’s that concept? Some functions make your business successful short term and some functions will make it successful long term. You, as the owner, need to focus on the functions that will make your business healthy, effective and efficient long term.
Turning over the short-term functions will make your business less dependent on you. Because short-term needs crowd out long-term needs every time.
If we neglect the things that move the company forward long term, we stay stuck in the endless loop of trying to keep up with daily tasks that someone else could do.
Here’s an example of the functions that make your business successful in the short-term:
Here’s an example of the functions that will make your business successful in the long-term:
That list of long-term functions is where you as the leader should be spending most of your time. To begin to break the company’s dependence on you, start with staff development and training.
Now that you know this, it’s time to make a plan to delegate or outsource everything you possibly can from the short-term list. (I can hear you groaning!)
Let me assure you, these thoughts are all completely normal!
You won’t get there overnight. But picture your company a year from now and imagine how different it can look.
Start small. Choose one thing and work toward letting it go.
Think about all the knowledge and information you are carrying around in your head! Once you free up some of that mental space and you can focus on how to create new revenue.
Begin right now to document processes and procedures.
Just start. You don’t have to create an entire Procedures Manual in one sitting. Commit to documenting one process every week. Get things out of your head and write them down.
The famous management consultant W. Edward Demming (he’s the guy who saved the Japanese auto industry after WWII) says it this way: “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”
Strong words, I know. But though we may not be aware we have a “process” behind what we do and the decisions we make, we actually do. It just comes so naturally to us that it’s hard to define.
But you can! Break down your own thinking process and write it down.
Take the time to train others, not just what to do, but why, and how to make decisions. Commit to teaching one employee something new each week. Teach them what you do, how you do it, why you do it, what factors you consider when you make your decisions. Teach them to think.
Now that you have the awareness, you’ll see your business through different eyes. Separating long and short-term functions is your first step toward making your business less dependent on you.
Then you can grow! (Or chill out on a beach somewhere! Send me a postcard.)
Gravity is an excellent teacher.
I learned that the hard way as a three-year old. Lying on the living room floor, watching Disney on a Sunday night, I decided to drink a glass of water. Lying down.
I’d never even heard the word “gravity” but that abstract concept quickly became very real (and wet!).
Gravity strikes women entrepreneurs too. In spite of all the warnings, we try to ride our bikes down the porch steps. We fly a little too high on the swing. We carry too heavy a load and get worn out.
We can avoid some of these painful bumps, bruises and broken bones when we learn from others’ encounters with gravity.
So I thought you’d enjoy learning from a few of my own scrapes and pulled muscles (caused by my own wrong turns), and hopefully you won’t make the same mistakes!
Lesson: Look before leaping. As women entrepreneurs, we’re action oriented, we get things done. Sometimes we get excited about a project or a new endeavor and just launch in (typical entrepreneurial behavior!). But you can save tons of time and money if you’ll think your projects and plans all the way through. Gather the facts. Read the instruction manual. (I know, how boring!)
Lesson: Think global first. You may think your business is now-and-forever local, but you may surprise yourself. Once you are locally successful, you’ll see a bigger horizon. Think big from the beginning (and check the federal trademark register!).
Lesson: Don’t hire based on “potential.” Look for proven track record in potential employees, vendors or virtual outsourcing resources. Whether you’re hiring a web developer, a social media consultant, a lawyer, a CPA, no matter what — hire people who can prove demonstrated success getting the results you are looking for.
Lesson: Invest the time to develop a full understanding of your own needs. That same lesson is true whether your decision is about software, a new employee, a vendor, or anything else! As women entrepreneurs, time is in short supply. It’s grueling to carve out time to make lists of what we need and do the necessary research. But if we don’t we have one of those painful collisions with gravity.
Lesson: Ask for advice…then listen! — I fell in love with my own idea and dismissed all the cautions. When you ask for objective input, it’s a good idea to listen! Be objective and be willing to subject your ideas to scrutiny.
These “mistakes” barely scratch the surface of all the wrong turns I’ve taken. But guess what? I’m still here!
From strategy, to branding, to hiring, to technology, we women entrepreneurs make hundreds of decisions every week. We’re entitled to a few misguided decisions, imperfect choices and, uh, shall we say…bonehead mistakes.
Gravity will catch up with us. We’ll crash land from time to time. I call it “getting a PhD in business.”
But here’s how I look at it: if you aren’t making mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough! Mistakes are a normal (unless you keep repeating them!). What’s important is to learn from them.
Here’s what really matters: don’t let your wayward decisions cause you to lose confidence. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.
Be intentional about doing a “post mortem” and analyze where the wheels came off the wagon. Get input from others (NOT your best friend who would never say anything to hurt your feelings). Get honest, objective opinions from business people you trust.
Learn something. Then…declare a victory and move on!
P.S. My new book affirms the heart of women entrepreneurs, while teaching them new self-awareness and business skills.
Because every woman entrepreneur deserves to achieve her version of success!
The text message arrived early New Year’s day. “N’attends pas que les événements arrivent comme tu le souhaites. Décide de vouloir ce qui arrive…et tu seras heureux.”
This was a New Year’s wish from a long-time client, a native of Switzerland, who enjoys sending messages in French as much as I love untangling them. This one translates as, “Do not expect that events arrive as you want. Decide you want what happens … and you shall be happy.”
In other words, choose happiness.
What makes the quote even more meaningful is that the original words were spoken by Epictetus, a Greek philosopher, who began life as a slave. (He’s perhaps best known as the guy who said, “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen more than we speak.”)
I was touched by my client’s thoughtfulness and a bit surprised. This particular client is perhaps the most driven, most determined I’ve ever worked with. He (my only male client!) is a perfectionist, with very high expectations. I actually like that about him (most of the time), because he epitomizes what I so often try to teach women. Think big, and do not apologize for your ambitions.
Twenty-four hours later, I smiled with joy from start to finish as I watched the movie Sweet Dreams, set in Butare, a rural village in Rwanda. The country has made tremendous economic progress since the tragic genocide of 1994. Yet 85% of the people are subsistence farmers, so the struggle to survive and provide persists.
The movie tells the story of Rwanda’s first and only female drumming troupe, Ingoma Nshya. Dancing and drumming are beautiful traditions of the Rwanda’s people, but drumming was for men only — till now!
The drumming troupe is open to women from both sides of the genocide — the orphans, widows, wives and children of both victims and perpetrators.
The only requirement? They had to leave the categories of the past at the gate.
Kiki, the leader of the drumming troupe, tasted ice cream in another country. No such sweetness was part of Rwandan life! She decided to form a co-op and open Butare’s first ice cream shop. They named the shop Inzozi Nziza (Sweet Dreams).
I wish you could see how these women work together, side by side, making all decisions together. But more than anything I wish you could see the joy on their faces as they drum and dance.
These remarkable women have made a choice. They chose forgiveness. They chose happiness.
These two random events — the text message from a client and the movie the next day — had a powerful effect on me as they worked their way through my mind and my heart and wove themselves together.
Just last week I grumbled about having to pay the plumber $250 to fix leaky faucets. The prior week I whined about losing tree limbs in the ice storm. And yet I have a comfortable, warm home, plenty to eat, more clothes and shoes than I can wear in a year and the freedom to choose what I want to do and how I feel.
So the universe offered me a little gift of serendipity this year, saying one thing: choose happiness.
Feel all your feelings, but don’t get stuck there. It’s okay to feel disappointed, but move on. It’s okay to feel discouraged, but try again. It’s okay to feel angry, but let it go. Choose happiness.
So as we enter this shiny new year, join me in remembering the former slave who used his experience to become a philosopher. Join me in learning from the women of Rwanda who left the past behind and now blaze new trails together. Join me in forgiving and feeling grateful.
Let’s choose happiness. Pick up your drum and dance.
Take care,
This handsome gentleman is John Wanamaker, the man often cited as the source of that famous quote above.
Did you know he was an incredibly successful Philadelphia merchant in the late 1800’s?
I take strange comfort in knowing that marketing strategies have stumped business owners for hundreds of years.
John Wanamaker was known as modest, honest and the innovator of the “money back guarantee.” He was also known as a merchandising and advertising genius.
So if John Wanamaker was confused – before the options of television, the internet, mobile devices and social media were thrown into the mix — it’s no surprise that business owners today are seriously confounded!
The massive amount of choices you have about how to spend your marketing money and time mean one thing: you absolutely need a marketing plan.
You have to be relentlessly strategic, or you’ll go broke just throwing money at marketing.
Creating a well-defined marketing plan will help you generate more leads and increase your sales. You’ll accomplish these three critical benefits:
1) Make better decisions about where to spend marketing time and money
2) Save marketing dollars by spending them on what works
3) Keep you focused and consistent, instead of “hit and miss”
Now is the perfect time to create your marketing plan for 2014.
We’ve made it easy for you. Our e-course “Become a Marketing Superstar: How to Create a Marketing Plan Guaranteed to Increase Sales” comes complete with a 12-page customizable marketing plan template!
So don’t wait! Be strategic and prepared to make 2014 your best year ever.
Take care,