Tools For Success-Have a Sense of Urgency
The first article in this series listed more than 25 tactics to increase your business success, all of them based on my experience. I started with nothing and didn’t get to college, so I know you can achieve maximum success, regardless of your education. E-mail me to get the first article or any of the other articles in the series. Each of the articles after the first takes a closer look at one of the tactics.
There is no substitute for an EXTREME sense of urgency. Don’t wait to do it, do it now! Delegate it! Make it happen! You know already intuitively that no matter how fast you move in the world of business it’s not fast enough. Practice the urgency every day. Every week. Every month. Be tireless; make sure everyone around you knows that you always wanted it yesterday. Their sense of urgency leverages on yours. Why wait months to get a new marketing design? Do it this week. Why wait to shake down the reason for high expenses in your service department? Do it today, get started, ask someone for all the metrics and reports for your review by this Thursday!
Make sure that you delegate effectively, as there are many tasks that you may not need to do at all, or have others gather information so you can make a decision. One item that speeds innovation and improvement is a weekly meeting with all the main stakeholders in your organization, that article is #15, and upcoming in a few months, so watch for it. It was important enough, like delegation that it warranted a separate article.
Many of you want better profits. The path to profits requires a big sense of urgency to achieve it and stay ahead of your competitors. How do you do that? It’s simple; insist on your preliminary financial statements absolutely no later than the 10th. Ignore hose that tell you it’s not possible, we had to close the books and publish them by the 5th, regardless of weekends and holidays! Why? Because AS SOON AS YOU GET IT, on THAT morning, study it. Make sure it shows the prior 12 months (so it covers 13 months, including the same month last year). Study it for changes, comparing to the prior month and same month last year. Shine your mental “flashlight” on several items that are either up or down, and MARCH right out of your office to that department. Get details. Ask the accounting dept. to explain why utility bills doubled last month, and why brokered parts sales are off 30% for the last 3 months. Schedule a meeting TOMORROW with the sale staff to discuss how to get brokered parts sales up. Figure out who is leaving all the fans on in the shop, install thermostats on the HVAC system that cuts it off at night. (We use Nest thermostats). Now smile and go back to work. You have had an impact on THIS month’s sales, the month right after the statement you studies. If you don’t get your statement until later in the month, or even the next month and then delay reviewing it, then procrastinate on taking steps, it’s easy to see that you won’t impact things for many months, so will make a difference maybe 3 times per year. Imagine how fast things will change if you shine that flashlight on just 2 items per month. That’s 24 initiatives per month. One of my favorite says, where you check and shine your flashlight is where you get improvement.
Do you have a way to track the efficacy of your buyer’s purchases? Metrics that measure how quickly the inventory turns? (I see a lot of heads turning side to side) DO you know that it has been proven over and over that purchases that do the best in the first month do the best in the long term? Getting in front of bad purchasing is one of the quickest ways to increase cash flow and profits. Put the system in place now and start meeting with the buyer regularly, at least monthly. DO IT TODAY.
Bad employee? Get to work moving them out. Do everything sooner rather than later. It can be exhausting for your staff, but they also will respect what you are and do, employees love being part of success.
Remember only you can make business great!
Ron Sturgeon, Mr. Mission Possible, has been a successful business owner for more than 35 years. As a small business consultant, he can deliver wisdom and advice gleaned from an enviable business career that started when he opened a VW repair business as a homeless 17-year-old and culminated in the sale of several businesses he built to Fortune 500 companies.
Ron has helped bankers, lawyers, insurance agents, restaurant owners, and body shop owners, as well as countless salvage yard owners to become more successful business people. He is an expert in helping small business owners set the right business strategies, implement pay-for- performance, and find new customers on the web.
As a consultant, Ron shares his expertise in strategic planning, capitalization, compensation, growing market share, and more in his signature plainspoken style, providing field-proven, and high-profit best practices well ahead of the business news curve. Ron is the author of nine books, including How to Salvage More Millions from Your Small Business.
To inquire about consulting or keynote speaking, contact Ron at 817-834-3625, ext. 232, rons@MrMissionPossible.com, 5940 Eden, Haltom City, TX 76117.
