Entrepreneurial vision has been the catalyst for change throughout history.
It is the guiding force behind human growth and invention.
Vision: what do you see?
If you can access it - and act upon it - there is no limit to the business and life you can create for yourself.
The three steps discussed below will provide you with the foundation to put your vision into action.
Let’s assume that since you’re in business you have a vision of what you want from it. Perhaps it has been a while since you visited it. But it’s there nonetheless.
You can see it. You can feel it.
Congratulations! You’ve just accomplished one third of the work it takes to see your dream become a reality.
The other two-thirds are strategy and execution. It’s really that simple: know what you want, see what you want and plan the path to get there.
If we look at developing a business as akin to architecture, it’s easy to appreciate the steps.
An architect must visualize what is to be built. Some architects might collaborate with clients – bringing clarity to their vision – while others may be sought after for their ability to conjure up visions that are uniquely their own.
Either way, the next step is to get that vision down on paper as a plan. The plan is then given to capable craftspeople who get the work done.
Eventually, with proper planning, permits and attention to order and detail, the building becomes a reality.
You are the architect.
You may feel that your task is more complicated since you're also IN the business dealing with customers and competition; but creating this strategy is the foundation of working ON your business.
You can only work ON your business once you have your design on paper.
The skills of strategy and execution are at the heart of management.
If you want to be successful in your business, you must learn these skills. They're not difficult, but you may have to challenge yourself to overcome habits or beliefs that have been ingrained through conditioning.
An easy way to do this is to take an e-learning course or online seminar, study at your local school, read management books, or all of the above. Whichever method you choose, decide to consciously put yourself in a position where you can learn what you don’t already know.
You can become an excellent leader and an effective manager; but unless you’re first able to communicate the results you want others to help you achieve, your people will always be floating adrift without any map to guide them.
At E-Myth, our Mastery Clients always start with their vision.
And, though many initially feel that it is difficult to define, it is the soul of simplicity.
It is like becoming a child again. Finding ways to go deep inside yourself and imagine what’s possible.
Vision is powered by imagination. It is about dedicating time to daydream.
Find some time apart, alone, away from the computer and telephone, away from the iPod and cell phone, away from the everyday tactical distractions of your business. Away! Away! Away!
Find a place where you can turn off the world, and turn your imagination back on – in the woods, near the water, at a park, your backyard, the library, a coffee shop – somewhere that you can regularly go without any of the stuff that keeps your practical mind occupied.
Envision your business. See it from the outside – separate from you.
Don’t worry about writing it down yet; see it in your mind first. Imagine what kind of business would most support the life you want.
Every one of you reading this has the capacity to become a dreamer of epic proportions.
What else is an entrepreneur but someone who dreams freely and then turns that dream into a reality?
You can learn to strategize, plan, organize, orchestrate and execute, but you cannot learn to imagine.
You don’t learn it as much as you unlearn and disconnect from everything that is keeping you from it.
You create the conditions that make it possible for your imagination to run free. Can you feel how amazing the power of that can be?
If you begin with the “big picture” of imagining what your business would look and feel like when it is complete, you will have set the stage and found the power to sketch in the picture of the infrastructure.
You'll then be open to envision the way a sales system should look – or the structure of a marketing campaign.
The best way to begin realizing your dream is to visualize the result you want to create. It doesn’t have to be completely clear in the beginning, but as you work with it, it will begin to come into view.
Remember: if you can see it, you can build it.
Imagine what’s possible. Never settle for anything less than the full realization of your dream. Make this the year that you find your overpowering vision; then begin the process of creating it!
If this article has inspired you to begin thinking about implementing your business vision, click here.
“I just can’t seem to stay focused on Strategic Work,” a client of mine told me recently.
“I know I should be working ON my business and not just IN it, but every time I try, something comes up that seems urgent and requires my immediate attention.”
“Remind me again why you need to work ON your business,” I prompted.
“Well, because it will help me achieve my goals and turn my business into something that works for me, instead of me breaking my back working for it, right?”
“Yes, that is right!” I said. I could feel his anxiety starting to ease and I knew I could help him eliminate these distractions and focus on his work as a leader.
“And tell me again,” I asked, “what is the difference between strategic work and tactical work?”
“Tactical work is the more hands on, doing it, doing it, doing it work that is done by the Technician in me. Strategic work is, well, strategic. It’s working ON my business!” he exclaimed.
“Exactly.” I said. “Strategic work is any work involving planning, establishing and managing results. And it happens at every level of the company.”
The strategic work of the Entrepreneur involves envisioning the future and communicating that vision in an inspiring way.
The strategic work of the Manager involves determining what work needs to be done to achieve that vision, deciding who should be doing it and holding people accountable to get it done.
The strategic work of the Technician is to be constantly attentive to how established systems could be made more efficient.
Neither the strategic work of the Entrepreneur nor the Manager is given enough time and attention in most businesses. But unless this work is done somehow, the business is doomed to stagnate or fail.
“But that’s just it, Jamison” he said, “I can’t seem to manage myself, let alone be a good manager for my employees.
For example, an employee will burst into my office with something they need, even after I’ve told them that I am not to be disturbed. Or sometimes I just can’t help myself from checking my email every time a new message appears, and I end up getting distracted and pulled right back into the fire.”
“The good news is that you are committed to the idea.” I said.
“It is important for you to consider that taking the time to work ON your business actually involves working on yourself as well. This is about really understanding how your business is a reflection of you and how you can make it reflect the very best of you.
What if all of these issues are not really preventing you from doing strategic work at all, but are actually showing up as a result of you not having done strategic work in the first place?”
I gave him a moment for those thoughts to settle in, and I could tell he was absorbed in the questions.
He didn’t try to provide any answers, and that is how I knew he was beginning to shift in the right direction.
“Isn’t being in business about being able to make dreams come true – about you becoming the kind of leader who can make dreams come true?”
“Yes” he said, “I see that and I even believe that I am capable of that. But what can I do to actually be that leader more often?”
“If you think about it,” I said, “there are two kinds of distractions that might prevent you from being more strategic:
You seem to be suffering from both. Let me offer four systems that I’d like you to consider.”
Warning: These strategies will only be effective if your employees and customers see you holding up your end of the deal; you must respond to those diverted messages and emails in a timely manner. People must see that you are collecting what they leave in that inbox and responding appropriately. If you don’t, they won’t trust or respect those controls.
If you’re unaccustomed to allowing yourself a routine for strategic thinking, it might be uncomfortable for you at first.
In the beginning, just give yourself permission to experience this regularly scheduled enforced break from your routine. You may squirm, feel anxious, and even a little guilty. That will subside in time and you’ll begin to associate this time with the opportunity to capture your clearest thoughts about your vision for your business and your life.
If you'd like to learn more about E-Myth Management, click here.
It can always be found cheaper online.
That’s the new rule for the new age of business.
And while you offer something of value, your prospects are willing to spend $8 on shipping and handling if they can shave $4 dollars off the price you charge.
It’s outrageous! It’s unfair. It’s not logical.
And yet, more often than not, you’re giving them every reason to do so.
I used to know a business owner who did very well for himself.
He was a people-person. He knew everyone in town.
Everyone wanted to do business with him because he provided the most personal service.
Hours were spent helping his customers solve the tiniest issues for free, knowing that it would come back in the form of future sales. They loved it.
He worked in the "Wild West" of business.
A handshake was as good as a contract. Customers were loyal by default. And as the owner, he was at liberty to adjust the selling price of his products for each transaction.
Knowing the value he provided, he had no problem charging as much as possible.
He would determine what the customer could afford and charge accordingly.
$20 for the mom with 3 kids. $50 for the man with the gold Rolex.
Business went on like this for quite a while. And very effectively, I might add.
Then, in late 2008, the economy grew worse and the mom and her 3 kids stopped coming in.
Soon after, the man with the gold Rolex came in less and less.
Every once in a while the bell on the door would jingle and a new face would walk into the storefront lobby.
"Hi, I purchased this widget online and was told you have the best service around. Can you help me fix it?"
And just like that, his once thriving business became a hub of free customer service.
At one point I had a conversation with this man regarding the situation he found himself in.
He blamed the economy. He blamed internet pricing.
He said he couldn’t change his pricing model because charging his high-paying clients any less would be "leaving money on the table" – not to mention eroding the value he provided for them.
And he didn’t want to raise his prices, because during a tight month, a lower priced sale was better than no sale at all.
He was trapped in a cycle of one-off purchases. Each transaction was a battle to convince the buyer why they should buy from him.
It drained him of his energy and his passion.
Such is the dilemma facing most small business owners. Especially today.
How much is too much to charge? How little is too little?
In order to find the right price point to compete with the internet, the economy and the guy next door, you need to address some things.
The first thing you want to do is stop thinking too much like a Technician in terms of revenue and profit.
Most owners think like this:
"This transaction requires X amount of time and dollars to produce. So if I charge A for this sale, the total profit will equal B."
An Entrepreneur thinks in terms of building equity in the business. Not individual sales.
The Manager puts systems in place to actually get there.
You need to write down a clear vision of what your business will look like in 3-5 years, so you’re not vacillating on low level pricing issues without having a larger context.
You need to decide what kind of business you’re going to have.
Are you going to be the McDonalds or the Ritz Carlton of widget sales? Perhaps somewhere in between?
Until you know this, you’re likely to try to be all things to all people.
The result of this mentality is the kind of mediocrity that typifies the average business and thus drives customers elsewhere.
Rest assured you are not alone in feeling this kind of responsibility. Perhaps we all naturally feel a pull to please everyone.
The trick is realizing that you’re not better serving your customers or yourself by trying to do so.
After determining what kind of business you’re going to be, you have to get clear on the market it’s going to serve.
How do people perceive your product? How much money do they have budgeted for services like yours? How price sensitive are they? (Hint: you can start determining this by listening to what people say about your competitors’ products, services and pricing).
What kind of impact do you want your business to have on the world? Truly ask yourself if you can you be o.k. with "leaving money on the table" if it better serves your market.
When customers get great value they tell a few people. When they feel ripped off, they tell twenty.
So you want to consider the reputation you’re always creating, intentionally or not.
Finally, pricing is very much a strategic financial issue. You have a business to run and it needs to make a profit.
Exactly how much profit you want to make, and by when, should show up in your Strategic Objective.
So start looking at the numbers. If you have accurate financial statements, get them out. (If you don’t, see an accountant immediately).
These are your reference points:
This is where you assess revenue vs. expenses. From a high level view.
Evaluate these statements to determine how much it costs you to produce, support and sell your product over 3 months, 6 months, 1 year.
This is also where you’ll see the history of your actual sales, so you can accurately estimate your output and assess the differing sales between your various products and services.
Now determine how much profit you’ll make by selling Y amount of widgets at X amount of dollars over the same amount of time.
You may discover that there are some products or services that are costing you more to provide than you can ever recoup. This may be the time to consider trimming the fat. Your overall profit margin will automatically improve.
You will want to run some different scenarios to determine the outcome of various price points for your product or service.
This is where you can adjust the numbers.
What’s the least you can charge per product and service? What’s the most?
Is it more important to maximize cash immediately, or appeal to a broader audience?
You should be able to arrive at a price that will serve both you and your market.
When your customer feels that the value they’re receiving from you is worth more than the money they are exchanging for it, there’s no competition.
If this article has inspired you to think about your business finances and the decisions that affect them, click here.
Going into business you promised to do two things:
If your business isn’t making good on these two fundamental promises, then little else matters.
It has been said that a promise without action is a lie.
Does your business keep its promise? Are you clear about what that promise is?
Being in business is, first of all, a promise to produce value worth more than the money you take for it.
Keep your promise and your business grows. Break it and you fail. It's that simple.
And while most businesses focus on producing more sales, the best businesses figure out how to create loyal customers first. After all, do you simply want more marginally satisfied customers? Or do you want customers who come back again and again?
Smart companies clarify their unique promise and build systems to keep it every time, everywhere. It goes beyond pride in the product. It is about the personal commitment to excellence that every customer feels, in every interaction.
At E-Myth we often speak of the Seven Centers of Management Attention. For your customers, the one center that is most relevant and most vital is Client Fulfillment.
This is where your promise comes to life, where the “rubber meets the road.”
All of the wonderful processes and functions of your business operations will come to naught if you fail here. And failure can be simply “meeting your customers’ needs.” Why? Because any competitor can do that. You must exceed their needs and provide value beyond the mere product or service.
To create a consistent experience for your customers that will delight them, and even surprise them, you must have a strategy and a plan.
To create customers who come back to you again and again, who tell their friends about you, who wouldn’t think of using another brand, requires intentionality and focus on your part.
Marketing expert John Jantsch provided a great definition of marketing when he said that it is “getting people who have a specific need or problem to know, like and trust you.”
After people have discovered your business and decided they liked it enough to try you out, the quality you want to establish is trust.
It is the trust that causes customers to come back time and again.
One of the characteristics of this trust is that your customers experience that you and your staff truly care.
Another key element that must be experienced by your customers is enthusiasm. We like doing business with people who not only care, but are enthusiastic about what they are doing for us.
Ari Weinzweig of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses puts it this way to his staff: “We want each guest to leave their interaction with you feeling as though they were the best thing that happened to you that day.
If you are striving to build loyalty in your customers then one more quality must also be considered, and that quality is consistency.
It is not enough for your customers to have an extraordinary experience with your business one time and a mediocre experience the next. Your customers’ expectations of your business – not simply your product or service – must be met time and time again with the same level of quality, the same degree of enthusiasm, and the same depth of caring.
How many merely “satisfied” customers does your business make each day? As the business owner, you need to develop an awareness of what constitutes a less-than-exceptional experience for your customers.
Don’t overlook the little things. You can’t afford to because your customers won’t.
As the leader you need to model the excitement and passion you have for your product. And you need to be on the lookout for those inconsistencies in each customer’s experience.
In order to do that, you’ll need to change the way you approach client fulfillment. Your goal is to create a consistent experience that creates loyal and enthusiastic customers. Here are three steps to help you start the process:
Don’t let your promise become a lie. Customer loyalty is the result of a relationship and lasting relationships are built on integrity. When you show that you truly care for your customers they will care for you – with their loyalty!
To learn more about creating systems that truly exceed your clients' expectations, check out these two resources:
As a business owner, you understand commitment.
You give up your evenings when there’s work left at the end of the day.
Your weekends suffer because of that emergency that can’t wait until Monday.
Your sweat is what keeps the company moving along.
But are you committed to creating a business that truly supports your life?
In order to run your business instead of allowing it to run you, your commitment has to be more than a dedication to champion any obstacle that comes your way.
A business can only support your life when it relies on healthy systems, not on you.
You need to have a vision for your company, and then put systems in place to achieve that vision.
You have to be committed to this process – the process of being a business owner.
In order to create systems that support your life and reduce business chaos, you need to strategically plan how to create the systems in the first place.
Systematizing your business is a relatively straight forward process that involves 3 basic steps:
The hardest part of the process is knowing where to start.
This was precisely the plight of my client Liz before she found her footing.
Liz owns and operates a florist shop in Northern California. What I loved about Liz right from the beginning was how much she loved the business she was in.
She’d always been in love with flowers and she could not imagine doing anything else with her time.
Her problem was that everything in her business was disorganized and she was struggling to deliver consistent quality to her clients. This was creating chaos in her business and it was spilling over into her life.
She complained to me one time:
“I know I need to systemize my business, but where do I start? It all seems so big and overwhelming and sometimes it seems like nothing is going the way I imagined it would. What should I start working on first, my inventory management systems, my staff development systems, my delivery process? How can working with flowers be so stressful?”
“Don’t worry,” I explained, “things can get better and they will get better because you are so committed to making your business work. Remember that you, and only you, can imagine how things should work in your business. You need to stay true to your vision and stay committed to making your business work as you envision it.”
As we continued discussing the systemization of her business, I pointed out how helpful it is to start with a model to base your systems development on.
The model for systems development we use at E-Myth is called The 7 Centers of Management Attention.
The 7 Centers are Leadership, Money, Marketing, Management, Client Fulfillment, Lead Generation, and Lead Conversion.
This model applies to any business in any industry in any part of the world.
Liz began to understand the system development process by simply starting a list of all the systems that she would need to create in each of these Centers. Her list started out by looking something like this:
Leadership:
Money:
Management:
Marketing:
Client Fulfillment:
Lead Conversion:
Lead Generation:
She continued to add more detailed sub-systems to her list and then went on to prioritize them.
I suggested that she determine the level of importance by highlighting first the systems that would have the greatest impact on her customers and her internal business operations.
For example, she knew she needed a system for ‘how to answer the phone,’ but she also knew that unless her employees understood the true vision of the business, they wouldn’t understand the bigger why behind the how.
If they were just going through the motions, they would quickly lose sight of the larger experience she wanted all her customers to have.
Therefore, she chose to prioritize helping her employees understand their roles in the business before getting into the detailed, nitty-gritty parts of the job.
Surprisingly, once Liz started to work on clarifying the big-picture for herself and her people, they actually started to take more ownership of their job duties, started to perform better and started to achieve much better results!
Another option is to start by creating a list of systems to develop based on the various departments in your business, such as Finance, Operations, Admin, etc.
You can then go on to determine who can help you with your systems development, and how your systems might need to change over time in order to stay relevant.
However you approach your systems development strategy, remember that all of the little systems that make up your business need to serve the overall vision you have.
Committing yourself to systematizing your business and developing a systems strategy is important not only because it helps you document how to do things in your business, but also because it helps you discover opportunities to make things better!
I was surprised at how many new ideas Liz had to improve her business when she started to create her business systems strategy.
She did not just clarify and document her systems; she re-imagined and reinvented many of them!
By defining all of the systems in her business, she had a detailed snapshot of exactly how her business should work.
When you look at the inner-workings of your company from 10,000 feet, you can create and re-work your business systems to truly support your life and reduce business chaos.
This might just be the most productive resolution you can make this year.
If you’re interested in being trained in E-Myth Management, click here to learn more.
Far too often, business owners know too much about their product or business and not enough about their customers.
There is a monumental difference between why you think someone should buy and why someone does buy.
The gap between the two is bridged by marketing.
Marketing. What are we really talking about here?
If your first thought is advertising – getting the word out – letting people know you exist and what you can offer them, then you’re missing the most important piece of the puzzle.
I’ll give you an example of one of my clients who was able to multiply his return on lead generation efforts by shifting his initial focus from advertising to marketing.
My client, Graham, who recently launched a retail store that sells unique and eclectic kitchen items, emailed me a copy of a promotional flyer he was working on. He requested my feedback.
“So, what did you think?” He asked.
“To be honest, I haven’t a clue.” I said, and proceeded to ask him two critical questions:
Graham admitted that while he had a general idea of who he was trying to reach, he didn’t have a clear answer to the second question. He was making a common mistake - assuming that what’s important to him is also important to his customers.
Graham’s boat was bobbing in the rapids of the marketplace, but he had only one oar in the water. He had a firm grip on the “advertising” oar, but he was going in circles without the second oar – which in this case we’d call “marketing.”
Marketing, as E-Myth distinguishes it, is the essential area of management attention that is determined through ongoing observation, research, and analysis to answer questions such as:
In short, your marketing efforts drive your lead generation (advertising) by revealing what is most important to your best customers.
Consider the bold banner spanning the front of the restaurant proudly announcing that it is “Under New Management.”
To you – the new owner, fulfilling a lifelong dream, this is a thrilling and important message.
To a passerby, that sign says nothing more than there’s been trouble in the past.
To a previously unsatisfied customer, that sign may deter them even more. "What? Same bad food, delivered differently?"
Had you first spent more time in marketing, you might have discovered that your customers are extremely interested in your locally-sourced, organic ingredients and you could have more effectively used that banner space to proclaim your new menu.
There’s no target market for “Under New Management.”
As we analyzed Graham’s flyer, he began to see that he had created the equivalent of the “Under New Management” banner. He’d listed significant-sounding clichés that sounded like important benefits: “Conveniently located,” “knowledgeable, friendly staff,” “competitive prices,” and “wide selection.”
When we further considered where his customers were coming from, he understood that he was actually only conveniently located to some – and to others who might be his customers, he was on the wrong side of a constantly congested highway.
And given that the alternative to “knowledgeable, friendly staff” is “unfriendly and clueless,” should his customers expect anything less?
“Competitive pricing” might be important to his target market, but if Graham understands that his best customers come to him because of his hard-to-find specialty items, pricing is not of primary concern – and neither is a wide selection.
A key attraction to them might be his ability to provide products that are unavailable from his competitors!
Marketing is a collection of activities that go on internally, within your business.
Marketing is your ongoing effort to question, observe, and understand your customers and their genuine attraction to your business.
In Graham’s rush to advertise, he’d ignored the most important key to effective lead generation – taking the time to understand what your customers care about, and how to most effectively communicate to them that you KNOW them.
The marketing oar is your understanding of who your customers are.
The advertising oar is about clearly articulating the promises your business makes to them.
Effective lead generation comes from remaining hyper-aware of the balance between the two and maintaining that connection at every point of contact between you and your customers.
With proper marketing, advertising becomes a matter of broadcasting the fact that you know what your customers want and are ready to provide it. It has to be based on what they are thinking, not what you are thinking.
Effective marketing efforts make your advertising decisions informed and strategic in nature rather than based on your personal preference, happenstance, or what you see everyone else doing.
As with any area of your business, you need a system for gathering data about your market.
There are plenty of methods out there that work; you just have to find the one that’s right for your business. Here are some examples:
However you decide to gather data, here are the essential questions that need to be answered:
Once you ask the right questions about your market, you’ll start getting the right answers. These answers will tell you what your customers need to hear from you in order to feel connected to you.
For a more thorough training in E-Myth Marketing, or to take a deeper look at the other centers of Management Attention, click here.
Please share with us strategies and resources that you have implemented in your business to increase your understanding of your best customers.
"I feel like I've bitten off more than I can chew, Larry."
My client, Franklin, had grown from a one-person kiosk that featured specialty organic and gluten-free cookies and cakes into to a retail store-front and wholesale provider.
“Production is down, deliveries are late, quality is dropping, and I’m tired of yelling at my manager. I feel like I have to be looking over everyone’s shoulders all the time – and I don’t like myself in that position.”
His voice told me that he had moved well beyond standard growing pains and into a state of overwhelm.
“I don’t like you in that position, either, Franklin,” I said. “How do you think it got to this state?”
It’s a familiar progression common with many small businesses: You start out doing something well – maybe even the best – and business increases until you can no longer fulfill all of the demands.
It exceeds one person’s capacity to do it all anymore.
So, you wisely see that more people are needed to cover all the bases and decide where another person could have the greatest impact.
You hire somebody with a certain skill set or previous experience. Maybe it begins with a bookkeeper who steps in and relieves you of a task that you’re happy to pass on.
Things hum along for a while. The bookkeeper has established a routine for managing the weekly accounts and suggests that she might be able to take on some additional work. So it's decided that she will also answer the phones, and, where possible, help the caller or at least take a message to pass on to you.
Wonderful! Another distraction minimized. More time for you to work the counter, make sales calls, handle deliveries, manage inventory, develop new recipes, and maybe begin to think about promotional campaigns.
Months pass with this new rhythm, and the bookkeeper/receptionist/customer support person suggests that, since she’s getting pretty familiar with the accounts, it might make sense for her to take over the inventory ordering. Another burden lifted.
Then, perhaps it’s time to hire someone to take orders and manage the production scheduling. And since they have prior restaurant experience they can also work the counter!
And just as you’re beginning to feel some increased freedom, having off-loaded some of the tasks that were the most time-consuming and least interesting to you, things get complicated.
“Listen,” Franklin said, “That all makes sense, but I’ve hired great people who know what to do and how to do it. It’s just that lately things are getting missed.”
“It sounds like you’ve got a situation in which people are no longer clear about what’s expected of them.” I said. “They’re juggling too many disconnecting positions and things are falling through the cracks. They’ve risen to every opportunity to contribute to the business but they have no clear picture of the end result.”
I suggested to Franklin that he create an Organizational Chart.
“We have one already.” He said.
“What does it look like?” I asked.
“Well, Marsha, my bookkeeper, is the General Manager-slash-Office Manager-slash-Production Manager, and everybody reports to her.”
“And then,” I prompted, “she reports to you?”
“Well, yeah. And so does everyone else, actually. She can’t be in four places at once, so when she’s not available people come to me. So, I’m the General Manager, too.”
“OK,” I said. “I think we’ve found a place to start.”
“I want you to tear up your organizational chart, Franklin.” I said.
“Really?” he asked.
“Really! It represents an organization that is entirely based on the particular, unique combination of qualities and duties that people have evolved into over time. It doesn’t show you the positions that need to exist in your company in order to support your vision. It isn’t revealing who really is responsible for what and how they’re held accountable. It’s not serving you – and only you can change it.”
I asked Franklin to design a new Organizational Chart from a Functional point of view. I had him approach it in five stages. You can follow these steps to develop a functional org chart of your own:
Once Franklin finished his new org chart by following these guidelines, he had created a picture of what was supposed to be happening consistently every day in his business to assure consistency and growth.
Seeing all of these functions in this schematic format helped him see where accountabilities were in fact being missed! At first he was scared of all of the “new positions” he had created, but I assured him that each function wasn’t representative of a new employee.
Your people can hold multiple roles as long as those roles are clearly defined and make sense within the bigger picture.
Your organizational chart is a schematic of the true work in your business – not only as it exists now, but as it scales out to meet your Strategic Objective. And as your company grows, your org chart will be a roadmap for how you need to plan for and fill specific needs in your business.
If you’re interested in getting an example of a working Organizational Chart and learning how to actually create this document in your business, click here.
Great systems without documentation are only rumors about the way you do things in your business.
A procedure without clear directions is little more than an assumption about the way things should be done.
Without documentation, all your tasks, functions, processes, and procedures – the way that you and your staff habitually do everything – are nothing more than good intentions.
In other words, you need to write it down.
You may want to resist this notion.
But how many times have you found yourself telling your employees how to do something? Again, and again, and again?
My client, Ron, is a great boss and a true visionary. He might be seen as the embodiment of the Entrepreneur. He has a great team and a thriving business. But it wasn’t always such. There was a time when he would come to our coaching meetings exasperated and highly agitated.
“Why can’t people just get it?” he would ask.
“Get what?” I would respond.
“How to do things right? I’ve told them I don’t know how many times… and they still manage to screw it up.”
It turns out that Ron had three account managers who had the same tasks and responsibilities, but managed to find at least three different ways of carrying them out!
It was a rare day when there were no problems resulting from this lack of consistency.
“I hired these guys for their experience.” He said, “They should be able to figure it out. Lord knows I did!”
Sadly, Ron was completely correct in his assumption. They had “figured it out” – by doing it in whatever way they had in their previous jobs!
Ron had his way of doing things, knew how he wanted them done, but he had not followed through beyond trusting that repeated verbal warnings and “showing them” would suffice.
It became apparent that, while Ron had a large number of systems in his head for his managers to follow, very few were actually captured.
And this was true throughout his business.
The work of developing effective systems isn’t truly complete until they are captured, written down, and made readily accessible in an effective and systemic fashion.
It shouldn’t surprise you that at E-Myth we have a system for that called the System Action Plan.
You should be using something similar as you develop and build your business and your business functions.
We work with our clients to help them develop a system to effectively identify the documentation work they should be doing – and how to best structure and prioritize that work.
You need to have a plan for effectively documenting all the key routines you have in your business.
And you need to find a balance that works for you.
Since the work of systems documentation will be taking place concurrently with all of the regular daily tasks and operations of your business, it is vital to have a well thought-out strategy. Allowing sufficient time and resources from the start will prevent many missteps down the road.
Here is an example of an approach that has worked well for many of my clients:
Now that you have an idea for how to document your systems, there’s a very important caveat.
Good systems – effective, dynamic systems – are utterly essential to building and sustaining a great business; but merely having those systems is not the solution for a dysfunctional business.
We’ve said it before but it bears repeating: People are the power behind the systems.
The systems are their levers, not their replacements!
Your business has enormous potential because you and your people have enormous potential! And when your people have the freedom to find the most effective way to complete their job, not only will they take pride in their work, they’ll never stop making the systems better.
If you’re interested in getting an example of the E-Myth Action Plan and learning how to actually implement systems in your business, click here.
Jayne’s business was eroding.
Areas of her business that were previously fertile and profitable were now barely breaking even.
She was frustrated and she needed to increase revenue.
If you follow the dictates of systemization, you might quickly arrive at the conclusion that her lead generation and lead conversion systems needed to be innovated.
But that's not necessarily right.
In fact, leaping straight to a solution can do more harm than good.
Creating effective systems requires systemic thinking.
Now, that statement is not as obvious as it may first seem. Too often, one’s first response to addressing a frustration is to simply rush to install a system that will make the frustration stop.
But, that’s like taking a pill to stop the pain without identifying its origin.
A business is a reflection of its owner. Therefore, it’s imperative to look at yourself, as the owner, and first consider what you might be doing to cause the problem and not just leap to a solution.
Systemic thinking is, therefore, the act of thinking systematically. Step by step.
I knew it was time to introduce Jayne to E-Myth’s premier problem solving exercise, the Key Frustration Process.
I started from the beginning.
“So your basic frustration is a lack of revenue, right?” I asked her this question as a way to get her to ‘stop’ and focus in on the true underlying condition causing the frustration.
“Yes, Joe, I thought that was clear,” Jayne replied with a sigh. I was getting the sense that she felt going over it again or delving deeper didn’t much appeal to her.
Children are natural systemic thinkers. Their favorite word is “Why?” Sometimes, the best coaching approach is to model a precocious 5-year-old.
I knew Jayne needed to be both challenged and supported since it was hard for her to look at the actual conditions in the business that might be causing the results that were making her unhappy. Jayne tended to blame the outer economic situation; and the changing face of her industry. But I knew there was a deeper reality going on here and that’s exactly what the Key Frustration Process aims to address.
“Why has revenue not kept pace year over year?” I asked.
“Like I said, the environment has changed ” she insisted.
“Why do you believe that it’s the outer environment and not something internal to your company?”
“I just do.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s all the same people involved,” Jayne said with an air of frustration that facing the truth often brings if you’re not prepared for the answer.
It’s my job, as Jayne’s coach, to push her further than she would go on her own.
“Why would you accept that it’s an outer directed problem?”
“Because I’m making that assumption,” she replied.
“Good, that’s exactly it. Now, why would your sales people accept the results they are getting?” I asked.
“Um-mm,” she murmured. “Could it be that we really don’t have a way to focus them on targets and hold them accountable?”
“Might be. Why do you think that?”
“Well I have to admit, the entire culture around here is kind of lax in that regard. We just expect our folks to do it, and come to me if they can’t.”
“And how that’s going for you?” I asked.
“Well, the results tell the truth, right?” She replied.
“They keep the score if that’s what you mean. Why haven’t you been able to change those results?”
“Well I think it must have something to do with the fact that we lack any real accountability in our company. We just kind of stopped when we started to lose clients.”
“Why don’t you track your sales activity goals and your conversion rates?” I asked.
“Because we just stopped doing it,” Jayne acknowledged.
“So you see,” I said, “you seem to have identified a much deeper condition than simply needing a new lead generation or conversion system. It’s certain you may need to innovate these systems, but unless you solve this underlying problem of accountability, it will be like putting on a band-aid before you’ve stopped the arterial bleeding."
Graphic, but it made the point.
“Yes!” Jayne cried out, “you’re absolutely right. We’ve let ourselves believe we were doing all we can, but in truth, we gave up holding people accountable in any real fashion, and now we’re suffering the consequence of this.”
Jayne decided, based on our coaching conversation, to create better expectation agreements with goals and measurements that were discussed in regular 1-on-1 accountability meetings with her salespeople.
In just a few weeks of these adjustments, Jayne started to notice a real difference with her staff. They now knew what was expected of them and how they were going to be measured and held accountable.
It is easy to find a system solution. But if in the process you haven’t addressed the shortcomings of your culture, leadership dysfunctions or other habits that need shifting, you may stamp down the fire - or stop the immediate pain - but you’re likely to leave the most critical flammable material still smoldering in the background. You won’t have transformed your business. Which do you want to achieve?
If you haven’t before experienced the power of the Key Frustrations Process – the premier exercise in thinking systemically – I’d suggest learning more about our Key Frustrations Process online seminar. Begin to systematically identify and eliminate the core frustrations in your business and life.
If you are an E-Myth Mastery client, you’ve probably already taken our Key Frustrations process for a test-drive. You might want to take it for another spin, with your 5-year old in the back seat, asking “Why?”
CASH = OPPORTUNITY
Having extra cash on hand allows you to do some pretty essential things in your business, like:
So, why is it that when it comes time to seize these opportunities - when the excitement to grow is stirring within you - that it can feel like such a struggle to find the cash to do so?
The truth is that many business owners don’t plan ahead specifically for their cash needs.
CASH = VALUE
When you have an accurate vision for where your business is heading, and what you need to do to get it there, then cash becomes a tool by which you can create a better experience – or provide more value – for your customers.
CASH = VALUE = MORE CASH
You already know it takes a certain amount of cash just to get through the day, but it is that ‘extra’ cash that you build up through careful planning and strategic thinking that funds the steps you need to take in order to move your business to the next level.
If you are going to grow your business, then you must learn to manage your cash carefully and strategically in pursuit of your vision.
There are two questions I ask every new client and you should be asking yourself as well:
"What do you want to accomplish and how committed are you to actually doing it?"
These questions are critical, not just as they relate to cash management, but because they define the essence of your discipline in whatever venture you’re considering: losing weight, reducing debt, buying a new house, improving your golf game, learning a new language, or creating a successful business.
You have to know why you’re pursuing any given goal to begin with. What is the value that you will get from the end result? Is it worth the discipline it takes to get there? Usually it is.
Then you have to admit that if you’ve attempted it before, but haven't made much headway toward achieving your goal, it might require some serious soul-searching to understand where the problem lies.
You may find that it requires you to take a new approach, as uncomfortable as that may be...
You need to own it.
And so it is with cash. Strong cash flow is a goal that most business owners have, and sincerely aim to achieve, only to look back and realize that they’re in the same place as they've always been.
You might have to ask yourself how you personally relate to cash. How do you manage it? How do you mismanage it? What are your goals in acquiring and using it?
Once you’ve defined your goals and recognize where change needs to happen, you can begin to see how to properly leverage your cash to get more of what you want.
How you relate to cash is largely determined by which of your business personalities has been dominating your thinking. Your inner Technician, Manager, and Entrepreneur all relate to cash in different ways.
Your inner Entrepreneur knows there will be exciting opportunities in the future that you’ll want to take advantage of and that you’ll need a cash cushion that will give you the available funds to do so.
Your inner Manager needs to be able to generate profit. This is the person who implements the steps to ensure that you can track and monitor your cash flow and have a plan in place for using cash productively. You may not be, and in most cases should not be, the person who actually does the cash planning and reporting work, but you need to be coordinating and guiding those activities. The ultimate accountability for making sure that work gets done rests with you as the Manager.
For the inner Technician, cash is simply what you get in exchange for a certain amount of time and material. It is short-term, immediate, and easily taken for granted. Your inner Technician does not have the capability to think strategically about cash. If your inner Technician has been minding the store, it is not surprising if your cash is used indiscriminately, with little awareness or interest in the actual strategic power it holds.
It shouldn’t surprise you that, in my experience, those clients who have the greatest challenge in harnessing their cash power are those who have allowed their inner Technicians to be the guardians of the cash; whether it is to their accountant or bookkeeper, they have abdicated and conveniently ignored the critical part that their inner Manager and Entrepreneur must play in fueling their vision.
This is not an insurmountable challenge by any means. It simply underlines the need to commit to a change of perspective and a shift in power.
Every successful small business runs like a high performance machine and it takes cold, liquid cash to fuel it.
As you seek out new opportunities to drive your company growth, consider the following guidelines about cash flow management that can help you take charge of your business and your future – note which of the three business personalities apply:
You've read about how your company is built around your vision, now do something about it.
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