Ever wondered ‘Where’s the money gone”?

‘Where’s the Money Gone?’ traces the learning of a typical business person named Mike. Mike believed that to be successful he just needed to make a profit.

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3 steps for addressing difficult employees in your business

By on July 14, 2011 in Difficult Employees

Have you sometimes wondered why running your business seems so hard and you feel like giving up?

The most common reason I’ve heard is that difficult employees are sucking the life out of the business owner.

Behaviour issues with employees are causing significant stress to the business owner.

So what should you do? How can you go forward in this situation?

Step 1:
Identify who is either difficult or likely to become a difficult employee.

You only need to ask yourself one simple question to find the answer.

“Does this employee add energy or take energy from my business?”

This very simple question has helped many business owners get quickly to the source of current or future difficult employees.

Step 2:
Identify the unique behavioural traits of the employee.

Many individuals are unaware of themselves nor their effect on those around them. In the work place it is critical to be able to co operate with other people in a team so that you all perform at your best.

In smaller business this becomes more critical because many people have multiple tasks and often there are few written procedures. It all comes down to working with each other.

There are many tools around which can help identify these traits. The most common are DISC and Myers Briggs, but my personal favourite is Business DNA which can quickly identify the strengths, struggles and relational keys for an individual.

Step 3:
Ensure that the work requirements match the behavioural traits of the employee.

If an employee is continually struggling in their job then it is only a matter of time before they drop in performance and become discouraged and create a problem.

You can see that if someone is struggling they will obviously take energy out of your business and ‘cause you grief!’

Often people have taken on a job for money rather than enjoyment and in these circumstances it is almost impossible for the person to add energy to your business over the long haul.

Have you had any experiences with difficult employees you’d like to share?

How you can avoid disappointment with small business coaching

By on July 12, 2011 in Small Business Coaching

When you decide to go ahead with small business coaching it is incredibly important that you do not go into the process with ‘gold coloured spectacles.’

When you are about to enter into a process you need to remember that your potential coach has a business just like you and will be wanting to make a good impression on you. You will likely hear about all the other people he / she has worked with and how incredible that has been for them.

And remember that you will normally be looking for help when appointing a coach so you can often be vulnerable to a sub standard decision.

When you’re buying anything, it will not be the logical part of the decision that drives the process but the emotional elements will drive the decision.

That’s why disappointment can quickly enter into your world because it’s also an emotion.

Going through a decision making process is really important when deciding to hire a small business coach. One of the most common reasons for getting a coach is that it is lonely being the business owner.

There’s only so much you can discuss with your employees and of course when you have issues with your employees then you’ll want someone outside the business to discuss these issues with.

Disappointment can only occur when you get something you weren’t expecting or fail to get something you were expecting.

When you’re lonely and wanting some encouragement you’re wide open to be taken advantage of with some coaching that isn’t going to really help your business go forward.

So before you appoint a small business coach you need to have a list of the logical reasons why you would want one.

The process you go through to appoint a coach should be as rigorous as appointing a new employee into your business.

You need to interview them, make sure that they have a track record in assisting in the specific areas that are an issue for you.

For example: If you have significant cash flow issues then hiring someone who is really good with people may not suit you.

Make sure you hire the right small business coach who understands the specific issues you’re facing and then you both have the same expectations and this will avoid disappointment through the coaching process.

What’s your experience on this?

Discover how your business behaviour can be a catalyst in your business

By on July 7, 2011 in Business Behaviour

Are you aware of how your business behaviour affects all the employees in your company?

Do you realise that there is an amplification affect throughout your business on how you behave as an owner?

Unfortunately it can feel as though you live in a glass fish bowl as a business owner because every one is looking to you to ‘set the tone’ in your business.

Everyone has an off day in their business life and as a business owner you’re going to have one every now and then.

So how can you make sure that your own behaviour doesn’t have a negative effect in your business?

The facts are that negative behaviour travels faster and further than a positive behaviour. This is why the media is always looking for things that are sensationally wrong because that type of news travels faster.

Think about catastrophic events that get reported around the world. They are in the category of BAD news rather than good news because of their ability to attract people.

Fear is an amazing thing because of the pace at which it travels and how it has an ability to multiply so quickly.

Given all this, you must become intentional in your business behaviour. The reason is that you must push towards the positive and make sure that you become known for being more positive than negative.

A bad experience can have a significantly more powerful effect on an individual than a positive one.

As a human being you will automatically draw people into your negative experiences but you will need to intentionally draw people into your positive ones.

The best way to succeed in having a positive catalytic effect in your business is to have a plan for spreading positive things around your business.

Celebrate successes, become known as an encourager to your employees and guard the way you speak in your business.

What’s your experience on this?

How you can discover the best place to make a start at budgeting worksheets

By on July 5, 2011 in Budgeting Worksheets

Do your eyes glaze over when it comes to the numbers of your business?

Do you become quickly disengaged if someone talks to you about preparing budgeting worksheets?

If you have never done anything like this before then I suggest you start with the basics and then you can move on to the more complex parts of budgeting worksheets.

So as a business owner, when you think about the future of your business, what is the most important number to you?

Is it income or sales? Most likely it is something to do with inflow of money because an important part of a business is making money so that you can grow and keep the business alive while doing it.

So this is the most important part of your budget which is not what many people think of when they think of budgeting.

When I use the word budget with most people the first thing that pops into their head is, “What am I going to have to deny myself? What will I not be able to have because I’m on a budget!”

Most people associate a budget with cutting or controlling expenses rather than stretching towards higher and better income!

So the first place to start with budgeting worksheets is to look at your proposed income. I find that most business owners are more positive when it comes to increasing income than decreasing expenses. Is this true for you?

Approaching any task with a negative frame of mind will only bring a negativity to the whole task and likely you will never want to complete it because who wants to focus on a negative!!

If budgeting is another way of working out what you CAN’T have instead of what you CAN have then it will be an overall negative experience.

As the business owner you will affect the atmosphere around any task that is done by your business and it is so important when thinking about the future to be positive.

So the first step in developing budgeting worksheets is to focus on income and the positive side of building and developing your customers.

What’s your experience on this?

Discover why you should avoid a detailed expense template

By on June 30, 2011 in Expense Template

In your business have you been guilty of getting stuck in the detail and not being able to get a helicopter view and see things from the right perspective?

Can you get lost in the woods and forget to climb a tree and see where you’re going?

Remember you’re not alone in this. Many business owners get so caught up in the day to day management that they never have a strategic view of the future direction of their business.

As a result they surge from one cash flow crisis to another and wonder why they never seem to get ahead.

With that in mind, do you think you should concern yourself with an extremely detailed expense template?

Do you think it might be possible to get lost in the ‘bowels’ of your organisation and forget why you’re down there?

Is it possible that you’re working really hard on something that has lost its relevance to the overall direction of your business?

Most business owners spend their time on customer interaction and leave the administration side of their business to other people.

As a result the direction and context of their administration comes from other people and it is up to the business owner to bring the right direction and context to this aspect of their business.

Do you think that any one in your business can work without some overall direction and input from the business owner?

Would you allow someone to do the marketing in your business and never refer back to you for direction?

Unfortunately this is the case around administration and the reporting of expenses in many small businesses.

The administration is completely taken care of by people who do not have a feel for the overall direction of the business and therefore the context from which they would prepare a detailed expense template may be incorrect.

So as the business owner you must keep an overall business perspective to everything that you do and provide that context and oversight to all aspects of your business.

Do you have any experiences on this you would like to share?