Business Strategy - Page 12

Chances are you'll be working with a vendor to implement technology in your business. These vendors might be web designers, social media experts, or even sales people for technology tools such as CRMs or email marketing software. We often find that the communication between the vendors and business owners often halts, muddies, or even worse completely ruins many attempts at implementing technology in a business. Here are a few tips to ensure that as a small business owner you are prepared to talk the talk with your technology vendors.

Technology! You can love it or hate it, but there's one thing that is clear:  it's here to stay. This means that as a business owner you must learn to deal with it. Otherwise, your business can suffer. Does that mean you need to adapt right now to technology? Absolutely not, but it does mean you need to think about technology from a strategic point of view. Today we'll be looking at the productive points of view business owners need to adopt when discussing technology:

This month we've focused on understanding how you decorate your rut. We looked at ruts that feel safe and comfortable, and discussed the need for small action steps to escape ruts. This week we want to focus on ruts that feel uncomfortable.
 

Last week, we ended with a challenge to design an end-game scenario or story for the end of this year.  In other words, how would you optimally describe your business on December 31, 2016 if you could have your most desired outcome?  Today we begin with the end.  That is the only productive way to start anything with a desired result.  It is very hard to get there if you don't have any idea what it is.  You cannot create a path to something you have not identified. Engaging your team in a set of goals is almost impossible without the ability to tell them where they are going.

Last month we discussed the importance of realizing value from your business. As a business owner, your goal is not only to make your business run smoothly and efficiently, but to design and grow a business that will eventually sell for a price that is worth your time and efforts.   With the onset of September, now is a critical time for you to conduct a checkup on your business so that you can ensure the business is prepared for success in the 4th quarter, into 2016 and beyond. By conducting a review of your business, you will be better able to find pieces that are out of alignment with your vision and correct minor issues before they become major problems.

What is the point of owning your own business? How you answer that question will definitely depend on your personal desires, but in reality it boils down to one thing: Value. You own a business to realize value.

When you hear business owners talk about growing their business, they are usually referring to increasing revenue and profits. The conversation immediately goes to growing their sales force, adding new clients, increasing their market share, and so on. More often than not, it is about doing more and more of what got the business owner where they are, which in one way is fine. On the other hand, it likely does not take into account those characteristics that will lead to maximum return when it is time to sell or transition out of the business. More often than not, the business remains highly dependent on its owner or certain key people, has co-mingled business and personal finances, the “processes” of the business are more accurately described as “habits” than systems, and there is no clear “strategy” for growth beyond the capabilities of “doing more of what we’ve always done.”

We began the conversation last week with the merging of E-Myth Benchmark and Henderson Business Group. The relationship between our two organizations began several years ago, as two companies serving similar clients in similar marketplaces, with completely different but complimentary services. We held joint seminars in several cities in the Midwest, and it was during these seminars, and successful transitions of clients designing and growing their businesses through one organization, then selling it through the other, that a real synergy began to develop. E-Myth Benchmark has always believed and coached to the principals of Michael Gerber's E-Myth Revisited, including the core belief that your business should be a vehicle to give you more life, not take the life out of you. More “life” is the simple expression of more satisfaction, more money, more time, more freedom. It is the dream that business owners start out with, but struggle to realize.