by Bert Shlensky | Aug 2, 2017 | Operations
We think there are a lot of stigmas out there when doing business. Better yet: stereotypes. And some are more prevalent than others. That, however, doesn’t mean you should neglect those ‘others’ for the ones that seem to make more sense: like the business logo, or product development, or how you market and brand your business. Believe it or not, but if you want that business of yours to be successful, make sure you’ve checked this off your list — packaging and distribution!
You Won’t Believe How Important It Is to Ensure You’ve Got That Process in Place When Doing Business
How are you ‘packaging’ your product and service? Are you? If not, you’re missing out on a very valuable piece of the marketing pie. After all, where the heck is the logo going to go? On the package.
Delivery is even more important as you study and research your industry. Logistics is a no-brainer. You have a physical product, you have to get that product in their hands, or else it really doesn’t matter how cool your product is. If the customer can’t get to it, you don’t make money.
But delivery isn’t necessarily about physical transportation. You could have a product or service that’s 24/7, on-call service, or an online product of some kind. Think of the newer-age business brands out there like Uber, Amazon, Airbnb, and Zappos — distribution has become something way more complex and effective than just simple packaging and trucking.
Perhaps you sell digital marketing services, and your work is done via account management. Lay out your delivery processes and make sure your prospective customers know what to expect — and when you’ve got that out of the way, make sure it gets done every time.
After All, Your Customers Can’t Buy and Keep Buying If They Don’t Get Your Stuff Somehow
Be it brick-and-mortar, online e-commerce, or just a delivery service — whatever it may be, get it situated. Make sure the operations are in order. Because you don’t want to launch without having all of those details etched in stone, ensuring customers know what’s coming. In many ways, this is the final gift to great service — they finally get it, use it, love it, and then, of course — they come back for more of it.
That’s business success.
Dr. Bert Shlensky, President of The Startup Connection, directs all small business clients toward maximum sales and profit thanks to his 40 years of high-quality experience. He does this through technological, social, and online integration, supercharging your business success into the next level, so don’t hesitate to sign up for a free consultation RIGHT NOW.
by Bert Shlensky | Jul 11, 2017 | Operations
Small business shouldn’t follow a google template. Nor should owners endlessly research alternatives or try executing multiple efforts. Instead, business owners should identify priorities and focus. From there, test and adopt or change as opportunities present themselves. Learning to focus is an imperative skill for any small business person.
Most plans have wrong assumptions, are poorly executed, struggle to adapt to change and ultimately fail. For example, I was working with Meg, a client who was trying to execute over fifteen different educational programs and was stressed out over budget and not managing effectively. Meg and I reviewed her processes and business plan, and simply cut out the least effective programs. In doing this, she saved money and increased attention and resources, which she devoted to the most effective processes. Focusing may be just as effective for you and can be accomplished with a few simple efforts.
- Measure, Estimate, Prioritize and Adapt. Analysis of alternatives can yield some simple priorities. Even simple analysis can be useful to avoid missing your target population and price points. Research using Google Analytics and Amazon to discover easy competitive information. Last week we helped a client focus on key items and eliminate unproductive ones by simply analyzing clicks and real time google analytics.
- Follow the 80/20 AND 90/30 rule. 80% of sales and customers will come from 20% of your offerings. Networking and referrals from current customers are your best source of new business. Remember 90% of perceptions are developed in 30 seconds so prior approval can be critical and long arguments can be fatal.
- Make mistakes and learn to adapt. Mistakes mean you and your business are growing. Consistently exploring alternatives and evaluating your decisions and processes will help you figure out what’s best for you.
- Be open to measurement and feedback. Observing, understanding and sharing financials, operations reports, and sales reports are the first step. Don’t waste time on minor expenses. In meetings, rely on your team to provide specific feedback on how to improve.
The table below provides an analytic matrix of your company’s products or services and your competition. Filling out a competitive comparison such as this forces you to evaluate 1) what is important, 2) how you rate, 3) who are your competitors and 4) how you compare with them in the eyes, minds, hearts and pocketbooks of customers.
See: https://startupconnection.net///business-templates/competitive-analysis-template/ for the complete template and other simple guides
In short, keep it simple stupid. Operating a successful business doesn’t have to be brain surgery. Instead, create a few simple principles to help you stay on track. If you love what you do, focus on what is working and drop what’s not. You now have the foundation for a simply wonderful business.
Dr. Bert Shlensky, president of www.startupconnection.net, offers experience and skills and a team devoted to developing and executing winning strategies. His books for the business entrepreneur: Marketing Plan for Startups & Small Business and Passion & Reality for Small Business Success, are available at www.startupconnection.net.
by Bert Shlensky | Jun 30, 2017 | Operations
Business success tips usually focus on issues like having a great idea, goals, strategy, financial plans, branding, customer service, measurement, operations, excellent people, etc. What is occasionally left behind are simple tips or rules for executing programs. This article describes both the issues and remedies to improve execution and thus, excellence.
“Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.” -Walt Disney
Detail and excellence are really a culture in an organization and, not necessarily prescribed rules. For example, we sometimes ignore that marketing, excellence and effectiveness are all integrated. Airlines have done a great job automating operations like reservations and customer service to make service more efficient, reduce staff and provide quicker, better service. However, when something goes wrong like 120 degrees weather in Phoenix, they now lack the people to solve problems and literally destroy all the good intent they tried to create.
Your Culture and Perceptions Can Affect Execution
Don’t be afraid to fail. Instead, celebrate failure. Never be complacent. Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies says, “If you are only succeeding than you are not taking enough risks. See adversity as a challenge and look for the opportunity. Stretch yourself.”
In today’s world, you need to exceed, not just meet, the needs of your customers. You only have one chance to make a first impression. 90% of most impressions are made in the first 30 seconds of contact, and thus, less is more. Confidence, attention to details, flexibility, listening and always challenging how you can do better are the foundation of creating great execution.
How Do You Balance Establishing Procedures with the Need for Flexibility and Responsiveness?
Empower your staff and management to fix problems whether you are right or wrong. Knowing the individual “genius” of each member of your team will help ensure that their true gifts are being intelligently deployed and not squandered. And as a result, guarantees your business runs efficiently.
The greatest benefit of forecasting comes from prioritizing the 80-20 rule: 80 percent of sales come from 20 percent of a company’s products or services. Consider that the “chain is only as strong as the weakest link. Great ideas or products don’t offset bad pricing, marketing programs, forecasting or customer service.
There are some simple communications tools that we sometimes forget especially in stressful situations. Learn to say, “How are you?”, “Please” and “Thank you”. Listen and Be polite! These simple gestures reduce tension in situations and create more open discussion of issues.
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. “-George Bernard Shaw
Understanding Change and Trends Can Greatly Improve focus
Internet retailing is growing 15-20% per year while brick and mortar retail is only growing 1-3%. Therefore, the opportunities on the internet are simply far greater than traditional retailers. Execution does not just involve internal staff and management. There are many reasons to consider engaging outside experts and managing them productively, as well as, managing in-house staff. For example, internet marketing, web design, social media, paid search, etc. require lots of different skills. You can’t do it alone.
In summary, maximizing details and execution are critical components of success. Great ideas are critical to provide differentiation. However, you do need the skills, experience and commitment to succeed. Don’t forget Execution!
Dr. Bert Shlensky, president of www.startupconnection.net, offers experience and skills and a team devoted to developing and executing winning strategies for businesses of all kinds. His books for the business entrepreneur: Marketing Plan for Startups & Small Business and Passion & Reality for Small Business Success, are available at www.startupconnection.net.
by Bert Shlensky | Apr 13, 2017 | Operations
Not having a tight grasp on the reality of your business could be the difference between success and failure. This article lays out some key concepts for small businesses to dramatically improve decision making through understanding reality.
I continuously run into well intentioned, and even, well informed clients who ignore this simple guidance. This is especially true in identifying target markets and pricing. For example, if you are not aware of Amazon pricing you are simply blind to the lead competitor, much like failing department stores have for years. Similarly, clients ignore even the reality of a simple google search to help identify competitors.
“You don’t want to know the truth!” – to paraphrase Jack Nicholson
However, there are lots of ways to handle the truth. On one hand, you must maintain your enthusiasm, confidence, and belief that you will succeed. Keep in mind, however, the challenges, barriers and realities of your efforts. Here are some tools to create a beautiful balance between your “expectations and reality”
Beware of confirmation bias
Don’t we always believe our ideas are terrific, and thus, focus more on their wonderfulness and potential for success? Of course, we do. The challenges are sometimes given a smaller amount of our attention, and downplayed. It’s just human nature. Review alternatives, enlist the help of industry experts and most important, make a special effort to examine competition.
Understand your goals
Understand your goals, resources and risk. In particular, your market analysis, competitors, how and why your company is different, and why customers should care. Are you focused on long term growth or quick profits? Many companies continue to keep growing when they should be pivoting to focus on profit. Having a clear less than one page mission statement is an excellent process to ensure you understand your goals.
When and how will you be profitable?
Only about 10% of startups and small businesses succeed and survive to their fifth year. The ones who do survive have developed flexible models to measure, and then compared alternatives. Many plans, forecasts, and proposals are done in a static format with one dimensional analysis and results. Usually they’re all wrong because we live in a more dynamic and interactive world (Startup Connection has developed a very simple model that lets you evaluate alternatives in less than 48 hours. Visit: www.startupconnection.net/business-templates/operating-profit-model-template/)
Do some market research
I cannot tell you how many clients discuss the uniqueness of their ideas when there are pages of competitors who are frequently more experienced, cheaper, with more compelling marketing on Google or Amazon. Even informal research can be highly productive in understanding markets and competition.
Hire good resources and continue to test, measure and adapt
Make certain the people you hire have real expertise and will do what you require. Hiring with the goal of saving money usually results in mediocre outcomes, at best. You get what you pay for. Remember the phrase “If you think an expert is expensive, try hiring an amateur.” That is especially true in trying to do everything yourself.
Make use of demographics
Understand and take advantage of the changes in demographics, the economy and your environment. For example, large companies frequently flounder with innovation and growth especially when considered in regard to demographic changes and the growth of mobile devices. Ensure that you can answer the questions who is your target audience and why would they want your product.
Have fun!
In summary, learning the truth or reality of your business involves continuously challenging your assumptions, reviewing alternatives and evaluating your progress. Don’t be a martyr, and encourage different perspectives. It just may make all the difference for your business.
Dr. Bert Shlensky, President of www.startupconnection.net, offers experience, skills and a team devoted to developing and executing winning strategies for small businesses. This combination and the personal hands-on approach has been the key to client success. For more info and his books for the business entrepreneur: Marketing Plan for Startups & Small Business and Passion & Reality for Business Success, are available at www.startupconnection.net.
by Bert Shlensky | Feb 24, 2017 | Marketing, Maximizing Effectiveness - Main, Operations
Operations and logistics are frequently viewed as secondary functions that can be handled by someone else. But here’s the thing: With data so richly available, using it to help reinvent operations and logistics can help you stand out just as much as the next electric car or purple cow.
Just take a look at some of the world leaders in business.
Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, and other sharing sites are turning their industries around with structural and operational changes that challenge old paradigms. It’s not the products or services that stand out but the operations, logistics, and method of delivery.
For example, Amazon does not just succeed on lower prices or by offering different products than their competitors. They have revolutionized, simplified, and automated ordering, customer service, distribution, and warehousing.
The results have been staggering. It’s estimated that in 2016, they represent about 30-40% of internet retail sales and 8-10% of total retail sales.
Operations Innovation Isn’t Just For The Big Businesses
You might be thinking, “But that’s for the big businesses. How can that help my small business?”
Changing operational paradigms is for small businesses, too! Take a look at GrubHub. They are a publicly traded company, but think of whom they help: restaurants, big and small. They’ve helped thousands of restaurants expand their sales by providing seamless delivery.
Outsourcing key activities like web design, social media, cloud services, CRM, and even distribution have become both less complicated and more affordable.
No matter the size of your business, you can streamline or maximize your operations to take your sales and profits to a whole new level. The key is maximizing forecasting, inventory control, and distribution to maximize service, investment return, sales, and profitability.
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Many operations experts say that 80% of sales are with 20% of your products. It’s often true, yet suppliers continue to proliferate styles, colors, sizes, models, and features to presumably serve more customers and provide more features. By keeping it simple, you help yourself and your customers.
- Pursue profit and not volume. Businesses frequently fail by adding too many stores, products, and marketing. In contrast, focusing on competitiveness, bestsellers, reducing costs, and reducing structure can have huge payoffs.
- Conduct a simple “SWOT” analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) to get a perspective on your business. The surprising aspect of this exercise is that we frequently take our strengths and opportunities for granted rather than maximizing them. For example, approaching key and repeat customers usually presents the greatest opportunity, lowest cost, and most profitable source of additional sales.
- Encourage testing new ideas and scrapping ones that don’t work. You will make mistakes. Focus on solving them rather than blaming someone. Consider using the process of develop, test, measure, and adapt. The measure step is, by the way, the most frequently forgotten.
It’s easy to get seduced by design, marketing, or the next flashy idea. Plenty of businesses innovate in these areas. Don’t forget, though, that just as frequently, success comes from innovation in operation and logistics.
This piece originally appeared on Alignable and was published with permission.
Dr. Bert Shlensky, president of www.startupconnection.net, offers experience and skills and a team devoted to developing and executing winning strategies for businesses of all kinds. This combination has been the key to client success. His books for the business entrepreneur: Marketing Plan for Startups & Small Business and Passion & Reality for Small Business Success, are available at www.startupconnection.net.
by Bert Shlensky | Feb 8, 2017 | Operations, Uncategorized
Are you part of a successful team? As the saying goes, “There’s no I in TEAM.” However, the team also needs to give its stars the opportunity to flourish. Great entertainment groups sports teams and scientific groups are examples of excellence. In addition, teams need to encourage diversity, expertise, and disagreement to encourage new ideas and solutions.
More on that in a minute. First, let’s look at what every great team needs to even have a chance of being bold.
Traditional Bosses Are Obsolete In Most Cases
The complexity, size, and diversity of many organizations have changed the role of leadership. In particular, top-down styles are being replaced by coordination, expertise, delegation and collaboration. In particular efforts like systems. outsourcing, operations, big data, measurement, and automation are adding complexity and coordination to leadership roles.
Goals Are Becoming More Diverse But Still Need To Be Clear.
Growth, excellence, innovation profits, social welfare, etc. are all present as goals to various degrees in most organizations. However, they still need to be understood and clarified. For example, many organizations fail to change when their markets become saturated and they need to focus on profits rather than growth. Similar, research and development teams need more freedom to encourage their creativity.
I learned this early in life when I asked a fashion designer if she really needed to go to Europe for ideas. Her response was I can’t just sit in this office (it was really an awful office without even windows) and develop ideas without the stimulus and the time to brainstorm with my team. By the way, design teams should also visit operations to understand the complete impact of their designs. For example, how many colors do you really need?
Having common goals isn’t just pointing everyone in the same direction either. It’s about everyone helping each other get there. Truly successful teams see themselves as the collective whole and the individuals within.
Multiple Perspectives
So, you’re well on your way to success, getting everyone on the same page, maybe even hiring like-minded individuals to make that part easy. This is where homogeneity backfires.
The most successful teams are diverse. They bring different things, ideas, skill sets, and perspectives to the table. Things that you might not have even considered. Even the best leader won’t have a solution for every problem; they shouldn’t take all that responsibility either.
Trust & Respect On A Successful Team
The team can only work together towards that common goal if they trust each other to do so. When you have a diverse team, you especially need to build trust and respect with empathy and understanding for all those different viewpoints.
Good teamwork means camaraderie, brotherhood, and kinship. It’s a much sought-after feeling by managers, directors, coaches, and others in the leadership position. It means your team has a glue that holds them together. This is often seen as the ultimate end-goal to good group dynamics, but you’re not out of the woods yet.
Trust is key if your team members are going to feel able to express themselves. If you build your group up to speak their minds, though, you all better be able to listen too. Social informal interaction and activities are great for most groups. They can range from interesting dinners to group baseball games where everyone plays.
This can sometimes conflict with the elephants in the room that no one wants to discuss for mostly good reasons. Things like politics, sex, age, ethnic background, education, intelligence all affect the interaction of the group. On one hand, we need to understand these issues and encourage the diversity. On the other hand, we to ensure best practices even if it is not obvious. For example, it has been shown that in most cases test scores and background are better determinants than interviews in things like selection or college admissions efforts because of the underlying biases.
Positive Criticism
Feedback drives growth and everything is realistically vulnerable to criticism. There can be no precious ideas if those ideas aren’t the best for success. Ideas are morphed and molded by criticism and disagreement. For example, many cases of entrepreneurship as noted by Walter Jacobson in his book “Innovators” and others have witnessed wild conflicts between the principal parties. In many cases, one the parties even left after a few years.
This brings us back to that original point: Disagreement, conflict, and diversity are an inevitable part of growth. Bold decisions are only bold because they go against the grain; if everyone always agrees, there can be no bold decisions. The best teams are already capable of dealing with disagreement at this point because they have a clear common goal, a diversity of voices in the mix, and a respect for one another’s ideas.
So, it turns out that while there isn’t an I in TEAM, there’s a whole lot more than just T-E-A-M. A really great team brings out the best in all the I’s without sacrificing the total effort. When you find success within your team, only then do you stand a chance of finding success with it.
Dr. Bert Shlensky, president of www.startupconnection.net, offers experience and skills and a team devoted to developing and executing winning strategies for businesses of all kinds. This combination has been the key to client success. His books for the business entrepreneur: Marketing Plan for Startups & Small Business and Passion & Reality for Small Business Success, are available at www.startupconnection.net.
