Popping the Hood
It is hard to believe but January is already come and gone. As owners we forget how fast the months tend to fly by. Seeing as how we’ve found ourselves at the end of the first month, now is the time to get back to the objectives you set in place for the new year. If you don’t have the habit now, there is no better time - it’s time to start asking questions in your business.
Everyone gets organized before the year begins, but once it starts, most end up getting busy and bogged down by the minutia of everyday life. If you are not consistent in checking back with the plans you have laid out, now is the best time to train up this habit. This habit, when implemented, will keep your year on track no matter how large or small your company is.
In fact, the larger you scale your business, this habit becomes even more crucial to have in place. The bigger the machine, the more you need to pay attention to how it’s running. Where most business owners fail is in their inability to objectively open up the hood and diagnose what is happening with all of their machine’s moving pieces.
Today's tidbit:
At this point in the month you should know where you are going to end up in comparison to your budget. So the big question is are you on pace with where you need to be or are you behind? The next question - how do you look for next month? Are you projecting ahead or behind?
In most businesses, owners and managers tend to lean towards the reactive approach instead of the more beneficial proactive approach. You need to take the time to really understand your machine. Take time to measure the benchmarks that let you know if you are trending to be on budget and, even more crucially, those that warn you of being off budget.
Knowing you are off budget or off pace as soon as possible offers you the opportunity to make adjustments faster. Harkening back to our ideas of direct communication from a few weeks ago, you should also teach your team to see these same signs and benchmarks. If both you and your leadership are on the look out for signs of deviance from hitting your goals, you will have the opportunity to get back on pace before it’s too late.
Quite often business owners claim that there is no predictability in their businesses and that they constantly seem to have waves of work followed by slowdowns. I would argue that every industry has a rhythm and every company has the ability to be predictable. Will it be perfect and 100% predictable? No, but every business has it’s rhythm that can be found if you are in the habit of popping the hood of your machine and really paying attention to your numbers.
Here are few questions to help in your machine inspection:
Did our marketing perform, and did we have enough leads to achieve our set goal?
How efficient were we in our sales department? Did our sales team close enough deals, or did we leave money on the table?
How efficient were we with delivering the products and services we sold?
Are we ready for the next month?
If this whole ‘machine examination process’ is a struggle for you and you know that you need help, ask your team for advice. After all, “all of us are smarter than any one of us”. But if they seem to be struggling with it too, we here at Adelboden would be glad to help. I would love to jump on a call and learn more about your business! Comment below or submit a form here (https://www.adelbodencc.com/connect-with-us) to start the process of popping your machine’s hood and diagnosing the rhythm of it’s inner workings. We’ll find that rhythm together and make sure you are set for a great 2021. Don't wake up six months from now way off pace and with no opportunity to get back what you left on the table.
Enjoy,
