small business consulting

Posts Tagged ‘small business consulting’

How To Hold Your Team Accountable

Thursday, February 16th, 2012

Are you comfortable holding your team accountable? What does that actually mean?

Do you need to micromanage and babysit and punish every little mistake? Of course not.

Holding your team accountable means that you need to ensure they are aligned with your company’s goals and objectives. If you strategy is to provide high quality (and charge higher prices for that, which you deserve), then you need to ensure that your people, processes and performance are focused on quality. If your focus is on quality, then you might need to sacrifice speed.

After all, a drive-thru restaurant hamburger is not going to be as good as a prime rib hamburger at the fancy steak house, but it will be fast.

Holding people accountable is easy and transparent if you do these things:

Have the team participate in setting their operational goals and benchmarks. For example, a production facility may set targets of units per shift.
Measure the goal every day. It’s amazing how powerful this is to drive the behaviour that you want.
Proactively ask the team what obstacles they encounter or foresee, and what ideas they have to overcome them.
Help your team to be more successful. This is the key. Accountability doesn’t mean whacking them when they miss their goal. Accountability, and it’s a two way street, means that you are willing to be held accountable to helping them improve performance and be more successful.
Celebrate success. Every incremental gain can increase confidence and momentum. This also reinforces that you are focused on rewarding positive behaviors.
As a manager, beware of trouble-shooting for your employees. Part of the accountability is to develop their independence. When they present a problem or dilemma, ask them for their suggestions. If they don’t have any, give them homework and tell them to come back more prepared.
It’s your job to allocate resources. Make the team come up with the ideas. Remember, with every pair of hands, you get a free brain.

Holding people accountable is as simple as keeping score of the important things in your business. The fewer things that you track, the easier and more powerful the process will be.

Tags: Business Growth, Business Success For Life, entrepreneurs, how to hold your team accountable, how to increase profits, how to manage performance, Phil Symchych, profitable growth, small business, small business consulting, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co.
Posted in Management | No Comments »

My First Job, or “Stock boys are cool”

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

As a teenager, I thought I was working for gas money and spending money. Many years later, I learned that every job that I’ve had has contributed to my understanding of people, of business and how different people lead and manage others.

I’ve worked in a variety of organizations, from a small retail store to a national bank and an international accounting firm. The cultures were vastly different and so was their effectiveness at motivating and engaging their employees.

My first job, when I was 14 years old, was working in a small department store called The Met, short for Metropolitan. We sold all types of dry goods including clothing, diapers, kitchen goods, cheap hardware, batteries, and my favourite, chocolate bars. We had to keep those under lock and key in the candy room! For some reason, the manager didn’t trust anyone with the key to the candy room. A valuable lesson learned.

My first boss, Peggy, was a great manager and she taught me a lot about treating everyone with respect, to ask their opinions and to let them think.

Now, as the stock boy, I didn’t have to think too much. But Peggy never told me how to do anything unless I asked. She told me what to do, but never how to do it. She was confident that I could figure it out. And, her confidence in me increased my own confidence, although most teenage boys seem to exceed in confidence, for some reason.

I could sweep a 6,000 square foot store in nine minutes flat. The best parts were the handyman jobs like climbing up to the roof or up on a 16 foot ladder to change the eight foot light bulbs. Did you know that they explode into a million little pieces if you drop them?

I also learned that I didn’t want to work in retail. The worst part was working in a basement inventory room, on my summer vacation, during the hot July weather, pricing school supplies. Didn’t I just get out of school? Apparently, retail works one season ahead of reality.

The best part was bagging. It was easy, you got to meet people, and I wasn’t stuck in that darn basement. I learned that just because I could fit something in the bag, it didn’t mean the bag could withstand the weight. Customers got very unhappy if their bag ripped and they dropped their purchases. The manager got really mad if the product broke and we had to replace it. Cause and effect, consequences, logic: all these were burned into a teenagers brain.

We also had ‘management trainees’ sent from head office to learn from Peggy. This was an interesting experience because the stock boy, and everyone else working in the store, knew more about the store than the trainees. The trainees tried to manage by position of power (their perception of it, at least) instead of by respect. That didn’t work very well. Actually, it caused the occasional mutiny and intentional lack of cooperation. The mutinies were an important part of their training experience.

The trainees learned a few things:

leadership doesn’t come from a title
the most knowledgeable people are front line people, not the people from head office, or their hopeful delegates
never let the 16 year old stock boy drive your car.

As a parent, I’m looking forward to the work experience that my teenage daughters will gain. They’re not. Working in a clothing store just might cure their fashionitis, or, they might spend all their money on clothing purchased with employee discounts. Only time will tell.

Tags: Business Growth, business owner, business owners, Customer Service, entrepreneurs, leadership, Phil Symchych, profit, profitable growth, small business consulting, Strategy, summer jobs, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co.
Posted in Management | 2 Comments »

Working with Mom, Dad or the kids?

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

If you run or work in a family business, then you are a very important part of the economy. You may even have great (family) employees who are committed to the business and are willing to go the extra mile on short notice, often without extra compensation or overtime. After all, what is family for, if they can’t help out?

Family businesses face many unique challenges that threaten their short term success and long term survival. Things like professional management, leadership development, performance and profits are critical to any business and even more important to a family business that may be reluctant to hire outsiders for key positions. Yet many family owned businesses grow to become successful global companies because their strong family values and long term perspectives prevent the financial weaknesses of focusing on quarterly earnings.

Ford, a family owned business, is the only major North American car manufacturer that did not declare bankruptcy. Cargill, another family owned business based in Minneapolis, is one of the largest companies that feeds the world. Both of these companies generate excellent results and have very strong brands in the market.

Regardless of the size of your family business, you can access help, advice and resources from other successful family businesses.

The best organization that I know of for helping family businesses is the Canadian Association of Family Enterprises, or CAFE for short. Their website is here.

CAFE has many local chapters across Canada. The fees for a family business to join are ridiculously low compared to the value received.

I’ve been a member for several years. CAFE provides value in several ways. My favourite is the Personal Advisory Group, or PAG, where a small group of people from different families/businesses gets together monthly for a couple of hours in a confidential and safe environment to discuss and share experiences. The process is structured and lead by the group’s moderator. My PAG has provided me with great perspectives and advice and helped me to be a better husband and father in addition to being a wiser consultant and business owner.

The local chapters run workshops and have guest speakers that educate the members and exchange ideas.

There is a bi-annual symposium coming up in Ottawa on May 23-25, 2012.

If you own or work in a family business, then I recommend that you consider joining. Running a business, even with family, can be a lonely adventure. Joining CAFE will strengthen your business and your family.

Tags: business owner, Business Success For Life, CAFE Canada, Canadian Association of Family Enterprises, entrepreneurs, family business, family business consulting, Phil Symchych, small business consulting, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co.
Posted in family | 1 Comment »

DUDS: How to fix a cooktop in only 54 days

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

“The stove doesn’t work,” said my wife. “Uh-oh” I’m thinking, “kitchen stuff.” This wasn’t starting well and it wasn’t going to end well.

The largest, main burner on our cook-top stopped working. “We’re supposed to host Christmas dinner and I need all my burners,” exclaimed my wife. She called the warranty company – because the repair man told us to always buy an extended warranty on today’s electronically sensitive appliances – and this commenced a lengthy exchange. She provided the serial number and the warranty company needed to send out the local service representative to take a look. Two weeks later, the service rep showed up, made a diagnosis, and left. Then, nothing.

My wife called the warranty company back. They never received any information from the service rep. My wife called the service rep. He said that he faxed the information and will resend it. We waited, and waited. My wife called the warranty people, to whom she wished a “Merry Christmas” because the season was upon us and we, well, my wife, weren’t cooking anything on the main burner. The warranty company still hadn’t received any information.

We called the service company, again. Eventually, my wife helped everyone figure out that the service company had the wrong fax number and sent our information to fax purgatory. Finally, my wife connected the service company’s information with the warranty company.

This is why consulting is so easy, sometimes. Large companies lack management skills and processes and don’t test their own products and services. Small and medium business managers can run circles around any big company manager who has a single department specialty and is busy protecting his turf, but I digress.

Our local company sent the information for the third time. We appreciated their persistence. My wife was now on a first name basis with the warranty people and had elevated her concern to the supervisor. The repair was finally authorized, then scheduled and, finally, performed.

Total time: November 24 to January 17. Only 54 days to fix a burner.

Tags: business owner, business owners, Business Success For Life, Customer Service, DUDS, entrepreneurs, Phil Symchych, profit, profitable growth, small business, small business consulting, SME, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co., why are big companies so slow
Posted in DUDS - Dumb Unilateral Decisions | No Comments »

Cashing In On Inventory by Shawn Casemore

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

Guest blog by Shawn Casemore: Minimizing Inventory – Maximizing Cash

The best inventory is an inventory of cash. If you stock inventory in your business, this article can help you increase your cash.

Maintaining inventory can be a double-edged sword. Too little inventory and you may miss an opportunity to meet unpredicted (but welcome) customer demand too much inventory and a significant portion of working capital can be left stagnant and unavailable for more productive business investments.

The most successful companies manage inventory using a variety of strategies, all of which can be employed by small- and medium-sized businesses if size and volume is leveraged effectively.

Here are five ways to minimize your inventory and maximize your cash.

Plan inventory purchases: Through proper inventory categorization and planning, inventory investment and obsolescence can be dramatically reduced. Identify materials and products of high consumption. Negotiate good prices by buying in larger quantities, less frequently. In doing so, volume discounts can be obtained, thus reducing your cash outflow and retaining cash. For lower quantity purchases, increase the frequency of purchases and reduce the volume of each purchase. This should have no impact on the purchase price, because you are negotiating in advance based on annual projected volumes, but will serve to ensure that inventory investment is minimized and obsolescence is avoided.
Outsource inventory investment: Request that your suppliers manage inventory of high consumption materials such as hardware, janitorial supplies, and office supplies. Suppliers will often offer, at no charge, onsite inventory review and replenishment. This serves two purposes. First, it reduces the amount of time you must invest in managing inventory. Second, it ensures that you only pay for what is consumed. In setting up such a program, identify your preferred minimum and maximum inventory levels so that suppliers avoid over-replenishment.
Monitor inventory accuracy: Maintain a close view on inventory levels of highly volatile or costly materials to ensure order accuracy and avoid excessive investment. Inaccurate inventory leads to excessive costs in two specific areas: over replenishment of material as a result of under-stated inventory levels, or missed customer orders as a result of over-stated inventory levels. Think about inventory accuracy like the fuel gauge for your car, too much or too little are both a problem.
One man’s junk is another’s treasure: We have helped some of our best clients use the online marketplace as a means to sell obsolete materials. This provides an opportunity to recoup a portion of investment before the asset is written off. In some instances, where our clients have in the past paid for disposal, they now have an alternate revenue stream.
Leverage the future: Too many growing businesses fail to leverage their future growth as a means of achieving reduced prices. Suppliers are interested in customers who have aggressive growth plans, and are often willing to invest (in terms of reduced revenue) in anticipation of future business demand growth potential. We often leverage our clients’ future volume predictions as a means of achieving competitive pricing despite lower volumes. Consider this strategy as involving your suppliers in a win/win proposition.

Spending some time identifying and implementing the right inventory management strategies can significantly reduce investment, freeing up working capital for growth and acquisition.

Contributed by:

Shawn Casemore

President, Casemore and Co.

(519) 379-7697

Email: info@casemoreandco.com

www.casemoreandco.com

Tags: business owners, Business Success For Life, Cash flow, improve cash flow, inventory management, Phil Symchych, profitable growth, Shawn Casemore, small business, small business consulting, Strategy, supply chain management, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co.
Posted in Cash flow | No Comments »

Know Your Numbers by Phil Symchych

Monday, January 16th, 2012

The best managers, running the most profitable businesses, know their numbers. Do you know yours?

Here are several key questions that, when answered, will give you a powerful insight into your company’s profits.

What are your top three products or services, as a percentage of your total revenues?
What are your gross margin percentages for these top products and your company average?
How much of your total gross profits do these top products contribute? Remember, the 80/20 principle can apply here.
What is your overhead rate by hour or person or unit of production?
What is your break-even sales figure each day, week or month?
Who are your most profitable customers?
How much time and resources do you spend building relationships and selling to your most profitable customers compared to other customers or non-customers?
What percentage of your revenues come from proactive selling vs. reactive order-taking?
Which customers pay the fastest or the slowest?
What is your days to cash? That is, how fast do you collect your cash. To calculate: Divide your accounts receivable into your annualized sales and then multiply by 365. The lower the number, the faster you’re getting paid.
Are you actively promoting your most profitable products and services to your most profitable customers?

Knowing your numbers can reduce your risk from guessing and improve the probability of producing profits.

Tags: business, Business Growth, business owner, Business Success For Life, entrepreneurs, how to grow your business, how to improve cash flow, how to improve profits, Phil Symchych, profit, profitable growth, small business, small business consulting, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co., SYMCO profit immersion, SYMCO profit matrix, SYMCO profit plan
Posted in Financial Management | No Comments »

Don’t Aim For Yesterday

Friday, January 13th, 2012

SUMMARY: Aim high. Encourage risk taking and support failure. Hold people accountable for results. Provide constant feedback. Banish excuses. Pay for performance.

If you want to achieve success, you have to aim for success. That means that you need a marketing plan and a budget that push your people to achieve more. You won’t replicate last year’s success because the market keeps changing so don’t aim for yesterday. You need to aim higher and then innovate and implement your way to success.

Never tolerate a break-even scenario. There’s no such thing in the entrepreneurial world. If you’re not gaining, you’re losing.

Employees think and act differently from entrepreneurs and owners, as we all know. They are scared to fail. Give them permission to fail! They will learn that failure isn’t fatal and that you will support them. This is how they learn and how they will eventually start hitting home runs for you.

Constantly challenge your people to perform more, better and faster. They’re not motivated by a paycheque (but some can be, see below for more). They need challenges and feedback on their progress in order to raise the bar.

Listen for excuses and then observe your own behaviour. Are you tolerating, or even encouraging, excuses? Your business value, profit and performance are all your responsibility. No excuses!

Once you’ve got them focused on raising performance, as determined by measurable outputs and business results, then align this behaviour with performance based compensation. Don’t give them an annual raise because the price of eggs and milk went up, start adding performance compensation to their base. If they are in sales, most if not all of their compensation should be variable. After all, as a business owner, all of your compensation is ultimately variable, based on your business performance.

You will achieve more success by trying to win instead of trying not to lose.

Tags: Business Growth, business owners, Business Success For Life, Customer Service, don't tolerate excuses, entrepreneurs, leadership, Phil Symchych, Phil's Profit Points, profit, profitable growth, small business, small business consulting, Strategy, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co.
Posted in Business Growth | No Comments »

Start-ups: are you a sprinter or a marathoner?

Monday, January 9th, 2012

There are two kinds of business start-ups: sprinters and marathoners.

Both have courage. Both want to control their destinies and both want to be successful. However, there are some key differences.

Sprinters

Have experience and expertise in their business and industry
Have learned the ropes on someone else’s dime
Have good relationships with customers or prospects
Generate sales and cash flow quickly
Develop their operating policies and procedures on the fly, but get them on paper
Focus on their core strengths and competencies, in other words, their ’sweet spot’
Are comfortable saying “No” to requests or opportunities that don’t fit their sweet spot
Have a culture of performance, accountability and success
Attract great people and customers because of their positive attitude
Are focused on a couple of key strategic goals; especially generating revenues and providing a great customer experience (quality, service, consistency, breadth, convenience)
Can generate positive cash flow from zero to 60 days

Marathoners

Have diverse experience but don’t have expertise in their new venture
Are learning the ropes on their savings, investor’s or banker’s dime
Think that their management skills are transferable to any industry or business
Have good relationships with referral sources or prospects
Generate sales slowly and steadily
Are too busy marketing and selling to develop operating policies and procedures
Try to keep everyone happy and will do just about anything for cash flow
Have a culture of sales and customer focus
Try to minimize their wage expense until they can afford to hire great talent
Are focused on growth for growth’s sake

I’ve played lots of sports including hockey, tennis, golf (well, some people think golf is a sport, especially golfers), and participated in endurance sports such as triathlons. As soon as I was in a triathlon race, I was figuring out how to conserve my energy so that I could finish the race. My strength in cycling didn’t make-up for my swimming and running.

It’s the same in a start-up. You can’t think about endurance, the long-term or trying to do everything yourself. You have to focus your team on creating short-term success, like a hockey shift or a tennis rally or a hundred yard (meter) dash, in order to grow your business.

The critical success factor in start-up success is speed: attracting customers, generating sales, converting sales to positive cash flow, reinvesting in your business, achieving profitable growth. These are a series of sprints. If it feels like a marathon, something is wrong.

Can you see the finish line or are you climbing yet another hill with no end in sight?

Tags: Business Growth, business owner, business owners, Business Success For Life, business wealth accumulator, Cash flow, create your own wealth, Customer Service, entrepreneurs, leadership, Phil Symchych, Phil's Profit Points, profit, profitable growth, small business, small business consulting, small business growth, Start-up, Strategy, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co.
Posted in Start-up | No Comments »

Are you a non-profit organization?

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

A friend of mine who consults to non-profit organizations asked me for advice on their financial situation. I realized that non-profits, who are designated as such because of their social nature and special tax status, require the same business basics as for-profit organizations.

To help a non-profit reduce it’s short-term financial stress, do these things:

Ask their banker to advise on options regarding potential refinancing to reduce monthly payments.
Have their accountant to advise the entire board and management team on financial matters.
Analyze the gross profit of all major products and services to identify which ones are making them money and losing them money.
They can’t shrink their way to greatness. Don’t cut staff or salaries any further.
Find a major customer, supplier or sponsor who has a strategic fit with the client’s business and see if they can support or sponsor the client financially, through marketing promotions, purchasing, etc.
Leverage public relations and social media to increase awareness and accessibility.

Running a non-profit has the same management and financial challenges of running a business. You need to use the social position and value to connect emotionally with your customers. You may even need to develop a low-cost or free sample service so that people can experience the value and benefits without any financial risk. Then, formalize the sales process to convert them to customers, clients and regulars.

Tags: Business Success For Life, Cash flow, improving cash flow, non-profit business, Phil Symchych, small business consulting, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co.
Posted in Financial Management | No Comments »

Phil’s Profit Point 27 Podcast – Thought Leadership

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

And now also on iTunes

Tags: business, Business Growth, business owner, business owners, Business Success For Life, Coaching, competition, continual learning, entrepreneurs, how to improve profit, leadership, Life Balance, medium business, Phil Symchych, Phil's Profit Points, profit, profitable growth, small business, small business consulting, Strategy, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co.
Posted in Phil's Profit Points, Podcast Series: Profit Points | No Comments »