Yes, 1%*. The purpose of your fun budget is to ensure you invest in a vibrant environment and culture in your small business. It forces you to think and act on the small things that your team will appreciate.
Note the word “invest”, that’s the third...
We’re just over a quarter through 2020 and the world is gripped with tackling the COVID-19 Coronavirus. Its health and economic impacts are wide-ranging. Many people are out of jobs or living with a high-level of anxiety and uncertainty.
As the leader of a small business and your growing...
Putting aside the compliance needs to be called ‘Directors’ per Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) – or the equivalent in your country – it is good to have a value-adding and active Board of Directors or Advisors. A passive ‘Board’ is not a...
As outlined in last weeks’ post on funding options to grow your small business government grants can be an attractive path. The downside is the paperwork to not only apply, but also claim the funds during or after the project or activity is complete.
There are often infrastructure...
As the adage goes, ‘cash is king. The same challenge of having enough cash when times are tight applies when you are in a phase of funding growth, especially fast-growth. Where can you find more to stoke the fire of growth while also protecting your precious equity until the last...
Here is a quick people win for you. You’ll not only look more professional in less time than it takes to watch an East Enders or Neighbours episode, but you send a clear message to your team that you value them.
When small businesses are growing, especially undergoing fast growth, communication is critical. As I like to say:
“communication is the key to any relationship.”
And as people are the hardest and most valuable thing in small business, effective relationships are...
As we talked about previously, the KRAs (Key Reporting Areas) each have an ‘owner’. We need clear roles, responsibilities so we then have accountability. This is not so it can be used in ‘management by fear’, the old autocratic style of how to get people...
This one is simple, effective and fun. One Friday a month take some of your ‘fun budget’ and hand it to a team member to organise an event the team (and each persons’ partner/friend) can participate in.
Annual performance reviews and on-going appraisals are usually reserved for medium and large businesses. A small business owner or manager justifies not doing these because ‘margins are tight, we never have enough time as it is to get everything done and besides, people...
One of the first things I ask someone when I start mentoring them is “when do you want to sell?”
As I mentioned in the post on introducing DiSC®, I’m a High D. I nearly fell off the treadmill at the gym when I was going through the Manager Tools casts on each of the quadrants, listening to the cast on High Ds.
Ask seven people what the first thing they do when they start work in the morning. Nearly everyone will say, ‘email’.
So, go with reality. If that is what you feel compelled to do, don’t fight it, recognise it. While I have done a heap of reading and know working on...
Here is one of my favourite quotes when it comes to strategy for small business. It beautifully sums up the quandary many owners and entrepreneurs fall in to early in their business career, under the curse of being ‘equity precious’:
“It is better to have the tail of...
A common thing I see as small businesses grow is the handling of their information is all over the place like a mad persons’ breakfast. Getting a good structure and policy in place early-on is another small thing that really helps your small business grow.
You need structure and a...
A few weeks after writing about the rule of four, I heard another battered, bruised and successful business owner put an even better twist on my rule of four for small business.
He called it the rule of “4 by 2″.
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates
This is a simple and quick tool to gauge whether your customers love you or not. You get tremendous bang-for-your-buck implementing the NPS (Net Promoter Score) customer loyalty metric. ...
As your baby grows up it will need more structure.
QA (Quality Assurance) is a simple step and habit your small business can form and use to improve the quality of its outputs, with little effort and time.
When people ask me for advice about starting a small business, I tell them of the rule of two. It comes from a rule I once heard a VC (Venture Capitalist) share – the rule of 6. He says to entrepreneurs looking for investment from him “it’s 6 times harder, and will...
As I’ve mentioned before, in my opinion – most success in business (small business in particular) comes down to people.
It was Jim Collins’ seminal book ‘Built to Last‘ which really turned my thinking to where the value is in small business, and as I’ve said...
This is one of the foundations you must invest in if you want to grow your small business fast, and with as little growing pains as possible.
It sounds woolly, and being a High D, I initially rejected it (there are tasks to be done people, so why aren’t you doing...
A poignant line from that classic ABBA hit song of the same name.
Before I left Australia in 2007 to find, buy into and grow a small I.T. company in the UK, I asked for some feedback from my fellow business partners and the General Manager in one of the businesses I had started...
“Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.” –Tom Peters
In my 20+ years managing people in small businesses this is by far the best resource to develop yourself and your team of managers. I have not come across a resource anywhere near as comprehensive or...
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