Business Systems | Teik Oh

From “Vision” To Reality

Nov 03 2020

Last week I wrote about how all planning starts with a clear vision of where you want to go. I gave you three simple steps to create a vision for your business that also establishes clear measurements of how close you are getting to “success”.

And yet, some pragmatic small business owners are still concerned that spending time on this “vision-thing” is not really productive, They can’t see how a wild and woolly “vision” can really help them succeed amongst their daily grind.

Well, that may explain why they feel they are in a daily “grind” rather than feel that they are successfully building the business of their dreams.

Before I show you exactly how you can use your vision to create a reality in your business – one that ensures everyone in it knows exactly what to do without being told and where everyone is pulling toward the same targets of “success”, let me ask you something.

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Planning – Where Do You Want To Go?

Oct 27 2020

The first stage of any planning exercise is to define where you want to go.

Imagine starting on a journey to visit mum without knowing where she was? Imagine getting on a plane to go on holiday without knowing where the plane was going?

Without knowing where you want to go, you cannot take steps to get you there.

Obviously, it is the same in Business Planning. In order to know what to do to make your business grow and be successful, you need to decide what you want the business to be like when it is successful.

This week, I’m going to show you how to do that in your Business Planning process.

The clearest way to define what your business will be like when it is successful is to create a Vision Statement and define it for measures of success.

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Operational Efficiency – The First Steps

Sep 08 2020

In my Small Business Owners Growth Guide, I identify the Six Business Success Factors.

In 40 years of working with small businesses, I have observed that all successful businesses do these 6 things well.

They are:-

The Act of Leadership
The Practice of Planning
The Logic of Marketing
The Pursuit of Customer Fulfilment
The Attainment of Operational Efficiency
The Mastery of Finance.

You can download my free Small Business Owners Growth Guide to the Six Business Success Factors here and “audit” your business to see how well developed they are in your business.

I’ve recently dealt with Leadership, Planning, Marketing and Customer Fulfilment in this blog, so this week I want to turn my attention to Operational Efficiency.

What do I mean by that?

I also want to set you a challenge that you can undertake over the next 5 days, taking just an hour a day to start your journey in Operational Efficiency.

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How To Build A Business Empire By Finding The Right People!

Oct 22 2019

OK, I know you started your small business to make your dream come true.

You had a vision of “the best” business in what it is that you do, you saw your future and saw that your successful business would be something you would be proud of, where you enjoyed working, and that brought you the rewards you and your family deserve, especially to have more time together to enjoy the fruits of your hard work.

Yeah, right?

But be honest, somewhere in that dream you also saw your successful small business grow into an empire right? You saw yourself, at the height of the success of your business, killing it with new and innovative products and services, with happy, productive people working in all corners of the business empire satisfying customers across the nation, if not the globe. Right?

But if you’ve been building your business over the last 5 or 6 years, and you’ve been successful in building sales, you probably know that the building of the “empire” is going to be a bit tough! Because no matter how good your product or service is and how well-received it has been, getting the right people to help you in all the places and doing the right thing has not been easy. Without you, let’s be honest, standards would slip. Without you, the office wouldn’t even be cleaned properly, the telephone answered with a little less conviction. Without you, the customers would not experience the amazing sales and satisfaction journey that you provide.

So, how do you build that business empire where you have the right people employed in all the right places, and they are all doing the right things over and over again?

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How Systems And Procedures Can Build You A Better Life

Oct 08 2019

“How Systems And Procedures Can Build You A Better Life” – that’s a heck of a promise, isn’t it?

Well, I think it’s true!

Life could be great for you right now, and you’re pumping it! But I know this – if you own and run a small business, especially if you started it within the last few years and you’re starting to get busy, you’re working pretty hard in your life right now, and dare I say, your work-life balance is probably out of whack.

I know what it’s like, I’ve been there, I’ve seen so many clients go through the same thing as well.

You start your business with a passion, you’re doing everything from opening the doors every morning to the marketing, to fronting the front-counter, to producing your service or product, to keeping the books – right up to sweeping up and locking the doors at night.

It’s pretty exhilarating at first – this is what you dreamt of, owning your own business and carving out your own pathway to business success!

But as business ramps up, it becomes a little consuming. It’s hard to maintain the energy levels and feel like you are focusing on what really drives the business because you are involved in doing everything. Even if you hire staff, it doesn’t seem to quite work out. You have to train them in what you used to do, and they don’t quite get it right, so you get re-involved. Or they leave and so you have to find and train someone else. Sometimes wires get crossed and tasks fall between the cracks because someone thought you were doing it when you thought they were. Pretty soon customers start to comment that the quality of what you deliver isn’t quite the same anymore, or worse, that it’s patchy and sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s not.

So you work even harder to get it right, mainly by doing it yourself and pretty soon you’re working hard every day on all the details and the direction of the business starts to stagnate, your work-life balance, that dream to earn enough to spend time with the family seems to be a long way away.

Your life might be rocking, but it’s not well balanced! Ask your spouse!

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Category - Business Systems

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From “Vision” To Reality

Planning – Where Do You Want To Go?

Operational Efficiency – The First Steps

How To Build A Business Empire By Finding The Right People!

How Systems And Procedures Can Build You A Better Life