Within my business I now know precisely where I am going and what I want to achieve. I have a strong business plan in place which sets out all of the key milestones for the business’ development over the next three years. More importantly, the financial and strategic goals for the business are aligned with my own personal goals and I now genuinely feel that the business will serve me and my family and what we want from life. As a result of working with the team we now have a clear vision in place which clarifies the purpose of what we do and why we serve our customers. Our values are also much clearer and my team understand much more about ‘how’ we do things here. This clarity and the team’s involvement in the vision setting process has re-energised them and the atmosphere at work is now much more positive.
Consistency of customer experience is now our primary focus. We have clear customer standards and the whole team strive for excellence whilst actively looking for that one percent improvement in every part of the business. I am not chasing new customers all of the time as we now have strong database of existing customers who we stay in contact with. We also consistently deliver in a way that exceeds our customers’ expectations and we regularly ask them how we could do better which also encourages them to remain with us and refer us to others. When mistakes do occur we analyse them to ensure they don’t happen again. Documentation and flow charts ensure that every customer experiences the same service.
I am now much more in control of the finances within the business. I know at what point in the week I break even and I use this as a mechanism to improve the business. I am now able to sleep much better at night as I have strong cashflow forecast in place ensuring that there are no financial surprises. I have significantly improved my profit margins with the introduction of a range of measures and through strong financial analysis I now ensure that all products and services sold make a profit. I also review the key numbers for my business on a weekly basis using a dashboard and I no longer have to rely on my accountant to tell me if the business is making a profit.
I have much more time now to work on the business and think of ways to grow it even further. I have now been able to delegate to others all of the low enjoyment, low skill, low money making tasks, so I am focused on things that no-one else can do in the business. My default diary ensures that I am much more productive with the time I have and I now have time slots in my diary for my own health and enjoyment. I regularly plan my time in advance and I no longer spend most of my time in crisis mode. When problems do occur I have more time to deal with them and as a result I feel less stressed.
Revenue and profitability has increased significantly and my hours have also improved. For the first time in a long time I genuinely enjoy coming to work and the pressures I felt have now largely disappeared. Looking to the future I am excited about putting more systems into the business to support the team which is now starting to grow. This will mean that I will be able to take more of a back seat in the business over the next few years and enjoy life even more.
Click on the link below and explore how you can take your business to the next level by booking a 7-10 minute call with me.
https://calendly.com/actioncoachmelton
