Want to get in touch with someone that knows how to GROW YOUR BUSINESS?
We all like a business that is growing. In difficult or slowing times we often turn to ‘business growth gurus’ for ideas on how we can fire up our business.
I’ve come across a fantastic group of business consultants that have helped us grow our business on average 21% pa over the last 3 years. You should get in touch with them.
They’re called your staff. Yep - your staff know your weaknesses and threats the best. Your staff know the company’s strengths. Your staff know the opportunities. And there is no one more eager for business growth than your staff.
So how do you motivate your staff to engage with business owners for sustainable business growth?
Here are some ideas that really work:
- Don’t expect your staff to be motived if you’re not. Get excited about your business like you were when you were just starting out. Sometimes we get a bit jaded - we’ve been doing this for years.... Breathe some life back into YOUR motivation.
- Next step is to get all your key staff together regularly to talk about new ideas. Don’t bog these discussions down with what went wrong last week. Talk about things like - if this were a perfect business with a unlimited chequebook, what are some things that we could do better that would make our clients say “WOW!” List out the ideas. Some will be monstrously big, expensive impossibilities. Some will be simple, easy, no-cost improvements you can make tomorrow.
- Step 3 is the most important: START MAKING SOME OF THESE SMALL IMPROVEMENTS IMMEDIATELY. You will be amazed at the outcome. We all love improvements especially if we’ve thought of them ourselves as a team. This then becomes self-feeding as staff can see how much difference a small change makes and get excited about making more.
- Keep this circle going. Discussion - improvement - discussion - improvement... Each time make sure you’re not only thinking of how improvements affect the company internally - but how they affect the clients. Your clients notice not only the improvements but also the company’s enthusiasm. It’s infectious - they want to do business with you.
- Lastly - share information. Make sure your staff know every detail about the business. There is no point in hiding information. Everyone needs to know where the company is winning or losing so they can be part of the solution and success.
The opposite of all this is true too unfortunately. Trying to grow a business without engaging the whole company is going to be a hard job. You will continually wonder why management’s good ideas don’t get traction and new initiatives fade out. Everyone has to be part of it. You all win together.