Is there really a simple formula for business success?
Yes, we think so.
It starts with having the right attitude and mindset to do something. That’s the beginning and that is what you need to do first to obtain business success. To have the courage to do something, to take a risk, to try something new and be bold, and brave.
The next step is to realise that whilst you may be the best widget manufacturer in the world. You may win that accolade this alone will not make you successful. What you need is a team. And as Michael Gerber points out in his book ‘The E-Myth’, you know that this team can break the adage and contain an ‘I’. You alone can make, or break your business success.
What am I talking about?
You don’t need a team of people to be successful in business, you just need to appreciate that a business consists of a number of roles that require fulfilling. So you may be the best engineer, or sales person, or marketeer, or in my case Chartered Accountant, but without the support of the other functions then being the best is not enough.
How do you obtain the support of many functions?
What you need to do is wear many hats.
And the really successful business owners don’t need lots, a few yes, but not lots.
Just four, to be precise.
And I do like being very precise.
What four?
Well let’s look at why, rather than what.
Every business consists of four basic functions, without which there are no businesses.
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Marketing
Without shouting about your products or service and telling people what you have or can do, then you want be in business very long. All great businesses have a number of marketing pillars and I urge you to take so time out of your business to find and understand your. If you don’t have a marketing system, then how long will your business last?
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Sales
The point of marketing is to generate enquiries, or leads. Once you have them you’ll be in a position to try and make some sales. It is the ratio of enquiries to sales that matters and the resultant success at converting them. For example, your marketing may produce 1,322 enquiries in a month, but without a system to convert them into sales, then how long will your business last?
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Operations
After you’ve made a sales then you need to deliver on it. This is when your operations team should kick in and deliver that perfect customer experience. Then need to seamlessly facilitate the exchange of the promise made by your marketing team and confirmed by your sales team. If you don’t deliver on your promise, then how long will your business last?
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Finance
The fun bit….counting your money. You’ve made the sale so you need to raise an invoice and collect the cash. But you also need to process your purchase invoices and pay suppliers and employees. Then calculate how much you have left over as profit. But more importantly, how the cashflow timing is between having to pay others and being paid yourself. Without knowing your numbers, how long will your business last?
That’s it.
It’s simple
It’s easy
The secret to a really successful business is M+S+O+F
Remember though
If S > C, then you’re onto a winner.
Can you guess what C is?