A Message From Howard
CEOs, Presidents and Business Owners:
Your business success is determined every single day. Business success doesn’t take place because of a good or even a bad marketplace. It takes place because of you. You’re the one that has worked through the difficulties and slogged through the challenges of your business. But one day something happens in your business that…
Recently, I have had to deal all sorts of communication issues including a lack of or rather no communication when the internet went down for several hours after the landscapers cut the cable line; and even miscommunication, with service appointments and gathering information on office equipment email and internet links. We are all so use to now-a-days letting the keyboard do the talking for us and sending a message across the country to have it delivered instantly at any time of the day or night. We think nothing of it and accept it as part of routine business life.
But there is something to be said for reflecting back on the way people use to do business before we had all the technology we use today. I am all for progress, innovation and making business more productive and profitable. Thanks to modern technology I have been able to streamline my work and live where ever I choose yet talk to CEOs, presidents and business owners across the country, from New York to Hawaii, every day.
But somehow, along the way of all this technological progress, we have lost or forgotten our business social skills. People don’t build or maintain relationships as they once did. They don’t get to know each other as they once did. Business people don’t build relationships in such a way that they know who they can depend on and truly trust. Lifetime customers and lifetime employees are becoming more and more rare.
So much is based on speed and bottom line. An email, a Tweet, a Facebook post are all characters on a page. Although you are communicating with words we are also dependent on those words providing accuracy with intent, emotion and involvement from the reader on the other side. This can, and often does, lead to misinterpretation. In business, misinterpretation can be costly.
Consider today how to improve your business by starting to make more personal contact either by phone or in person – or even by Skype on the internet. Have lunch with your business associates. And yes, I understand how social marketing may now be a more important part of your business these days. But it’s not instantaneous like a one-on-one conversation is. It is a different sort of conversation and way to communicate. And depending upon what business you are in, social marketing can be more of a public relations tool than something where sales are easy to track. You need to recognize which forms of communication are best for business and determine how much time, money and attention you wish to give each.
For many business people, including yourself perhaps, break down the barrier, the isolation that comes with email, Twitter, Facebook . Tell someone it is “good to see them” or that you will “be looking forward to the phone call“. Build those relationships that will make your business stronger. We are all seeking and looking for those great relationships in life that will bring us success.
It would be foolish to bury your head in the sand and to not know what is going on around you. It is important to be aware.
But in this uncertain, volatile economy there are so many different opinions as to what is actually going on that if you listen to each one your head will spin and you may become a manic depressive.
For some sectors of the business community business is good. Even very good. For others, it is not. Whether your business is good or not, don’t lose your confidence in your ability to make business happen. Remember you are the one who built the business. You are the one with the vision and concept of what you want your business to be. You are the one who directs your employees to help them be successful and make it happen every day.
There is no question the economy is in a tough spot and probably will be for at least a few years. So you may need to revise and update the vision you have for your company, without compromising its core foundation, to be successful and profitable in this economy. Because this is the economy.
I have said it before and I will say it again, there is business out there you just have to work harder and smarter at getting it. You need to do a better job with customer service, prospecting, training your employees and most importantly, do what leaders do – lead. And never lose your confidence because failure is not an option.
Almost everything in the world can be broken down into a mathematical equation. Dance steps can be broken down into a mathematical equation. You can’t send a satellite to Mars without a mathematical equation. If you want to purchase carpet or wood for your floors or paint or wallpaper for your walls you need a mathematical equation to know how much material is needed. Even food recipes are mathematical equations with all sorts of different ratios when blended together make for cakes and cookies.
You can’t run your business in an organized, efficient way if you don’t understand that there is an order to the universe and most things in your business can be looked at from a mathematical perspective. There are some easy things to understand. For example: What percent of income tax you have to pay. How many days it takes to receive a delivery. Or checking an invoice to see if it was added correctly or how much sales tax needs to be added to the total.
But you can also use mathematics to understand sales. Such as: How many prospects do you need to get an appointment? How many appointments to get a sale? You’ll find that the numbers usually stay constant so once you work this formula out and you know what your average sale is all you have to do is state the goal you want and look at how many qualified prospects you need to see to reach that goal.
You can also determine with mathematics the ratio of people that you need to the amount of work you have coming in. How many hours it takes for a certain task. Or how many trucks you need to deliver your product. Or how to schedule your employees based on the business load and number of hours you are open for business.
Do you know how to read your profit and loss statement? Or do you just toss it in your file cabinet? Do you know what the percentage of labor is for administration, sales or production? Have you compared this financial statement to the last one and the one before that? Have you asked why labor is, for example, up 5% over last quarter?
Do you see how valuable all this information is? Success and profit isn’t made on a yearly basis. It is made day by day. Your numbers help to tell you what is going on or what isn’t going on, depending upon how you look at the numbers.
Although math may not have been your favorite subject in school, it is the pathway to understanding and operating a well-run more efficient business.
