Is your organization ready for change or growth? You’re first thought might be, “of course, I can handle more customers, business, change, etc.” But that may not be true if you haven’t taken a hard look at some key components of your business. Today we’re going to talk about steps to take in evaluating the readiness of your business for a change and a great process for scaling your business.
Welcome to Marketing and a Mic. We’re here to give you various digital marketing tips, trends, and useful guides to help your business get results. While we mostly talk about the marketing side of things, we feel it’s equally important to share business concepts that are interesting to us, eye-opening, and something that every business can use.
SCALING YOUR BUSINESS
Glyna and Rob continually invest in training classes to help strengthen their business model and have said that they sometimes come across something that’s a game changer for businesses in general – and this is one of them.
Yes, this is too good not to share, especially because it helps evaluate all areas of your business. And it can be applied to your personal goals too. On our last show, we talked about the CIGAR method – which is a great self-discovery tool to help you peel back the layers of your business and see what needs to change.
Today we’re going to talk about steps to take in evaluating how prepared your business is for change. The next part is evaluating the readiness of 4 key areas of your business: Leadership Clarity, Infrastructure, Sales & Marketing, and Cash.
LEADERSHIP CLARITY
There are many moving parts to this section, but we’re going to break it up again by revealing some key identifiers in each category and how to determine your strength or readiness within them.
Financial Endgame/BHAG: (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)
What is your financial goal? Is it documented clearly? Can everyone in the company clearly articulate the financial end game and its significance in achieving it?
You as a business owner may understand what your BHAG is, but does everyone have clarity on it? More importantly, are they fully aligned and in agreement with it?
Organization Design
You’ve established an action plan for the organizational structure required to achieve the milestone towards your endgame. Does everyone else involve understand the action plan? Is it well documented so others can refer to it when needed?
Can everyone that’s involved clearly articulate what their specific tasks are and when they are required to complete them? Making sure you have your framework clearly mapped out and accessible is an about must getting your goals met.
Company Vision
The company vision is another key element that needs to be evaluated. Does everyone in the company have full clarity on the vision of the company and can clearly articulate it to anyone who asks? If not, ensure this is also documented and understood by your team.
Core Values
Core Values are another important piece. Does everyone within the organization fully understand what the belief system is within the company? Are they all in agreement and will fully represent it?
3-Year Strategic Outlook
This is so important when determining the sustainability of your endgame goal. Do you have functional roles/steps in place to achieve the company goals over the next three years?
Does everyone in the company have full clarity on the vision of the company and can clearly articulate it to anyone who asks? If not, ensure this is also documented and understood by your team.
Delegation
Delegation comes with checks and balances. If you’ve created the steps and processes needed to implement your goal, do you have the right people that are capable of handling it? Do the people assigned require a lot of close monitoring? Not only is it important to delegate your tasks, but it’s imperative to have them assigned to the right people who are fully capable of handling them.
Do you have functional roles/steps in place to achieve the company goals over the next three years? Does everyone in the company have full clarity on the vision of the company and can clearly articulate it to anyone who asks? If not, make sure this is also documented and understood with complete confidence.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Functional Design
When thinking about your current infrastructure, take a look at the functional design of your team. Although you’ve organized your plan and delegated your people, does everyone have what they need to carry out their tasks? Does everyone know what part they play each step of the way over the next three years?
Systems and Processes
Can the baton be passed along without someone dropping it? Systems and processes take a wide lensed look at the number of people involved, the departments involved, and ensuring that a system is in place from conception to implementation. Everyone not only needs to know what to do but WHEN they are required to do their part.
Operational Kaizen
This looks at the cohesiveness of your system. Are there any roadblocks, resources lacking, or missed documentation? Is everyone operating like a well-oiled machine? Evaluate the members of the leadership teams to ensure everyone performs there with high performance and fluidity.
Recruitment & Onboarding
This is about having a streamlined process in place for recruiting, retaining, and onboarding A-talent.
Learning and Development
Make sure your company is invested in developmental tools along the way to ensure higher knowledge stays ‘alive’ in the organization.
Performance & Reporting
This is key in ensuring everyone across the company knows the key metrics and their own contributing metrics. These metrics should be reviewed weekly, if possible, to help identify and resolve any inconsistencies.
Strategic Priorities
This element simply comes down to everyone understanding the strategic priorities and personal priorities and being able to articulate where these priorities lie in the plan.
SALES & MARKETING
Lead Generation
What’s your process for being in new leads? Establishing a lead pipeline that is supported by multiple channels, with each bringing in quality leads, should be the goal. This pipeline should be consistent with a sufficient volume of leads.
Customer Acquisition
Do you have a dedicated customer acquisition and business development team that’s driving sales for the company? You want to make sure you have key people on the front lines on your behalf, so you as a business owner can focus on other crucial elements.
CASH
This section comes down to 3 key elements:
Cash Conversion Cycle
The cash Conversion Cycle is all about cash flow management. Is your cash flow in tip-top shape? Are there specific areas where the cash cycle can be shortened? Is this all well documented and can be optimized effectively by your whole team?
Profit Centers
Profit Centers refer to having a clear understanding of the company’s profit centers. What are your ‘honey hole’ items? What are the items that are wasting money, known as your drainers? If you have your profit centers, are they operating efficiently to maximize profitability?
Profit Per X
This is all about knowing your “magic number.’ Make sure everyone involved in this piece has a clear understanding of that metric formula and is collaboratively working to improve that metric.
FINAL THOUGHTS
That’s it for us today. Hopefully, we’ve given you some good food for thought and methods to apply towards scaling your business and achieving your own business goals.
If you need any help with social media or building your online presence and getting more customers, our team would love to talk to you. Don’t forget that our podcast also goes live on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and you can catch the replay on Instagram. You can also subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more resources to help your digital marketing plan.