Time to Get Serious and real!

Right now as the NZ economy kicks along the bottom of the recession cycle there are strong signs of the early buds of recovery (see link). This is good news after a particularly tough time for all industries but it begs the question......what is your strategy in order to position your business to really dominate your market and reap the rewards of recovery.

There is no doubt that despite the doom in the media, recession really is a time of opportunity for those that choose to seize it. Now is the time to complete your strategy and execute some focused action in order to get the team and the plan honed to really make the most of the opportunity as the market resets. Lets face it...the same old plan will get the same old results!

Last night we held a seminar called "Think Growth, Simplify Your Business". The evening, sponsored by Westpac and the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, saw owners and representatives from 76 Canterbury based businesses attend and take part in an interactive presentation. The focus of the evening was to emphasis the importance of getting the key drivers in your business right.....Strategy, Cash, People, Execution. Get these four things right and watch your business take off.....now thats positive!

If you need some advice with any of these things give us a call......its what we do at Results.Com....We Grow Businesses.

Have a fun day

Karl (See our website)

The Perfect Employee 100%-Yeh Right!

One of the absolute bottlenecks we tend to find when working with Business Owners are the inevitable and sometimes ongoing issues they have with staff. Reality is issues relating to staff performance are usually time consuming, not pleasant or avoided totally. At best this means inefficiencies and at worst it means money straight off the bottom line for the business in question and lets face it things are tight across all industries in this economic climate.

I'm not going to go into the necessity for living company values, clear goals, well written and measurable job descriptions in this blog because each of these are important in their own right. What I do want to put across are the benefits of using a profiling tool as part of the recruitment process. If you are not using a tool of some kind then you are flying blind. The changes in the market now mean that as opposed to 12 months ago when good applicants were hard to find, now there are many more looking for work so getting someone good should be easy right? Well in many cases we get it wrong!!

Most employers in small & medium sized businesses tend to be the owners (and doing many roles). Time restraints mean one, perhaps two interviews are the norm. If you get an applicant to spend an additional 15 minutes completing an online profile then you can quickly get a wealth of information that will outline suitability for the job. There are many such tools available however the best we have found are the EDisc Profiling tool. 

Put simply if you throw one of these into the selection process you will greatly improve your chances of getting the right person for the job! Do some research and ask those that use such tools for feedback.

Karl (see our website)

Not knowing What You Don't Know!

There is always an element of comfort when a business owner has owned and operated their company for a number of years. Not taking away the fact that it takes a huge amount of skill and perseverance to own a company built from scratch and to operate it profitably in a constantly changing environment! Many I meet make a lot of their key business decisions based on what they think is going on rather than the what data shows them.

One of the cornerstones of Results.Com is that as an organisation we base all our research and business best practise teachings on hard data. Opinions are like armpits.....we all have them, but when you can actually drill down into a problem part of your business and see actual figures, or measure actual outcomes achieved then you can make sound decisions. Now this does not have to be complicated, in most cases we are talking about making key figures visible so that trends can be monitored.

There is much that flows on from this practise such as having an ability to hold key employees accountable for their roles and goals, making sound decisions about overheads, budgets and of course the peace of mind of knowing that you are on track.

It is healthy to take a deep breath and step back from your business in order to challenge what it is you are trying to achieve and where you sit in the bigger picture. This means being open minded enough to accept constructive challenges to the way you go about things.

So really not knowing what you don't know is only an issue if you never take time to find out and if don't continue to learn and grow!

Karl (see our website)

It is Important to Celebrate Success

One of the pleasures of being a part of Results.Com is being able to share in the many successes of our clients and their achievements.

Mega Advertising (based in Ferrymead, Christchurch) has been working with us for nine exciting months. Mega's big goal is to be the number one Branding Specialist in the world. The focus of the last nine months has been to focus on building the culture of the business whilst increasing revenue and profitability.

Managing Director Phillippa Jacobs can now not only boast a 46% increase in revenue but a 50% increase in profitability in this period.

On top of that she is a Finalist in the upcoming National Business Woman's Awards being held in Auckland on 24 June 2009. You can read more about her amazing company by hitting the website. In a time of ongoing recession it is fantastic to be able to work with Business Owners actively growing their revenue.

It is also important that we celebrate success when and where possible.....after all it is supposed to be fun!

Karl (hit our website)