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Making Business Work Simply
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| Guest post by: Warren Coughlin |
Article Overview: There are some things in life that are supposed to be really complicated; being a parent, learning how to invest and running your own business. When you look at all of these things nothing could be further from the truth. Parents are taught by their children, investors are taught by their experiences and business owners should be taught by a mentor. Often when I look at businesses it is clear that the owners have given up trying to improve their lot in life because they think that it is too complicated an issue to generate more activity. They think they need to be Einstein to invent some radical new way of doing business. Let me give you a few real-life examples of how simple it can be to change the direction of a business.
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Making Business Work Simply
There are some things in life that are supposed to be really complicated; being a parent, learning how to invest and running your own business. When you look at all of these things nothing could be further from the truth. Parents are taught by their children, investors are taught by their experiences and business owners should be taught by a mentor. Often when I look at businesses it is clear that the owners have given up trying to improve their lot in life because they think that it is too complicated an issue to generate more activity. They think they need to be Einstein to invent some radical new way of doing business. Let me give you a few real-life examples of how simple it can be to change the direction of a business.
Usually a business has no coherent direction established within its culture. The first thing I seek to have the owner and their team do is spend some time deciding exactly where they want to be in 12 months time. This process must include all of the members of the business, because they will all contribute to getting there. Once this is done the goals are well publicized. One of Action’s clients implemented this as the first step and this alone without any other changes produced a very significant increase in sales.
Another business is a physiotherapy practice. Health professionals tend to think that they should not have to sell their services and skills; people should just discover them. The practice’s Action Coach wrote a simple script for the physiotherapists to tell their patients that it is in their best interests to come back regularly for treatment until the injury they had was completely cured. Up until then they would just say ‘thanks for coming I’ll see you later’. This alone increased their number of patient visits from 190 per week to around 230…a 21% increase in business. Next, the practice discovered that their patients were leaving their office, walking around the corner, and buying strapping tape, etc. from the local chemist. We stocked the practice with these products. Sales of these have substantially increased the cash flow. This business has grown by some 30% in ten weeks without implementing any of the more impactful strategies that we had identified in their initial analysis.
In another of Action’s mentoring businesses, we simply implemented a dress code for their sales team. The most dramatic impact of this came recently when their leading sales person had gone into the field in a dark blue shirt and tie. He spent six hours and had not made a single sale. He walked into a menswear shop, bought a white shirt and red/blue tie, he went to the dry cleaners and had it pressed and then he changed. Within 40 minutes of this change he had sold his entire inventory.
There are many more examples of this sort. The message is clear. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to make money in business. Unfortunately most owners are so close to the coalface that they cannot see the opportunities. That is why an outside mentor who can give advice, encouragement, correction and discipline is the best investment a business owner can make.
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About the Author: Warren Coughlin RSS for Warren's articles - Visit Warren's website Warren Coughlin is the Canadian Coach of the Year with Action International and selected from the over 900 coaches internationally for a Global Action Man Award and a North American Action Man Award. His experience and his passion have allowed his clients to experience 300 and 400% growth, create stronger teams, reach for bigger dreams and gain skills they can use for as long as they run businesses. He is now challenging all Toronto area Entrepreneurs to double or triple your revenue (or more)! You get to enjoy that growth, receive a free vacation and here's the kicker - he's going to show you exactly how to do it! It’s only $50 to participate in the Bennett Gold Action Challenge, to learn techniques of growth, to participate in an ongoing teleseminar series, to receive tools for success and to have access to great additional learning and networking opportunities. If you really want to take your business to the next level, visit www.bennettgold.ca/challenge. Click here to visit Warren's website People Plus Systems Equals Great Sal Think Link Leadership Whos Driving Your Business How to Make your Small Business Big Profits Team Building Team Challenges |
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