Plan for Gold

The Olympic games are under way.

We will, no doubt, see some excellent performances ... and occasionally we will hear of the planning, preparation and punishing training that has underpinned those performances.

Excellence does not come easy.  Start planning for your 'gold' now.

Which should you concentrate on?

In a small business, which is the most important - production, sales, administration?

Yes, of course, you are right ... it is 'all of the above'!

So, if there is one of these that you are not very good at, make sure you get help to fill that gap .. either by hiring in help, or developing yourself so that you become good at it.

Complacency hurts

The O2 service was down (in the UK) this week for a couple of days.

This follows another recent high profile case of RBS (a major bank) losing service for many customers for a matter of days.

These things never seemed to happen to these giant organisations. Is it a sign that things have got so complex that such failures are more likely; or that even these large companies are cutting down on maintenance; or that they have become complacent.

Complacency - believing you are 'good' and acting accordingly - is the enemy of excellence and of high productivity.

You might not believe this

I was working with a small manufacturing company recently.  One of my first questions was about 'ex factory costs' ... trying to find out how much it cost them to make their product.

They didn't know.

"So how do you set your selling price", I asked.

"We charge what the market will bear."

"So what is your margin."

They didn't know ... but they did know they were losing money .. .which is why they had asked me to take a look.

This is not, unfortunately, out of the ordinary.  Many small businesses are interested in the product or service not the process of getting it to market.

So think about your business ... and the bits you are interested in ... and the bits you are not; the bits you are good at ... and the bits you are not.  Then find a way of filling those gaps.