Get Some Sleep

What keeps you awake at night?

There is probably something ... something you feel you don't quite have under control.

Clearly, this is your first priority - if you don't have control, you have to find a way of gaining control ... or making sure that the lack of control does not have potentially serious consequences.

So you need a 'mitigation plan'.  What will you do if whatever you are worrying about does (or does not if its that kind of worry) happen. If you are ready when things go wrong, you have a much better chance of minimising any damage - financially or to your reputation.

So treat the worry as a positive thing - an early warning system which gives you the chance to plan a mitigation strategy.

Now, you can sleep at night.

Keep records

SMEs are fast-moving, fast changing organisations. The problem is that too often we don't write things down, we don't maintain effective records, we don't even record all transactions.  These things  can come back to bite us.

So, I know you're busy but do take the time to think about the implications of decisions you take and actions you make.  Also take the time to record things.. better record more than less.

Time to Innovate

What allows SMEs to innovate?

Clearly the most important factor is the quality of the owners/managers. However innovation needs opportunity as well as capacity.  Those owners/managers need to understand the environment, the competition, the technology that define their business... and they need to be driven to search for something better, for improvements, for higher profits. Then they need the skills to translate ideas into practice.

Sounds easy, doesn't it?  But, it isn't.  That's why the few win and the majority lose.

What are you doing to become one of 'the few'?

Small company ... big ideas

Many small businesses are so busy that they spend too little time thinking of the big issues and ideas they need to explore and investigate to secure their longer term future.

It can be difficult to take your eyes off the current set of problems for a while but if you don't start work on tomorrow's problems now, they will come and bite you .... hard.

If you want to be a bigger company, make sure you make an appointment with yourself to start thinking - and acting on these bigger, longer-term issues.

Where do I end?

Last weel I asked "Where do I start?" to make improvement  suggesting that you should know where to attack to have them ost impact.

Today's question is much easier to answer.

You don't.

Improving your business is a never-ending, continuous process.  Remember if you stand sill, someone will overtake you.

If you cannot face a future of unrelenting change and a quest for continual improvement, go get a job and give up running a business.

Where do I start?

Do you know which factors of your business are important?

What, if it changed, would have the biggest impact?  A 5% reduction in your material costs, your energy bill,your wage bill, or ...?

If you know which are important, you know where to focus attention and improvement activity.
If you don't, then who is managing your organisation?

Do less

Many people think that raising productivity means doing more things ... but sometimes, it means doing fewer things more effectively.  Some even think the more things they have to do, the more important they are.

However, at a personal level, if people concentrated and focused more they might avoid endless 'email tennis' and cut the size of their Todo list.

The same is true of your organisation.  Make sure it is doing those things which your customers want done. Find out what it is you can stop doing.

So if you feel you are very busy, with lots of varied tasks, try prioritising and delegating.  Make sure your agenda consists of those things that make you money.  leave lesser things to others.  By all means keep a 'watching brief' but if you try to do everything yourself, you will fail to do some of those important things properly and thoroughly.