- Business Planning
- This is the start of all activities. A business must have a
Vision and a system to develop the essential road map to get to
a desired destination. You must learn how to implement effective
strategies that will get you to your goals.
- Financial Management
- You must have a budget and an understanding of: how you will
meet your revenue goals, your overhead, gross profit, labor rates
and systems that will help you keep track of your business.
- Marketing - This is what
your business is all about. True success comes when you understand
that you must always be marketing. A business must have a constant
flow of leads in order to charge more per hour, grow and become
more profitable.
- Building a Team - This
is probably the most important and most overlooked aspect of running
a successful business. Ask yourself this question: What do I do?
Answer: hire people and teach them the trade. You must get great
people and empower them to help you grow your business and satisfy
customers (better than you can). You must develop systems to recruit,
hire and train people.
- Customer Service Strategy
- Customer service should be scripted. If you write a script and
practice it, you will get guaranteed results every time. You have
to teach the script and get the whole team involved in the performance.
- Sales & Estimating
- This is the cornerstone of profitability. Estimating is not
a complicated or mysterious process. You must keep track of production
rates and job cost every job. You must be able to qualify customers,
bond and rapport and deal with price objections. You must track
the volume of leads and closing rates.
- Continuous Improvement
- You have reached the Summit when your business runs itself.
You must develop systems that are reliable, repeatable and deliver
a consistent profit. Develop formal implementation management
and process improvement programs to ensure continued success.
Imagine every system working together in total perfection. The
true value of a business is not the assets, customer lists or
even its people. The true value of a company is its systems.
GO TO First Critical Element: Business
Planning
|
