Small changes can have an incredible impact on your business.
The majority of business owners work tirelessly to grow their business and are very good at what they do, yet they fail to look at their strategy and execution plans. It’s the old adage: I’m too business working IN my business to work ON it.
While we’re here to support you when unexpected events occur, our support is much more effective if we help you get ahead of risks and opportunities in your business.
Time spent working - is not created equal.
There's a misconception that being busy automatically makes you effective.
Some hours are highly productive... and that's great... as long as we're not fighting avoidable fires, dealing with HR issues, performing avoidable rework, etc.
By spending some time planning, we can put out fires before they cause damage and take advantage of opportunities we can only see from above. In other words, sharpening the axe before cutting the tree will make for a much easier task. Cutting the right tree helps too.
When you execute your plans, the time that you spent refining your strategy will pay off big. Popping up for regular planning helps keep your business calibrated.
How effective can a 1% change be?
Making a commitment of roughly 20 hours per year or just 1% of your working time, assuming the average business owner works 2,000 hours a year in their business, is all it takes to improve your planning and strategy.
From experience, we know that clients that invest these 20 hours in the following activities see the best results in their business:
Complimentary Client Review (new clients) or Annual Review - 2 hours
Annual Business Planning - 6 hours
Annual Forecast - 4 hours
4 x Quarterly Check-ins (minimum frequency) - 8 hours
Total Time Investment - 20 hours (1% of 2,000 hours)
We believe best practice for business starts with us providing a complimentary client review for new clients or an annual review for existing clients.
You'll also get help creating your annual business plan and preparing your annual forecast - two crucial services for achieving effective and realistic goals.
Our final recommendation is to check in with us regularly (at least quarterly) to ensure you're on track and accountable for achieving your 90-day goals and actions, as well as setting new ones. These recurring services are highly effective for our business clients.
So, where will you find the time?
Planning supports efficiency. Efficiency might come in the form of less rework, less ‘paperwork’, less friction in your team, or simply more focus and higher productivity.
Putting the time in up front for planning and strategy will give you time back and improve your bottom line in the future. It’s also about helping you define what you want from your business in general. More time with family? More time for golf? A broader product offering? To learn life-long lessons that pay off in all facets of your life? To pump business value up for your succession?
It’s not easy work. It’s challenging… and enlightening, passion-igniting, and rewarding (for both us and our clients). We’re committed to supporting our clients to make their businesses more sustainable and scalable.
But wait - what about your sales?
You can also increase your sales by 1% each day for a year, then by the end of the year you’d be selling 37.8 times more each day. Thus you could double your sales in 70 days by improving by 1% each day.
Of course, it’s unlikely that your sales will grow in an absolutely linear way. The point here is to illustrate the power of compounding growth. Even if you achieved a weekly increase in sales of 1% then your sales will double in just over 16 months.
What we’re looking to achieve is continuous and sustained improvement; small changes not magic bullets.
What happens if you don’t make those changes?
Let’s say your competitors sharpen their game, or you fail to keep track of changes in technology, or you manage your team ineffectively because you’re so busy and your sales start to reduce by 1% each day.
If your daily sales are currently $1,000 and your sales regress by 1% every day, your sales will be just $30 by the end of a year. Again, your sales are unlikely to drop in a linear way like this.
The important point is that, unless you make continuous improvements, your business performance is likely to drop over time.
If you need help with your 1% business improvements, book a discovery call with the team at Thrive CA to discuss how we can help you move forward.
“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” – John F. Kennedy