What the Business Doctors say....
The two biggest challenges faced by small businesses trying to grow are increasing sales and managing people. It sounds like the only problem you have with sales is how to turn the business away! This is a crazy situation to be in when there is clearly demand in the market to grow your business and needs to be addressed urgently. Customers will soon become disillusioned with you if you can't fulfil their demands and start looking elsewhere for suppliers that actually want their business - in no time at all you will be focussing your efforts stopping a decline rather than managing the growth.
So, how can you sort out your people issues? - it is critical that you start to understand your personal core values - these are your defining principles and work ethics that define how you do business and how you relate to your customers, your suppliers and each other (your people). Although you may not have actually articulated these or written them down, they will almost certainly exist - they normally relate back to the original driving force that motivated you to start the business in the first place - things that you didn't like with a previous employer or a personal belief that you could make a difference and do things differently. Once you know what these are, it is essential that you only expand your business with like minded people that actually share these values with you.
These may be things like: Customer Focus, Trust, Commitment - or as recently demonstrated by one of our clients in the Construction industry - Perfection - they experienced exactly the same challenge with growth as you are - they employed a high flying Operations Manager, with an excellent track record at corporate level and despite his exceptional credentials, it soon became apparent that he didn't share the same values. He was happy with giving the customer 90% when our client's business had been built on a reputation of perfection and always delivered 100% on time in full! Clearly this was never going to work and they agreed to go their separate ways.
So, when growing your business, make sure that anyone who joins your business absolutely shares the same values and understand that they will be a direct measure of their performance.
Contact Business Doctors on 0845 293 8462 or email georgiec@businessdoctors.co.uk with your business questions. www.businessdoctors.co.uk/homecounties
