Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, once said, “It is not the strongest of
the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most
responsive to change."
(article continued below ...)
Change is a crucial element of any business. Whether your business has
sunk into complacency, your strategies are no longer effective, or you just
need to stir some excitement into your business, you need to adopt changes.
As your goals and visions are reached, you need to change gears and move on
to the next level. Change can help your company grow and increase your
bottom line.
But what do you change? How do you know if it is time to change?
Watch your numbers
closely. Your financials are the first indicators
whether a change is warranted. Your numbers can also tell you whether your
business is going nowhere, just plodding along, or blasting into hyperspace.
If you’re in the red for the first time, you need to find out why and turn
that around fast! Understand what and how these factors affected your
business is it the overall bleak economy (may be tough to change); did
your price hike pushed your customers away (easier to change); or is it
because your competitor launched an aggressive marketing campaign this
quarter?
Take a good look at your
business. Look at your business from the eyes of
an outsider. The key is to look at your business from an objective
perspective (it’s hard!). Give yourself time away from the day-to-day
needs of your business and look at the overall picture. Over one weekend,
for example, just sit back and reflect on how you can improve your business.
Pinpoint the problems, ask why there are problems, and think of ways these
problems can be minimized, if not totally eradicated. Do you have high
accounts receivables, even bad debts? Why? Is it because you send out
invoices late? Or is it because you lack policies and measures that will
ensure that payments are made before the products are delivered or services
are rendered? Do this exercise routinely at least once a month so that
you can nip the problems at the bud before these escalate into bigger
problems.
Evaluate what your competitors are
doing. There is much to learn from
your competitors. Far from being a copycat, your competitors can show you
new opportunities and new ways of doing things. They can even show you what
not to do and what to avoid in your industry. Keep a close tab at what your
competitors are doing. Use their successful strategies as an inspiration to
create better products or services.
Get feedback from your customers. Your customers are a goldmine of
objective information about your business. After all, your business exists
to please them your customers. Whether through surveys or interviews, get
your customers’ opinion on what they like (and don’t like) about your
business. Ask them what they would like to see from your business, whether
it is a new product offering, improvements in the current product list, or
better customer handling. Many customers will gladly give their feedback to
you.
Get feedback from your employees. Your employees are the frontline of
your business. They are the ones closely dealing with suppliers and
customers, and as such, have the vantage point of these crucial
relationships. More than that, employees present a different understanding
of your business and can be a rich source of suggestions to improve your
business. Ask their feedback regularly. Better yet, develop a mechanism
where there exists a free flowing loop of feedback between your employees
and yourself. Not only will you be able to get more ideas to change your
business for the better; your employees will feel that the business owner
values their ideas and suggestions. This will lead to happier, more
productive employees which in turn will lead to a healthier bottom line.
Success needs constant reinvention. You need to constantly work at
achieving your goals; and you can only do so through constant changes.
-- Mayumi Mendoza is a writer for Power HomeBiz Guides.
April 8, 2003
|
