How do you know what you're staff is doing?
Last weekend's business owner success conference was amazing. We had
well over a hundred business owners participate and the feedback was
really gratifying. Thanks to those of you who participated.
Today I want to focus on something that got a huge response from the
participants this past weekend - the idea that control is a trap.
Let's face it, in your business, the more "control" you have, the more you have to personally be there to exercise that control.
Now I can already hear some of you saying, "But David, if I don't
keep a close eye on them, how can I make sure that the right things are
actually getting done?"
This is where "CONTROLS" with an "S" come into play...
What Are Controls?
Controls are the intelligent processes, procedures, and safeguards
that protect your business from uninformed or poor decisions or
behaviors.
There are essentially three kinds of controls:
- Visual controls. These include checklists, dash boards,
scorecards, budgets, etc. They let you SEE that the right things
are happening, of if not, they raise a flag that lets you make sure
to focus on fixing the situation.
- Procedural controls. These include things like having 2
unrelated parties internally check/be involved in the flow of money
(person A makes deposit; person B reconciles the account... Person
A writes the check; Person B verifies and signs the check). This
can also include a standard way you do something like the job
application process your business has, etc.
- Embedded controls. These are the controls that work without
someone having to remember to do something out of the way to use
them. For example, standardized contracts are a form of embedded
control.
The bottom line is that controls help you let go of directly managing
a process and still be able to KNOW that the business is being well
cared for.
Take the example of Brian, one of our Consulting Program Clients. Brian got started in our program 18 months ago as essentially a one man shop.
His big fear about bringing in help was that he didn't think anyone else would do as good of a job as he could.
But he was a great client, and took the advice that to grow his
business he had to let go of parts of the business (for him he needed
more time in sales and less time in operations.)
In just 7 months he got out of over 90% of the operations of his
business, and one of the BIG things that helped him do it was the
fulfillment checklist we coached him on created (a form of a visual
control) so that he felt confident that his new hire (at that time)
Diane was doing things the right way.
Fast forward 12 more months...
Brian's business has more than doubled, and he's on pace to double again over the next 24 months.
What About Your Business?
How much is it costing your business because you don't have strong controls in place?
What about the emotional cost?
What can you do in the next 90 days to implement at least 1 or 2 key controls in your business?
I hope these questions really spark you to get into action making your business more stable and secure.
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