One of the early leadership of Stephen Covey’s “first things first” and has to do with the paradigm of what is important. Talk of effectiveness, and how every person and organization can define and focus its resources on what is truly important.
In that sense, today I share some tips to help you improve your business and that if put into practice in 30 days could be enjoying better results.
It is very common as an entrepreneur when you’re immersed in it daily, do your business activities will “dilute” without realizing it in a myriad of activities that often do not alter or contribute to the economic performance you expect from your company .
For that reason these 30 tips help you visualize intend important areas that you can not afford to neglect:
* Day 1: Decide the type of entrepreneurial firm you want to be: successful or mediocre. Your attitude is a key decision for the whole of your business.
* Day 2: Make a commitment to yourself. After evaluating your attitude, commit and review your goals, your hopes and motivations for doing what you do.
* Day 3: Evaluate your monthly budget. Carefully review your fixed and variable costs and cut all unnecessary spending that does not contribute to the growth of the company.
* Day 4: Set aside a percentage of your budget for promotion. An unknown company is like a beautiful island where nobody comes. Defines a monthly amount to invest in promotion of low cost.
* Day 5: Resolve to sell more. Sales are the growth engine of your business. If you have an aggressive sales strategy is time to put everything aside and sell, sell sell!
* Day 6: Empower your sales. Your sales force needs constant motivation and training. Prepare a training plan and, if necessary invests in a professional to help them improve their sales effectiveness.
* Day 7: Organize your customer base. Nothing to lose more then a company internal disorganization. If you have an organized database of your customers, now is the time to start planning.
* Day 8: Realizing your best customers. Who else should buy you feel like king of the competition could soon hand it over. Send a thank you card, a gift or a special offer to your best customers.
* Day 9: Make a call to old clients. Call customers who already bought you before and that for whatever reason they stopped is called “recovery strategy.” Offer them a “benefit” to buy you back.
* Day 10: Check your prices. Especially in times of crisis is necessary to assess margins and to consider a minor adjustment.
* Day 11: Make deals. A good strategy to attract customers is to establish temporary rates to help you hook them or create deals to attract new customers.
* Day 12: Rewarding the best sellers. If there’s anything that motivates a salesperson is to be recognized as such. An additional incentive for the best could mean that your sales will multiply.
* Day 13: Evaluate your “methods” of management. If your employees do not have confidence in yourself as a leader, it’s time to start working on it with urgency.
* Day 14: It promotes innovation and ideas. Many of the great ideas come from your employees or partners. Create an environment that values good proposals.
* Day 15: Eliminate unnecessary meetings. Many meetings are not useful only to give a sense of “activism” does not contribute to anything. Eliminates any meeting that does not have any useful meaning.
* Day 16: Eliminate any assets in the company. Do not you do leads nowhere. Detects and removes all activity that absorbs your staff valuable time that can be invested in activities that really matter.
* Day 17: Evaluate your human capital. Your staff is very valuable, but excess staff may be an unnecessary burden for the company. Restructure the functions can help you be more effective in both human resources and in your budget.
* Day 18: Improving the presentation of your company. An old saying goes “as you see … I treat you.” Make necessary improvements to the image of your company. The receptionist, salespeople, customer treatment by telephone and the same must reflect a successful business.
* Day 19: Do not be a desktop manager. Commit to the business and get involved in the role of the different areas of your business. It is the best salesman in your company.
* Day 20: Get rid of unnecessary inventory. Many of your assets may be obsolete or unnecessary and take care you may need up valuable space for other activities or to reduce your rental costs. Evaluates and sells all unnecessary assets.
* Day 21: Improved internal security. Insecurity is a major risk factor for any company. Evaluate and improve your protection mechanism.
* Day 22: Review the business structure. This process will probably take a few days but the restructuring carried out with intelligence can substantially improve the effectiveness and performance of a company
* Day 23: Make a website for your business. If you have not already it’s time for your business is online and you offer your customers an e-mail communication. There are many free resources which can fall back on.
* Day 24: Improve your procurement systems. As important as selling it to buy. Evaluate your purchasing mechanisms and your suppliers. Make sure you get the best discounts and benefits or best suppliers.
* Day 25: Reduce or eliminate your costs “ant.” Unnecessary phone calls, purchases of inputs that are not useful, gasoline, food and many other costs that are often not visible, but ultimately have a direct impact on profits.
* Day 26: Focus on what’s important. Define the most important tasks of each department and each person efócate in resolving and implementing them. This will result in a more effective pursuit of their goals.
* Day 27: Consider the rest in your organizational culture. Do not take a break from time to time is a luxury too big for you and your collaborators. Set periods of rest and commit to comply. It’s a proven fact that you rest regenerates energy and mental capacity to be more productive.
* Day 28: Organize your schedule and learn to say NO. A supplement to this principle of effectiveness is to learn to say no to any activity or task irrelevant that only fill your agenda and wear again in “activism.”
* Day 29: Buy a book. A good entrepreneur is always learning. Buy yourself a book of business today, motivation, leadership or how to improve your family relationship and commit to reading it. The best asset you have is yourself.
* Day 30: Evaluate the risks. A good entrepreneur is sighted. Anticipate the risks you might face and develops a contingency plan.
You may be thinking that in reality this is not done in 30 days, and I agree with you but the intention is ultimately help you visualize and work on what is really important. Your suggestions to add to this list are always welcome.