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When a small business grows and the business owner does not create a management team, he or she will find themselves overloaded and stressed which as we all know can lead bosses down a very sticky road.

This stress factor may be because all the staff employed will be reporting directly to the MD and so without help they feel they are drowning in work (if this is you then try reading my “Drowning in Paper” advise sheet).

More often than not the reason for this is the fear of delegation or the unwillingness to pay managers, however no matter how good we are at managing the business as it grows we cannot do it all, a successful business needs structure and if you read chapter 1, section 2 of my book “Getting Down to Business”, it explains the need for a proper company structure.

By looking after each of the business divisions; support, sales and marketing and operations (delivery), it allows the MD owner to focus on building the business, while the managers get on with delivering the divisional outcomes.

Remember never be afraid to set up a team to help you. This is to free up your time so you can complete your own work and know that your company and employees are being managed effectively (with your supervision of course!)

Top 3 Tips:

1. The minute you feel yourself struggling, understand it’s time to build your management team.
2. Never be afraid to delegate; it will help you in the long run!
3. Meet up with your team often to ensure work is being completed in a timely and professional manner.

A business without a proper organisational structure will falter with its growth because as a business thrives it will grow to the individuals employed and their skill sets.

This is manageable when its small but the larger it gets the potential for key functions of the business to be ignored or “fall between chairs”, is exaggerated. By having a proper organisational structure it allows for a management team to be created with each manager understanding what their responsibilities are and the outcomes required from their team. It is important to make sure that when giving responsibility that authority is also given to those managers to operate successfully.

By creating the organisational structure not only does it give the opportunity of creating a management team but it gives individuals an understanding of their roles as proper job descriptions can be established for each individual.

Once you’ve assigned or appointed managers it is essential that they themselves are supported, therefore monthly management meetings should be held for:

• Support.
• Mangers to coordinate and liaise.
• Providing the opportunity to set targets and hold managers accountable in areas of their responsibility.

If you successfully achieve this you will be working ON your business instead of IN your business having transferred from having a job to running a business.

Top three tips

1. Separate your org activities into three sections: support, sales and marketing and delivery
2. Assign someone to head up each section
3. When you give someone the responsibility to manage, give them the authority as well

Of course having an organisational structure is only part of what’s needed to grow a successful business. To find out what other things you need to consider, take a look at the full list here.

The question of why you need a business coach often comes up and particularly for small businesses that feel they can’t afford one or maybe a large business that is struggling and feels its wouldn’t be good value for money.

So, let’s explore the question of why you need a business coach. Firstly most business owners are excellent at what they do and what they know, however very few have had any formal management training or experience.

I often hear other coaches try to explain the need by using a sports person as an example i.e. even the top athletes have coaches, we often hear Andy Murray changes his coach as he’s not happy and he is a very successful tennis player who of course, needs a coach.

So why would someone who knows their business or who knows what they are doing need a coach?

Well it’s simple really – an athlete can’t always see what they are doing right or wrong because it’s them doing it. So they need to video themselves and analyse and having a coach helps them with this process. In addition to the physical assistance coaches will provide a mental support, in other words ‘getting their head straight’, well that’s no different in business.

So let me explain – to be successful in business the very first thing to get straight is the attitude and approach, this means ‘getting your head straight’ so that you want to achieve, believe you can achieve and put all the necessary effort into achieving. Unless you are a highly motivated individual you will need help with this process.

Secondly and this is more mentoring than coaching, if you have not had the training or experience to cope when things aren’t going right, a coach/mentor can assist in what best action to take – a second opinion if you like.
Many of my clients say just talking through a problem with me helps them to see a solution even if I’ve said nothing or very little, its having the sounding board, someone outside the business, or a husband or wife who can provide that support or sounding board, this is crucial to success.

Summary

So why do business owners need a coach? Quite simply to help them to be better than what they already are.

Three tips on how to choose a business coach

• Ask other business owners for a recommendation.
• Find three coaches and do a job interview, you need to find someone who you can “gel” with- personality is everything!
• Speak to some of their clients and see how they have helped others.

Over the years I have been posed the question “do business plans work?” from all sorts of people; small business owners, academics, other consultants and business advisers, however there is only one answer that fits all scenarios and the answer is ‘only when they are implemented’.

No matter what size your plan is, whether it’s a business plan or any other kind of plan, (a holiday or moving house) it will only work if implemented. This may sound silly and obvious, however, a high number of my clients have spent money and time putting business plans together and I’m then told they don’t work and yet when exploring the situation I’ve found the reason it “didn’t work” was because no one had thought to actually implement them.

Any business can be improved by simply identifying two or three key areas, setting some simple actions (targets) that need to be undertaken within the business and then following through on these two or three things to make sure they actually happen, resulting in an improvement.

Of course you can have a very complicated business plan and for some of the very large international corporates this could be a plan incorporating a 20 year vision, for example, but for it to work it still has to be implemented.

So my advice is no matter how big or complicated the business is, set up a system to ensure the actions identified in the plan are implemented.

Integrate your plan into your weekly or monthly management meetings so that on a routine basis, either you or your manager’s area being held accountable for implementing the plan.

Summary

A business plan will only work if it is implemented. At the end of the day it is not cost or time effective to spend hours/days/weeks putting together a business plan or any other kind of plan if it never gets implemented.

I have often seen business plans with great vision statements covering their sales, marketing, delivery and ambitions along with a complicated financial forecast that looks and sounds great however they lack a broken down target by target action plan, incorporating all the visions statements into easily doable activity.

So, make sure when you create a business plan you go the extra mile and list out an action plan. Each target on your action plan should be assigned to an individual. The individual as part of the management team would be the person responsible for the implementation, and would have to report progress at your monthly management meeting.

This not only keeps the momentum going but also helps individuals and/or teams to hold focus on what their particular role is within the plan.

It is often better to get others involved in your plans; whether that means telling your friend about them or involving employees on larger scale business plans.

This way the friend/employees will help you keep track by simply asking how the plan is going or offering help on finalising actions for example.

This will keep the plan fresh in your mind and so it will be harder to forget your drive and goal.

Managing people is a very interesting subject and potentially quite complicated. Once you get over the emotional response around the fact that most humans don’t want to be controlled or manipulated.

We all want our free will and self-determination but when it comes down to it unless you manage your staff, you will not have an efficient work force.

Being very controversial people are inherently lazy and will only do the bear minimum that they need to feel secure and safe; of course three is always the odd acceptation to this rule. I’m sure we all know occasional work alcoholic or an individual with ADHD.

So having said all that and offended lots of people let’s get down to brass tacks.

If you want a successful business you need to manage your people.

Now the way you manage them becomes key depending on:-
A) their personality
B) the type of job they are doing and
C) your personality (one day my book will be written covering all of these issues as it’s a massive subject)

Tips and advice

Whether your team is 3 or 30 you must have regular meetings to monitor progress and individuals need to be given responsibility and authority to get their jobs done but there must always be a mechanism for them to report to you on progress and you must always set targets relating to what you want achieved. The larger the organisation and the more senior the position will mean that the targets are more strategic and time scales make it longer i.e. Weekly and monthly as opposed to hourly and daily but the principles are still the same.

Apply a simple process of:-
A) making sure that everyone involved knows what you expect, be very clear and concise about your expectations
B)set time scales
C)get agreement
D) follow-up
E) when completed give praise and recognition of a job well done or constructive criticism if job isn’t quite right.

If you apply those steps A-E to managing your people you will always be successful and respected as a manager.

Managing a workforce will never be a straight forward road but with the right tools it can be a rewarding and gratifying path. The key is to know the difference between leading a team and being the boss of your employees.

As mentioned in my book Getting Down to Business, having employees can be difficult due to different characters and strong opinions bouncing around the workplace, however knowing how to handle them is paramount.

It is imperative you help the employees to understand you are the type of employer who will guide them, make them feel part of a team and gives credit where it’s due. Even small things like saying please and thank you to your employees can mean the difference between quality team spirit alongside a high standard of work and a poor end result.

For me personally it always helps to know what your employees are going through on a day to day basis, they appreciate it when you are able to say things like “when I did this task I found that…” It shows them that at one stage you were in their shoes and puts them at ease. This can also in still trust and respect in the relationship between you and the employee and can help to keep some bosses level headed as naturally the higher up you become, or the more responsibility you take on, the harder it is to remember the days when you were in their shoes.

However as much as you do empathise with them and look after your team you must also remember that you need a be a little bit of a boss too; this is to make sure jobs do get done and so tasks and business plans run to schedule as well. So instead of deciding to be one or the other, why not find a balance that works well for you and your employees? It will always vary with each employee depending on how you need to treat them to get the work done in a timely but high quality manner but remember to have regular progress checks and refer back to my other blog about managing people for extra hints and tips!

Some people say that achieving goals is the hardest part of the process and they could be right.

However, if you set your goals correctly, (for tips on how to do this, go to ‘Setting your Goal: The Know How’ in the blog section of the website) then achieving goals become easier because you will be motivated enough to achieve your goals especially in business if you have underlying personal goals.

Having set your goals correctly, achieving them becomes the important step, they will not happen just by thinking about it…although this helps! A great way to maintain focus is to get them written up and stick them somewhere that you see frequently as this will remind you.

Even if you don’t stick them on the wall etc, make sure they are written down as this will cement them into your everyday reality.

Having established your goals, you need to think about the key things that need to be done to achieve your goals. These will be your objectives. They are broad, brush statements and the things you need to do or the processes you need in place that will enable you to achieve your goals. For example; if you need to increase the number of customers in your business in order to achieve your goals, then the key objective would be to have a robust sales process in place. In most cases, you would be trying to identify five or six key objectives, which if acted upon, would result in you achieving your goal.

Having done this you should ask yourself one more question and that would be “what would stop me from achieving my goals?” these are the constraints or challenges you will face along the way to completion. By asking questions like this you should be able to identify two or three areas that if not dealt with, will stop you achieving your goals. A common constraint in the business that would definitely stop you achieving your goals would be a poor cash flow.

So this is actually throwing up two or three more objectives because the constraint would then result in finding more objectives that need to be acted upon within the business. Constraint of poor cash flow would result in an objective of putting in a proper credit control process.

This system of setting objectives i.e. things you need to do in order to achieve the goal, also applies to personal goals, for example if one of your personal goals was to buy a large house in the country, you would need to have some objectives in place to identify an area to live in and maybe objectives to generate a large enough deposit etc.

If you feel you need any more help with knowing where to start when it comes to achieving your goals then please get in contact with me at doug@exec-tc.com.

Just before Christmas I explained how you could go about setting yourself goals and how to make them reachable. In this blog I will explain how a simple technique can help you to achieve the goal
you have set yourself in the New Year.

This particular support method has helped me in the past and so by passing it on and sharing with you, I hope it will do the same for you!

 I have found that many people set themselves goals but don’t tell anyone else about them; this may seem like an insignificant detail but actually it may mean the difference between achieving your
goals and losing focus.

There are many situations in life where we set ourselves personal
 goals, for example: losing weight, quitting smoking and many may agree that going to the gym or quitting smoking with a friend is preferable than going it alone. By telling a friend or family member, it is akin to having constant motivation to keep the goal alive and successful. Loved ones can help maintain focus, check up on us when we may slack off or just to provide a reassuring ‘well done’ along the way.

For truly personal goals like losing weight, telling friends and family is fine, however for goals in your working life then the next suggestion may be more beneficial to you than just
telling family and friends alone. It may be better to tell people who are in the business world as well and who can make constructive criticism without being partial in any way.

I, personally have used this technique for a while now and found that it keeps me focussed, balanced and gives me a ‘positive pressure’ (almost like a sweet but firm nudge to keep me at it!) and
 so I recommend this to you all.

This technique is called ‘Masterminding’, some of you may have heard me speak about this but I’d like to really explain what it is and how it can be beneficial to you.

So what is Masterminding?

A Mastermind group is a group of five or six individuals who can be considered peers in terms of having broadly similar experience and career achievements. The group generally meets
regularly, maybe every month or two. The meetings are treated formally – as if it were a meeting with a major client – and social discussion is kept to a minimum to maximise the benefit aspect.

Every group member has an opportunity to discuss with the group what their goals are, and what targets they need to hit to achieve the goals. They also share with the group what problems and constraints stand in the way of the targets being met. Because they understand your business, but are detached from it, the other group members can think objectively and give you helpful suggestions.

Importantly, after you have received the suggestions from the group, you commit to implementing at least one, and report back at the next meeting on what progress you have made.

The commitment is the critical part: this maybe the only time that you, as a business owner, are held accountable to another person or group, and this is what will drive you to achieve. It also helps if the meeting summary and goals is written down and handed out to members at the end as this reinforces the goals in people’s minds and ensures completion.



What are the general characteristics of a really effective Mastermind group

The participants are people that like and trust each other, but they aren’t just a group of good friends or people that normally meet in a social rather than business context. This is important because they have to be able to be honest and objective, rather than bias or too kind to critique.

 There are no conflicts of interest among the members, so they should not be suppliers, or clients of one another, or members of the same organisation. Again, this is so there are no circumstances in which the members are tempted to be bias.

So, tell others about your goals and get them to hold you accountable to achieve them!

If you would like more tips on how to set up an effective Mastermind
team then please contact me at doug@exec-tc.com.

Many people think that setting a goal is a simple case of “I want a 1 million turnover by the end of a 5 year period” or “I would like to reach 600 clients in 7 years”. If this sounds like you then I would urge you to relook at your goals.

What you should be asking yourself is; “what made you first decide you wanted the 1 million?” To work out what your true goal is you need to be asking yourself a few questions first; “why do you need it?” “What do I want the money for?” Don’t be afraid to keep asking yourself the same questions over and over until your true goal reveals itself.

So what else do you need to ask yourself when sorting out what your goal is? Well as the title may suggest; do you know the difference between target and goals? It is a common misconception that they are the same thing, this may be because they are closely linked and work in tandem if you like.

So let’s explore what defines a target and goal: the goal is what you want to end up with in your business or personal life, a target is a number i.e. the level of income, which the business will have to generate so you can reach the goal.

My book, Getting Down to Business describes this as: ‘not to earn a million pounds but to send your children to university and have the option of retirement at fifty-five.’

Some more examples of goals would be:

“To become an established and profitable recruitment agency operating with three employees and turning over £1 million.”

“To develop the business to operate with a standardised process and procedures, which do not require M to be there all the time, while generating £80,000 profit per year.”

Over the years it has become clear that a great number of business owners do not have a strong idea as to what their goal should be, therefore they are unsure of the direction in which to take the business. Setting goals can make a vast difference, setting them properly is the only way to ensure your targets are set appropriately. Without clear set goals your targets will ultimately struggle to work for you.

Once you have set your goals it may help you to get focus on your business in a way you have never done so before. For example when people set up their own business they envisage their lives going very differently. They see the business as taking off and thriving so much so, that they won’t need to be around much at all and can buy that second home abroad they always dreamt of. This is because business owners are more often than not, optimists, and sometimes this can cloud factual judgement. However if the business owner has not thought through what his goal is and has gone ahead and set up the business in such a way that it is impossible for him to be absent for any length of time then this will be the obstacle to tackle before your goal can be accomplished. Therefore setting a goal and having to refocus is a very sobering process.

Only once your clear goal is in place can you start to implement it and act on achieving it. This can only be attained by planning effectively and setting suitable targets to help aid the process. Consequently bringing you closer to your end goal and finally, your ‘perfect’ life.

If you feel you need more advice on how to set goals for your business or how to go about achieving them, contact Doug D’Aubrey on 07946 730475 or doug@exec-tc.com.