Tag company

Metrics: Regular maintenance of your company’s condition

Hallelujah! This month, I paid off my Mercedes ML350. And I couldn’t be happier. However, something I must continue doing if I want to keep driving my baby is maintain it. This applies to business as well. If you want to maintain your company’s health, you need to do the work to keep it healthy. Here is an easy maintenance checklist you can use to make sure your business is tuned up and streamlined for long-term health.

  1. Lead funnel
  2. Sales process
  3. Cash flow
  4. Budget check
  5. Customer relationship management
  6. Team structure
  7. Team culture
  8. Technology
  9. Infrastructure
  10. Legal structure

Let’s break this down.

Lead funnel and sales process: How do customers get introduced to your company? What path do you walk your customers down to guide them to a sale? This is your lead funnel. You service your lead funnel with a well put together sales process. This may include a combination of tactics such as social media, article marketing, newsletters, personal calls, gifts and value added incentives, and bundling, among others. A review of your process on your business maintenance checklist, whether it be annual or multiple times a year, will keep your sales machine humming.

Cash flow and budget check: Cash is king in business and cash flow, along with budget control, is important. Cash flow is created by a good lead funnel and sales process. To monitor your cash flow in relation to sales, you will want to keep an eye on overhead, conversion rates, and cost of team, partners, or employees. Marketing costs should have a conversion rate associated with it so you can tell what is working and what isn’t. Cash flow and budget management is the oil on a business maintenance checklist that keeps a business moving along smoothly.

Customer relationship management: Once you have a customer, you will need a system to manage that relationship. This covers the way customers are communicated to, inside or outside of a sales process. It also relates to how they are invoiced, how issues are resolved, and if you have a mechanism in place for referral. Customer relationship management is the steering wheel that keeps everything on track. Be sure its on your business maintenance checklist.

Team structure and team culture: Your team carries the vibe of your organization. They can either take you higher or shoot you in the foot. Do you have the right players on your team? Do you have the right roles in place? Do those roles actively add to the bottom line of your company? Additionally, you need to do a pulse check on how everyone works together. Does your team buy in to the company culture? Is your work place one of harmony? These are some questions to consider for your business maintenance checklist. Good team structure and team culture will propel your business forward.

Technology, infrastructure, and legal structure: This is the frame of your organization and something you should never leave off your business maintenance checklist. Review your technology. Are you using the best software for your needs? How about hardware? An equipment failure at the last minute could put you behind. How are you doing with plant and equipment? Does your infrastructure support what you need? Is it too much? Is it too little? How are you doing legally? If you are a sole proprietor, have you grown to the point where you need to consider becoming an LLC? What legal structure suits your needs?

If you need help with your business maintenance checklist, you can also hire a coach once a year to check out all the moving parts. A coach will give you outside perspective which is necessary to avoid driving with dim lights or a tail light out. A different point of view could make all the difference in the ongoing maintenance of your business.

Contact What Works Coaching if you need help. 

Even a coach need motivation.
Mindset: How do you motivate yourself?
Even a coach need motivation.
Even a coach needs motivation.

When it comes to motivation, do you coach yourself to success or paint yourself into a corner? Part of business is learning how to coach and motivate others. But you also have to motivate yourself if you are going to drive the success of your company.

I love Audible. I pay a subscription fee and I get to download anything I want for one credit. The subscription is motivation to keep consuming information. After all, a coach is only as good as the information they can provide. Hiring a coach is like taking a football team filled with coaches and committing to one to give you personal attention. I listen to a lot of books because I multi-task. I made it through seven chapters of Jen Sincero’s “You are a Bad Ass” between Coloma, CA and Carson City, NV. I could not have done that with a paper copy. In fact, I think this coach would have killed her business and herself in the process of trying. To save lives and expand minds, I am gladly giving away a 30 day Audible Free Trial [Digital Membership].

See, I am always on the look out for tools to motivate me. I see motivation as the gas that makes my business engine run. My company is healthier when I do the work to motivate myself. I motivate others better when I motivate myself. I have always used vision boards to propel my business forward. In fact, everything I coach I do myself. Go figure. Want to see if What Works Coaching works? Look at how healthy What Works Coaching is! Basic business 101 – no contractor’s dilemma here. I know I must fill my own cup first before filling others.

Yes, that means you need to motivate yourself and that will fill up your cup. So, how do you motivate yourself when energy is low, ideas are short, and time is shorter? Well, you might want to consider looking for a coach. For me, I downloaded “You are a Bad Ass.” I do highly suggest you read or listen to that book. You might like the You Are a Badass 2017 Day-to-Day Calendar. But, since Jen Sincero may not be on your speed dial, maybe consider putting me on there.

Schedule some time with me. If you are super convinced already that coaching is right for your business, go all in on one hour. If you want to stick your toe in the puddle of motivation and risk 20 minutes of your time to possibly motivate the hell out of yourself, schedule a complimentary 20 minute session.

Whatever you do, do something – anything. Take action. Because action is what motivation is really all about. Unless you can think of a company that stayed in the black doing nothing. I’m waiting… No company can do that? You would be right.

So my question to you, right here, right now, is this. How do you motivate yourself? Share in the comments below. Who knows. The way you motivate yourself might motivate others, which will great sweet rapids of motivation we can all raft. Let’s go!