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Business owners and their concrete bunkers
Business owners of small and medium sized businesses throughout the UK are a proud and strong group if individuals. They are the backbone of the UK economy providing more employment than any other group. They know what they are doing and they do it to the very best of their ability, that’s for sure.
However, most of these businesses are stagnant, they haven’t grown in years and, in fact, times are tough with the business owner making hard decisions over the future of their business. They’ve been running their business for many years and they’ve tried this idea and that tactic to bring in more profits. Some ideas have worked and some have not. Either way the business hasn’t moved by much.
So, here we have a business owner that knows, in their heart, that their business is where it is and cannot grow any more. The business is surrounded by a thick wall of concrete that cannot be penetrated. So, is this really true? Well, of course it isn’t.
To help these business owners we need to consider what this concrete bunker is made of. Is it really made of concrete or is it more constructed from the limitations that lie within the business? Each and every business will grow to match to the capability of the leadership team. This is a bold and true statement. The leadership team is the group or individual that controls the directs the business. In order for a business to grow it needs to implement new ideas and strategies and stick with these new ideas until they work or are proven not to work.
The capability of the leadership team breaks down further into their, “knowledge zone”, “comfort zone” and “activity zone”. Any business growth idea or strategy must lie in all three of these areas if it is to succeed. If a good idea is outside their “knowledge zone” then they don’t know about it and therefore cannot implement it. If a good idea is outside their “comfort zone” then they don’t want to do it and therefore don’t implement it. If a good idea is outside their “activity zone” then they simply don’t implement it whether they know about it or not. They are probably “too busy”, doing goodness knows what.
The first role of a business coach is to bring new fresh knowledge to the business, not about the core activity of the business, but about the wider business activities. After all, nearly all businesses operate the same basic process, invest some money to offer a service to customers to earn more money than was originally invested. Whether this is selling cakes or submitting accounts it’s all the same underneath.
The second role of a business coach is to encourage business owners to try things that lie outside of their comfort zone. Broadening their horizons if you like. Doing new and different things can be scary, at least until you’ve done them a few times, and then they become the norm. Pushing past personal limitations is a great way to grow a business.
The third role of a business coach is to ensure business growth strategies and ideas are carried out, which is where accountability becomes important. Most business owners have no-one to hold then to account. If they do not do something then so what? No-one will say anything, so they can “get away with it”. If no-one checked your homework, would you do it? In the end the customers will hold the business to account by voting with their feet.
Therefore, the role of a business coach is to bring the business owner outside of their concrete bunker by providing the missing knowledge, providing encouragement and ensuring the business growth ideas are carried out. If you, as a business owner can do this yourself, then great, otherwise you’ll need someone to do it for you and that’s a business coach.
Managing customer expectations
Managing your customer’s expectations may not be as easy as it first appears. This is mostly because all of your customers will have different levels of expectation, some need only a basic level and some will want much more. Take for example the timeliness of the delivery of your product.
Let’s say it normally takes you 4 days to process your customer requirements, from receipt of payment through to delivery. What if you had a customer that needed your product in 2 days and they neglected to tell you this as they assumed delivery would be immediate. Without further communications you will not meet this customer’s expectations and they will be dissatisfied.
Now take the same example but this time the customer can comfortably wait 2 weeks for your delivery. You don’t know this so you expend additional cost in getting the product out as fast as you can, e.g. premium working. You’ve met your customer’s expectations but now you have made less profit on the job.
So, what’s the answer, how can we find out the expectations of our customers? Relying on them telling us is not the best option but appears to be the most popular solution. As the expectation’s of our customers only exist in one place, their mind, we have a very simple answer, ask them. For your business sector there are probably only a few key expectations, list them out and ask your customers. Clearly, in mass market volume businesses this may not apply as well as in low volume high value deliverables.
The key point is you can only exceed your customer’s expectations when you know what they are!
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