Focus Maintained

The Ten Million Pound Question

At a meeting last week, I asked what changes each business owner could implement immediately to drive his business forward quickly but without additional cost.

Over an hour we heard – in general terms – how there was little that could be done as most things had been in place for a long time etc. The advertising was OK, the branding was good, the buying was tight and so on.

It was time to throw the spanner in the works.

I split the meeting into groups of five and posed one question ” What would you do to achieve a 30% growth (at margin) for just one month…….. if the reward was a cool £10 million….

Each group of five had to choose (from their group) the business to work on..

After just 40 minutes, the ideas were presented to the room and as ever, it was amazing to see how some great ideas came out after some serious and very focussed discussion.

OK – £10 million was in the mind – but what about “Get 30% growth or fold your business / lose your home / live on State handouts. Enough incentive?

But, to be fair, when a business owner is on his own, it’s difficult to get the priorities right -(“When you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s difficult to remember that the intial objective was to drain the swamp”).

Which is why business owners need to have a professional advisor, sounding board or coach, so that the focus is maintained…..every single day…