THINK SMALL
It is very common to hear: think big. However, big results come from small steps. Keeping your eyes on big goals is very important. But doing small solid steps on a daily basis is more important. Below is a list of top small things to think about in order to expand properly:
- Employees’ morale: if your team members are facing problems in their personal lives, it might not be your problem. But when those issues affect their attention and their productivity levels, then you will bear the consequences. Bond with your staff, understand their personal life structure, listen to them and guide them by example to balance their lives and deal with problems with full faith and maturity.
- Time wasted: “it’s just 10 min”…just an hour…just a day, a week, a month…and there you go…you might lose a year of productivity while postponing important tasks. Whether you or your team don’t respect the value of a minute, then time will backfire and kill your profitability. Don’t mess with time, keep a record, make reports, spot the delays and always respect deadlines.
- Small payments: the $10, $100 or small pending balances that you are not collecting from clients will accumulate over time. Not only that, you will give the impression to people that you are careless about money. The next step, they will adapt to the carelessness strategy. Collect your money on the spot, and make sure to write down all your expenses to track them accurately. That $3.33 you gave to the parking guy would accumulate to around three thousand dollars at the end of the year; if you have three meetings a day…
- Follow tasks: each task must be well tracked. You must have a report to put each and every task on your calendar and see what happened with it. That call, email, proposal, meeting, follow up, …must be followed upon and logged in a detailed report with its duration, the person in charge and the status of the task to know whether it was completed, pending or declined. In all cases, notes and supportive documents must be available for reference. One missing task could make you lose a client, a check, a team member or even a supplier…
The list can go forever but the concept is one: focusing on the input management will give you the best output you desire. If you’re cooking you focus on the ingredients and the recipe, then the meal will be delicious by default. Same applies to business goals; focus on the tasks, the time, the meetings, the meticulous customer service… that input will end up in great achieved targets.
A good objective business assessment is always healthy in this regard. Professional tools and guidance will strengthen the process.
Keep expanding,
Jade W. Dagher
Certified Management Consultant, CMC ®
