Much is said about ‘working on‘ your business but what exactly should business owners and specifically service business owners be working on when they’re working on their business?

Interacting with many businesses as a business improvement specialist, I get to ‘peek behind the curtains’ and here is the number one area that tends to be forgotten about…

Innovation

Most small businesses, particularly professional services businesses like Lawyers, Accountants, Financial Planners, Mortgage Brokers, Dentists, Psychologists etc don’t believe that they need to be innovative. Many of them have a sense of a long and steady tradition where the work that they do has remained unaltered for decades or longer.

Maybe it’s because they’ve been protected from outsiders competing with them, and many weren’t allowed to advertise or even promote their services publicly. For these reasons, amongst others, service professionals often see themselves as above the whims of fad and fashion that businesses outside the professional sphere contend with. 

Accordingly to them innovation is something that start-up’s, tech, bio-tech and other such industries need to grapple with. After all, a professional’s focus should remain on maintaining ethical standards, client delivery, being prudent and upholding the cause…

…but I’m calling B.S. on that!

Innovation is not solely relevant to just product and tech businesses…

The world has changed.

Although for decades it’s hardly been necessary to alter much in a professional business, because simply opening the doors, putting up a sign, getting cards printed and doing a good job was enough to be successful.

Those days are almost gone…

For some it’s changing faster than others, but rest assured the tide has turned and continued complacency and failure to move with the times (innovate) will result in a Kodak moment. I’m speaking of Kodak’s demise rather than the other reference of that colloquialism.

Relevant one year and gone the next, along with Blockbuster and so many others who may not have failed altogether, but who are gradually fading into obscurity like the the taxi industry and budget hotel groups.

It’s not tech that’s disrupting these industries and bringing them to their knees, even though it may appear like that on the surface. Tech is driving the change though, and it’s not the world that’s changing but us.

Our customers are changing, not physically, but rather in their expectations.

Tech is changing how we expect to be served. It’s altering our expectation around delivery, convenience, accessibility, tracking and cost. It’s setting new standards in consistency and reliability.

Here’s 4 key areas where a service business needs to innovate if it wishes to stay relevant:

1. Customer Experience – How our customers experience the process of dealing with us

2. Service Offering – what we do for our clients

3. Marketing – How we attract new clients and keep our existing ones

4. Service delivery – How we get work done

The most commonly focused upon area is Service delivery because of it’s impact to the bottom line. 

Service delivery is largely invisible to your customer, and how you get the work done behind the scenes matters little to them, provided you’re ethical. After all, in most professional service businesses a document or stack thereof is often the only tangible evidence of work completed.

Of course better systems, processes, software and resourcing options must be engaged to get work completed efficiently and profitably, but this is obvious and even the most resistant Luddite grudgingly makes changes here because he knows how it affects the bottom line.

Whilst it’s arguable that all four areas need equal focus, I’d suggest that it’s Customer Experience that service businesses most need to innovate around, because our society has become experience oriented.

We are so satiated by utility as consumers and so conditioned by new tech that we crave richer experiences. Particularly since the customer experience begins when they first hear or notice your business (marketing).

The first step in innovating your customer experience is creating a map (use sticky notes) of their journey and the touch points with your business. This includes the apparently mundane like receiving your invoice and how they make payment, right down to the more obvious like your waiting room and phone answering process.

The next step is to imagine how this could be if cost and time weren’t a concern, ask yourself (or even better ask your clients in a Client Advisory Board process) what would improve your customers experience. You can then begin to find ideas and solutions to frustrations that improve the experience your customers have in interacting with your business.

Small changes will have a huge impact on how your customers perceive you, how you’re spoken about, how easily you’re referred and whether you’re considered a leader or simply a professional sheep.

Leaders get the pick of the clients, pick of the work and get paid more.

Bearing in mind that we remember how people make us feel long after we forget what they said, and that many an excellent meal has been ruined by having to wait for the bill.

Go forth and innovate.

Think about how often you’ve asked someone, “How are things?”, “How have you been?” and their reply is “busy mate, heaps going on” OR “Not a lot, just busy with work”.

Given that in any business there’s usually a long list of things to do, and that life generally has become an endless stream of activities and commitments, it’s unsurprising that people feel BUSY.

It’s difficult to think poorly of someone who proclaims themselves ‘busy’, after all busy people can’t be lazy can they?

Well I’m going to put my neck out here and make a bold statement that I’m sure many will take exception to…

Busyness is a form of Laziness!

There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that busyness and productivity have little correlation. In fact it seems to be that the least ‘busy’ are the most productive.

How can this be?

It literally hurts peoples brains to think deeply, clarify and simplify. I’ve witnessed it over and over again in workshops, coaching and trainings I’ve run with hundreds of business owners – our brains get tired quickly doing this type of work so we tend to avoid it.

Being busy is cognitively less difficult than planning, prioritising, brainstorming, or evaluating, all of which are all required to optimise productivity and therefore results.

Quite often, busy people are usually so busy clambering to get ahead that they don’t even “check the ladder is against the right wall”.

If you’re not taking time to sharpen the saw and find a better way of achieving your goals, then you’re being lazy!

Putting in long hours and plenty of work to meet your commitments and continuing to do things how they’ve always been done is being lazy!

Instead of continuing to bludgeon away using sheer volume of hours to accomplish results, instead do a little heavy lifting with your brain to find a better way, or create a system that you can automate or delegate. Work hard once, not over and over.

If you want to be more productive rather than just ‘busy’, here’s 4 ways to boost your productivity:

1. Think hard less often and then follow the plan. Instead of doing lots of superficial thinking often, set time aside to think deeply at intervals. My clients get together 3 times a year and spend a full day planning the next 3-4 months, so that they can then focus on implementing robust plans and strategies the rest of the time.
2. Control your agenda. Structure your calendar and diary to ensure focus on your key activity drivers and don’t allow any trespass on this time. This will keep you pro-active rather than reactive.
3. Use a planning system like the Freedom Planner that keeps you on task with what’s important and not a slave to what’s urgent.
4. Ensure your team knows the plan and that you clarify frequently, including focusing on KPI’s that drive results.

Be Productive not Busy!

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I help owners of service businesses structure their businesses to grow seven figure profits, working 30 hours or less a week, 40 weeks a year.

If you’re making 6 figure profits (or low 7) and want to grow to seven figures but are already working more hours than you care, I’ll show you how to use a Freedom Framework to grow your bottom line and achieve more whilst working less.

By using the right structure and playing to your own individual strengths, you can design your business to operate and grow, without trapping yourself in the process.

More Growth, More Freedom, Better Business!

Follow me at https://www.facebook.com/betterbusinessfreedom

Stuck? This 3 letter word could help…

One of the easiest and quickest ways to get unstuck in business is to ask a different question.

Most often we’re stuck because we keep asking the same question over and over hoping that at some point we’ll be inspired with a solution.

Moving forward though can be as simple as changing one or two words in your question. Or re-arranging the letters of a 3 letter word…

being stuck is an expensive pastime

 

As an entrepreneur, or business owner, being stuck is an expensive pastime,because how quickly you move forward is often the difference between capturing, and taking advantage of opportunities, or watching them pass you by. Equally when it comes to solving a problem, the longer it takes, the greater the cost and negative impact. Delays cost money and are expensive in many different ways.

If you’re capable and competent you’re even more likely to fall into a trap and get stuck.

 

This is because you’ve got oodles of experience to show that you’re good at solving problems and figuring things out. As a result you persist at trying to solve the problem on your own. People who aren’t good at solving problems don’t fall into this trap…

If you’re a competent person and good problem solver, the likelihood is that you’re asking yourself “HOW” do I solve this?

I see this with my clients and people that I help over and again. Competent people seem habituated to asking themselves “How”.

 

Usually what you should be asking is ” WHO” can solve this for me,

or “Who” can point me in the right direction.

 

So if you find yourself stuck, or slow in making progress, change “how” to “who” in your question and see if that helps you to progress a little quicker.

If you need support with a complex problem, or options, and you’re still feeling ‘stuck’, send me a message and I’ll do my best point you in the right direction.

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I help owners of service businesses structure their businesses to grow seven figure profits, working 30 hours or less a week, 40 weeks a year.

If you’re making 6 figure profits (or low 7) and want to grow to seven figures but are already working more hours than you care, I’ll show you how to use a Freedom Framework to grow your bottom line and achieve more whilst working less.

By using the right structure and playing to your own individual strengths, you can design your business to operate and grow, without trapping yourself in the process.

More Growth, More Freedom, Better Business!

Follow me at https://www.facebook.com/betterbusinessfreedom