Does your business structure support your long term business goals?

Do you really understand the use of Companies and Trusts in achieving these goals and ultimately achieving your exit or succession plans?

Start with the end in mind! Realistically nearly all of us get into business because we are great at what we do…  When reality strikes, we are usually not that great at the non “my stuff” functions of business.  It is never too late to align your business structure with your long term personal and business goals.

If you would like to discuss this, please let me know and I can introduce you to some great professionals in that field.

Apart from the initial limbic response of their brain to weigh up their environment and consider the immediate response of stay or fight/flight, there is a considerable portion of their communication style which may not connect to the way you are communicating your message or ideas?

I hear you saying, “what are you talking about” – EXACTLY.

As I may waffle on and include the details and facts of this, are you:

Just get on with it… give me the facts and move on OR

Yeah I hear you, but can’t we slow down a bit and get to know each other OR

Yep, Yep; Ok just shorten it and lets go for a drink so I can tell you a bit more about me OR

Yes, I understand that, maybe a question or two on the limbic system………….

Does one of these messages resonate with you?

This is effective communication, all I need to know is how I communicate best and then how you communicate best and adapt my style to match or at least get closer to the way you are communicating.

• Are you missing this with your niche target market and those ideal clients?
• Are you talking to them in your communication style and not theirs?
• Is the language structured to suit them and what they would prefer?

Communication (or lack of it) is the basis of all relationships and happens nearly as quickly as the Trust component.

To learn more about your Communication style, visit FACE-Matrix and do a quick, fun and easy to understand profile.

Have fun with it, share it with your friends and if you want to know more, then the best buy is the FACE, The Global Language e-book

Learn to love it and embrace it.

Let me know your results and what you think.

John Burkhardt - Amplio Business Solutions

The group is run by experienced business people with coaching qualifications.  It is only $10 per night (first time free) and covers business mindset and a great broad coverage on all aspects of business based on the e-Myth (Michael Gerber) models complimented by real life scenarios and coaching models.

If you wish to be on the meeting list for updates email David Beard here.  We can also forward on information about MasterMind Groups in Brisbane.

In the current monetary climate there is more and more focus on making sure you know what your money is up to.  With a slower economy (apparently) there is now the focus on even more control on your expenses and how to (market) maximize your income?  This is a great time to become more financially literate.

Do you know how to effectively read your Profit & Loss Statement and challenge some of the items on it?  Do you do this regularly (a minimum of once per month if not weekly)?

Is your Balance Sheet up to date or is it an item that the Accountant does up and it remains in your tax return for them next year?  Do you know what it is for?

Financial literacy is also about knowing how your business structure works and ensuring it matches your long term business and personal goals without you getting caught in capital gains tax or stamp duty penalties.  If you don’t know what structure you have and how to benefit from it, now is the time to talk to you financial advisor to learn!

Do you know what your competitors pricing is for the products you stock or service you offer?  Are you positioned to take advantage of their challenges?  Is your mark-up rate standardised and can be implemented quickly to ensure that you don’t eat into your gross profit?

Financial control is about 1/7^th of the business functions performed and should be treated accordingly.  Be informed; be ruthless in your decisions.

With our business connections we come into a many and varied group of people and their business’s.  If you are after a referral to a business, it is more than likely we know someone who can help you or put you onto someone who can.

Some other professionals we can recommend include:

Accounting and Tax Agents
Business Consultants
Car Sales
Child Sponsorship or Mission work needs
Christian Businesses
Communication Consultants
Computer Technicians
Cosmetic Procedures
Credit Control Services
Debt Reduction Services
Drafting Services
Electricians
Financial Planning
General Insurance Brokers
Hairdressers
Health Food Shops
Investment Property Services
Marketing and Branding Firms
Mortgage Brokers
Musicians
Natural Food Stores
Painters
Psychology
Roster Software for Business
Second Hand Book Distributors
Timber Merchants
Website Developer
and many more!

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As your business grows you will be faced with challenging functions that you either have no or a limited skills set in. This could be marketing, accounting, financial invoicing, form design or any other business function.

A basic thought process for good outsourcing is looking at whether you can delegate, eliminate or leverage the function.

A good starting point is asking yourself where your skills set places on a 1-10 scale for the function required to be most effective and efficient.

Secondly, are you wanting to do this function?  Is it something that you wish to learn more skills for?  Is it something that having that skills set will be part of your long term role and business goals?  Do you need to know just a little more before you delegate or outsource the function?

Answering these will quickly show you your attitude to the function and will allow you to emotionally move past “hanging onto that function”.

Delegating

Can you delegate the function to someone else within your business? Is this time and resource effective?

Can you delegate to outside contractors either within the local area or via ecommerce outsourcing such as ODesk or eLance?

Are you prepared to be very specific as to what you expect and to set the boundaries and KPI associated with that function?

Eliminating

Can you eliminate the function altogether?  Scary thought, but sometimes we do things because that is how they have always been done and no-one has ever questioned if it is necessary to the end product/service or if there is a better way of doing it.  There have been cases of 12 page documents being reduced to 2 pages and obtaining the necessary information to do the required task.  Sometimes we just have to get out of the forest to see the trees.

Leverage

The most common way to leverage is by allowing someone with these skills sets to do the function much more effectively and efficiently that you ever would.  In doing this you pick up a larger time period, reduce your stress and actually make money to offset the outsourcing or delegated tasks.  The most common example is bookkeeping, artwork and form design.

The effective use of your skills set to concentrate on your passion and talents will quickly be rewarded.

Should you create an entire system, HR support etc for functions that aren’t the core of your business or leverage your time and resources by contracting a business who specializes in that area. e.g. Information Technology, Marketing, Graphic Design etc.

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

There is scope for coaching particularly in setting up the business goals, direction, vision etc and about looking at the mindset of the owner, customers and staff, challenging and stretching that thinking and the thought processes involved.  In this area we sometimes touch on consulting items and vice versa.

Consulting supports the business owner by providing a structured framework to grow their business.  The focus is to work ‘on your business’ rather than working ‘in your business’.  Like Business Coaching, the initial phase includes analysing your personal and business goals, but the difference is from a strategic and operational viewpoint.  Our recommended Consultants will work with the business owner to create a practical strategic business plan and through on-going performance management, will be there to ensure successful implementation, no matter how long it takes

Should you wish to contract a consultant, we have great relationships with top quality consultants who work from the ground up.  We compliment them with engaging the owner, management and staff in regards to the mindset and thinking.

We are proud to recommend consulting with:

Susan Draper – Full consulting service (Susan’s profile is available here)

I found a book at QBD for $6.99 called Creating Magic by Lee Cockerell, based on the principles taught at the world-renowned Disney Institute.

It is a bargain at this price!  I have just finished reading the first couple of chapters but already it has great insights on leadership and how different methods affect your results in relating to people.

Well worth the time to go and get it!

One of the most satisfying processes we come across as coaches is the ability to move the coachees thinking to the point that they illuminate with the answer to their own thinking.

So often, it is that you already know the answer but have not had the time or energy or ability to un-clutter enough to see what is actually going on and more importantly what is the learning about what you are doing and the implications of:

1. Doing it the same way

2. Doing it a better way

Once you start to explore this thinking (as apposed to the problem, details or drama) then you are able to reflect enough on the process to realise where simple improvements or alterations can have tremendous impact.

As we move coachees through this journey, the benefits of thinking for them become more obvious.  It is a great experience to empower someone to think about something, identify their feeling and emotion with the item, learn from it and think through the implications of doing or not doing it.

A recent example was of a coachee who identified a needed to increase their sales.  This was multi layered but through insights, the client was able to identify that half of their stock sold in a certain time period when they had the stock loaded to a website.  The insight was to load up more stock after identifying which were the more popular stock items.

You guessed it, sales started to increase immediately by adding popular items and more of them to the website.  The turnover has taken off.

I trust that this gives you some insight in the benefits of having a coach (or mentor etc) beside you.

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

All too often we as coaches are posed with a blank expression or the question of what does a coach do?

As a professional business coach, we use this expression to ensure that you can hear that we are:

1. Professional i.e. abide by a professional code of ethics and standard of conduct along with applying professional development through ongoing education.

2. Business.  We are in the business of business.  We specialize in coaching business’s and helping them achieve their potential through business development.

3. We are Coach’s.  As a coach we cover a range of skills which assist in maximizing your potential.

They include:

Goal setting – Application of Strategies and relevant action steps to achieve these goals.

A professional coach is the combination of four areas including: Mentoring, Management, Personal Training and Sports Coaching.

Coaching is a synthesis of elements from:

• Mentor

–        To really believe in you

–        To help you set big goals for yourself through vision

• Manager

–        To help you set strategies to work

–        To assist in setting deadlines

–        To keep you accountable

• Personal Trainer

–        To help you work out how to attack the big goals

–        To maintain momentum

• Sports Coach

–        To see things to improve your game that you can’t see

–        To challenge your perspective or thinking

–        To provide objective perspective for altering performance

We as coach’s are often covering a broad range of abilities, however we choose to specialize in one area.  For me this is Business Coaching and soon Executive Coaching as well.

These are the realization of the goals and relevant strategies and actions for myself as well.

Even as coach’s we need coaching to achieve our maximum potential.

Remember, If it’s going to be, it’s up to me!  But why not get some positive assistance on the way?

John Burkhardt - Amplio Business Solutions

Last week I attended an International Coaching Federation meeting whose guest speaker discussed and helped us assess our own Genius.

What an extraordinary exercise.

With the methodology used, it crystallized who I was and what I was meant to be doing (this of course), but it allowed me to think of the other opportunities that aligned with who I am.

Even for us in the coaching industry, we need to constantly stop, rethink , realign ourselves and our mindset with who we are and what our passion is and move forward.

Everyday my focus is living my genius so that I fulfill my destiny assigned to me by God.

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

One of the most common queries regards when we start to talk with clients about what platform their business has and how they manage the business systems to get the most out of that platform.

All too often there is a blank look and I have found the best explanation comes in a visual form.

All businesses have a platform which operates holding the business together.  This governs the amount of clients and work a business can handle and all too often is unstructured and not recorded.  The platform is the people, the equipment, the marketing and all the things that hold a business together.  This platform can only handle so much work before it breaks, bends or just gives up.  Depending on where the strains are this can be in your equipment, your people or other aspects of your business.

The way you operate currently will define a turnover platform. i.e. without changing any thing you are doing at the moment, your business can only handle a certain amount of customers and work flow.  This eventually will put a ceiling on your income before it starts to decrease (by not changing and keeping up with cultural and economic changes)

This image best describes the above comment.

Platforming systems 1

This is the current situation and all too often the current expenses looks like the following image.  Keeping up with the business growth and turnover and taking up 80% or more of the current platform.

Platforming systems 2

Graph 2

These expenses have their own platform. i.e. there is a certain amount of work that can be put through that same platform with little or no increase in the corresponding expenses.  e.g. ADSL monthly costs remain the same until you use your quota for the month.  So that expense for the time being is fixed. (in true accounting and insurance terms it is viable)

Part II will go into systemizing this platform to maximize your resources.

John B. – Amplio Business Solutions

]]> http://www.ampliobusinesssolutions.com/business/organization/business-planning-platforming-systems-for-growth-part-i/feed/ 0 http://www.ampliobusinesssolutions.com/business/organization/starting-a-new-business-what-mindset-do-i-need/ http://www.ampliobusinesssolutions.com/business/organization/starting-a-new-business-what-mindset-do-i-need/#comments Sun, 19 Jul 2009 05:06:20 +0000 John Burkhardt http://ampliobusinesssolutions.com/businessblog/?p=163 Ah, where do you start with a new business.

You have ideas floating around your head, people giving you advice (some of which have never had a business in their life) and the more you think of it the more confused and demotivated you become.

We have all heard of the statistics, you know the ones about how many businesses survive etc.  The reality is you don’t want to focus on that, you need to focus on what the ones who do survive, prosper and grow are doing.  In nearly all cases:

Formal education is not a pre-requisite
They have a written concise and well thought out plan has been utilized
They have surrounded themselves with people they respect for mentoring
They have connected to local Church, Social, Sporting and Business networking groups
They are passionate about their product or services
They are willing to make mistakes and learn from them
They work with professionals in the finance, insurance, financial planning, accounting and legal sectors for quality advice
They monitor (not do) everything in their business.  They have their finger on the pulse of their business
They reward themselves
They crave knowledge and wisdom   and much more!
Now that you have that to think about, I’ll do more shortly.

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions