You will learn how to build your confidence so that you can increase your leads, how to increase your profit margin, and how you can make your business a nicer place to work. In addition to the 5 Step DRIVE for business program that we understand in the previous episode, this week I get to test you out by giving you actions after each step to help you get your very own growth plan together. In the show notes below, I repeat the actions that I talk about after each step in this episode, we have also included a link below where you can get...
You will learn how to build your confidence so that you can increase your leads, how to increase your profit margin, and how you can make your business a nicer place to work.
In addition to the 5 Step DRIVE for business program that we understand in the previous episode, this week I get to test you out by giving you actions after each step to help you get your very own growth plan together.
In the show notes below, I repeat the actions that I talk about after each step in this episode, we have also included a link below where you can get your hands on a copy of the ebook as well.
Here we go! :-
Step 1. Why Grow Your IT & Tech Business?
Action: Take an A4 Sheet of paper and on it write down WHY you started your business? What was the reason, the purpose, FOR YOU? Then note down WHAT winning looks like for you and what you want to get out of growing your business – Is it more spare time? Is it flexibility or is it more money to invest elsewhere?
Step 2. Defining Your Business Purpose
Action: Take another A4 sheet of paper and make some notes and have a good think about your ultimate business purpose. What are your values? What are your products and your solutions? Who are you fixing with those products and services? Then look at your structure, your organisation and people and check to see if they all align to enable excellent customer service and efficiencies.
Step 3. Who Do You Actually Help?
Action: Your action for this page is to make a note of your key clients with whom you have a great relationship and that you can just phone up over the next week. Schedule it out day by day and ring them. Call them and ask them how they are and if there is anything you can do to help them. Ask them about THEIR Business and then match their issues to your solutions.
Step 4. Connecting with Your Clients
Action: Your action for this page is to make a note of your key clients with whom have a great relationship and that you can just phone up over the next week. Schedule it out day by day and ring them. Call them and ask them how they are and if there is anything you can do to help them. Ask them about THEIR Business and then match their issues to your solutions.
Step 5. Know Your Numbers
Action: Your action in this section is to take your top FIVE costs and your top FIVE Clients and have a look at each one of them. Identify ways to decrease each cost and increase the value and potential income in the weeks and months ahead.
Step 6: Plan Out Your People
Action: The key thing here is to sketch out your organisation chart. Colour in the people that are good and worth developing, and colour in (in a different colour) the ones that require additional support and development. Then highlight the critical ones that you class as risks. Immediately put together a People Plan to mitigate your risks and develop your team.
Step 7: Be Accessible
Action: Make a list of how people can get hold of you and your business and what issues they can help your customers with. Is it via your website, e-mail, telephone, post or even messenger bots? Then look at how reliable those systems are and who mans them when you are not around. Understand your pinch points and deal with any issues.
Step 8: Work Your Plan
Action: Let's test this out. Take a relatively complex plan that you are working on right now and break it down into smaller tasks over the course of the next two or three weeks. Identify what you want to achieve each week and of those weekly tasks, what you want to achieve each day. Look at that plan every morning when you get up and see how you get on.
Step 9: Your Business on One Page
Action: Take an A4 sheet and identify what key elements you could measure in your business, i.e., cash in, cash out, number of new clients, number of client presentations, advertising, marketing etc. Map this out over the next six months and monitor on a monthly basis whether you had a good or bad month. Don't make it too complicated though and focus on revenue-generating tasks!
Step 10: Rinse, Review and Repeat
Action: Now is your time! Make sure that you plan your strategic thinking time on a monthly basis, schedule it in your diary whether it be during the week or over the weekend to review your business performance. Have an honest look and see what you could have done to make it better, to make it more efficient, and to make it more profitable. Then make actions, assign owners and agree when to follow up progress.
Guest Details
To contact Ian, feel free to e-mail him at info@innovatetosuccess.com
Links and Resources
If you are looking to scale your IT / Tech Consultancy Business and don't know where to start, then check out our IT Experts Growth Academy Group on LinkedIn - a collaborative and safe environment to learn the foundations to IT and Tech Business Growth - click here to request access - https://goo.gl/weymKj
You can also download the e-book by clicking this link - http://tiny.cc/ITE-Ebook19
Quotes
You IT and Tech business owners are absolute brilliant technical people and you love doing the technical side of the work, that's why you got the business that you got. Now, the thing that you need to look and work on is working ON your business rather than IN your business. – Ian Luckett
