Comments on: What makes your business perform at its best? http://blog.abn.org.au/grow-your-business/what-makes-your-business-perform-at-its-best Business networking, education, mentoring, inspiration and resources to help women start, manage and grow a business. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:24:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Virginia Jackson http://blog.abn.org.au/grow-your-business/what-makes-your-business-perform-at-its-best/comment-page-1#comment-6023 Virginia Jackson Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:19:13 +0000 http://blog.abn.org.au/?p=725#comment-6023 In the last 6 months I have introduced the following changes to grow our business: 1. Weekly billings target rather than a monthly target - amazing what a difference it has made to the bottom line. 2. I get into the office at 8am every Friday and spend that hour finalising our invoices for the week. It means they get done! 3. Committing to at least 15 minutes a day to work on the business. Its very hard to find an excuse not to do the 15mins. Its amazing how that time adds up. I do it right before lunch and often find I have worked right through lunch (which is fine by me). 4. We got a graphic designer to design us a beautiful report template. It looks great but I cannot believe how it has boosted our credibility amongst our clients and external stakeholders. 5. The really boring part of the business is keeping track of the repetitive things that need to be done infrequently (less frequently than once a month). I am in the process of developing an annual calandar of activities to keep track of everything that needs to be monitored. 6. We have commenced the process of moving to a paperless office. This has not been easy and the staff have taken some convincing but its saving us $1K a year in storage costs and is already making a big difference to the ease with which we operate - eg not having to lug big files around.
In the last 6 months I have introduced the following changes to grow our business:
1. Weekly billings target rather than a monthly target – amazing what a difference it has made to the bottom line.
2. I get into the office at 8am every Friday and spend that hour finalising our invoices for the week. It means they get done!
3. Committing to at least 15 minutes a day to work on the business. Its very hard to find an excuse not to do the 15mins. Its amazing how that time adds up. I do it right before lunch and often find I have worked right through lunch (which is fine by me).
4. We got a graphic designer to design us a beautiful report template. It looks great but I cannot believe how it has boosted our credibility amongst our clients and external stakeholders.
5. The really boring part of the business is keeping track of the repetitive things that need to be done infrequently (less frequently than once a month). I am in the process of developing an annual calandar of activities to keep track of everything that needs to be monitored.
6. We have commenced the process of moving to a paperless office. This has not been easy and the staff have taken some convincing but its saving us $1K a year in storage costs and is already making a big difference to the ease with which we operate – eg not having to lug big files around.

]]> By: Stacey Barr http://blog.abn.org.au/grow-your-business/what-makes-your-business-perform-at-its-best/comment-page-1#comment-5970 Stacey Barr Tue, 26 May 2009 21:53:15 +0000 http://blog.abn.org.au/?p=725#comment-5970 Being a measuring and tracking specialist I'd have to put this at the top of my list! I measure the results I want to achieve, and stay focused on improving those results, not getting distracted by ideas or opportunities just because they look interesting. They have to support my goals! But also important is my business plan, which makes it very clear what end results are important to me and worthwhile measuring (And, it's not all about profit either! I track leads, sales, customer satisfaction, personal productivity and more). I have a "plan on a page" that reminds me constantly of my goals, my measures and my key projects to achieve them. I also outsource a lot of my admin and routine tasks to virtual assistants. So now, for example, my website earns me an income from information products and I do nothing because it's all automated and outsourced. But this means I know what my business processes are, the steps invovled, and have written them up as instructions which makes it easy to outsource (and easy to find ways to streamline how we do them too). These bits are only boring if you don't understand why they matter - when you see them working for you (freeing up your time, earning more income, making your customers rave about you) then it's quite exciting!
Being a measuring and tracking specialist I’d have to put this at the top of my list! I measure the results I want to achieve, and stay focused on improving those results, not getting distracted by ideas or opportunities just because they look interesting. They have to support my goals!

But also important is my business plan, which makes it very clear what end results are important to me and worthwhile measuring (And, it’s not all about profit either! I track leads, sales, customer satisfaction, personal productivity and more). I have a “plan on a page” that reminds me constantly of my goals, my measures and my key projects to achieve them.

I also outsource a lot of my admin and routine tasks to virtual assistants. So now, for example, my website earns me an income from information products and I do nothing because it’s all automated and outsourced. But this means I know what my business processes are, the steps invovled, and have written them up as instructions which makes it easy to outsource (and easy to find ways to streamline how we do them too).

These bits are only boring if you don’t understand why they matter – when you see them working for you (freeing up your time, earning more income, making your customers rave about you) then it’s quite exciting!

]]> By: Danielle Stein Fairhurst http://blog.abn.org.au/grow-your-business/what-makes-your-business-perform-at-its-best/comment-page-1#comment-5968 Danielle Stein Fairhurst Mon, 25 May 2009 03:22:34 +0000 http://blog.abn.org.au/?p=725#comment-5968 Hi Suzi, Plum Solutions provides specialist training and consulting in Financial Analysis, and most people book on public courses via the website. At the moment, the system is semi-automated, so that bookings are automatically entered into the database, but the invoicing needs to be done manually. This was fine initially but now that I'm getting busier, it's is quite a lot of work! My web designer, www.blackbirdsolutions.com.au is currently working on automating the whole system and I can't wait! I've also got an online course currently which is automated, but the marking is done manually which is a read headache. He's also working on getting that completely automated and I'm working on getting more of the courses online. Hoping this means I'll be able to continue to manage without much in the way of support staff; so far so good!
Hi Suzi,

Plum Solutions provides specialist training and consulting in Financial Analysis, and most people book on public courses via the website. At the moment, the system is semi-automated, so that bookings are automatically entered into the database, but the invoicing needs to be done manually. This was fine initially but now that I’m getting busier, it’s is quite a lot of work!

My web designer, http://www.blackbirdsolutions.com.au is currently working on automating the whole system and I can’t wait!

I’ve also got an online course currently which is automated, but the marking is done manually which is a read headache. He’s also working on getting that completely automated and I’m working on getting more of the courses online. Hoping this means I’ll be able to continue to manage without much in the way of support staff; so far so good!

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