July 18, 2022

11 simple proven ways to grow your small business

Source: Unsplash

11 simple proven ways to grow your small business.

The Audacious Unheard-of Ways I Took a Startup TO A BILLION IN SALES are not applicable to large businesses, they are also relevant to small businesses.

Here’s what one small business owner says:

”Every concept Roy touches on in ‘Audacious Unheard-of Ways’ can be used in small business. This is about a personal journey to success. Roy teaches you not just how to focus but where to focus, how to cut the CRAP, that there is greater value in looking ahead then behind, and how to build respect and get results with your staff in his Bear Pit sessions. And the list goes on. If you are a small business owner and you really want to differentiate yourself to achieve better results Roy tells you how. Ask yourself, do you want to be DIFFERENT or be dead?” — Daniel Boisvert, A DiFFERENT Entrepreneur and Notary Public, Delta Canada

In my experience, these 11 Moves will put your small business on an growth trajectory that will leave you speechless:

#1. Strategy — Get your strategy done FIRST!
Don’t start chase tactics until you have created your strategic context. My Strategic Game Plan—‘Head West’ planning method—will get you there by asking 3 simple questions:
✔️ HOW BIG do you want to be?
✔️ WHO do you want to SERVE?
✔️ HOW do you intend to COMPETE and WIN?

#2. Competitive advantage — Create the ONLY Statement.
Declare a clear separation between your business and your competition using my ONLY Statement—“We are the ONLY ones who…”

Avoid CLAPTRAP and ASPIRATIONS in your competitive claim — BETTER, BEST, #1, LEADER, PREMIUM, MOST COMPELLING, MOST RELIABLE, GREAT TASTING etc.

They are aspirations at best and offer little to define how your small business is different from others.

Examples of unhelpful claims

“Canada’s largest and most reliable 5G network.”

“(XXX) offers the best coffee and espresso drinks for consumers who want premium ingredients and perfection every time.”

“We work hard every day to make (XXX) the world’s most respected service brand.”

“We’re in business to save our home planet.”

“To inspire humanity – both in the air and on the ground.”

ONLY examples

“St John Ambulance is the ONLY First Aid Advocate that provides safety solutions anywhere, anytime.”

“Roy is the ONLY coach and advisor who offers The ONLY Statement as a practical and proven tool to create a competitive advantage for organizations and individuals.”

Rules for ONLY

▪️The ONLY Statement must speak to the experiences and value you create for people—WHAT THEY CARE ABOUT—not the products or services you want to push.

▪️Keep it BRIEF. It’s a sound bite not a narrative. If it consumes a page it isn’t a viable claim.

▪️Talk to the specific customer group—the WHO— you are targeting, not the market in general.

▪️TEST your ONLY statement with customers and employees to ensure it is relevant and true. Tweak it based on what you learn.

▪️Consider your ONLY statement a DRAFT. Revise it ‘on-the-run’ based on changing circumstances.

#3. Cravings — Discover what your customers ‘CRAVE’.
Competing on the basis of what people NEED, unfortunately, is not always a winning strategy. There are too many competitors in this space and people tend to be price sensitive.

’CRAVINGS’ is a category beyond NEEDS. It refers to what people desire, want or wish for as opposed to the basic thing they need to sustain their lives. Of course, the needs category continues to expand as new products, services and technologies continue to proliferate.

And, as THE major benefit, the CRAVINGS business has fewer competitors and is less price sensitive which means margins are higher.

#4. Feelings — Focus on the CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.
Don’t do like everyone else and focus on how cheap your prices are. People will soon forget about what they paid for a product or service, but they will NEVER forget about the experience they had when they bought it.

Develop your service strategy as the way of deciding on the level of service you want to deliver.

#5. Loyalty — Focus on rewarding your EXISTING LOYAL CUSTOMERS.
Avoid the common mistake of putting most of your energy into acquiring new customers  by offering them special promotional deals and other ‘goodies’ you don’t make available to the customers who have supported you for many years.

You can grow your business by getting current customers to refer you to others.

#6. Policies. — Simplify and ‘kill’ your internal rules and policies—DUMB RULES— that annoy your customers and threaten their loyalty.

#7. Stop doing stuff! — Eliminate projects and activities—CRAP—no longer relevant to your strategy.

#8. Frontline people. — Stay in touch constantly with the employees—FRONTLINERS—who deal directly with your customers, and get their input on what’s working and what’s not.

#9. Don’t delegate. — Micromanage the activities critical to the execution of your strategy. These actions—for example architecting what the ‘customer moment’ looks like—should never be delegated to anyone. They’re the role and responsibility of the leader.

#10. Hiring. — Recruit people who have the innate desire and ability to ‘take care’ of humans. You can’t deliver memorable customer experiences with employees who don’t ‘like” people.
Hire for GOOSEBUMPS.

#11. Strategy execution. — Ensure every employee understands their specific role in executing your strategy—LINE OF SIGHT LEADERSHIP.
Every employee needs to understand what new things they have to take on, new behaviours they have to learn and adopt, and what old things they need to give up.

Amazing business performance happens when all the simple actions are taken to ‘light fires’ in people and deliver pristine strategy execution.

If you follow these 11 Audacious Ways, you’ll be surprised how well you can sleep at night!

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 7.18.22 at 03:04 am by Roy Osing
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July 11, 2022

Holacracy has some serious problems. Here are 9 practical reasons why

While holacracy may be a really cool concept to some, it has some serious problems.

I was asked on Zoe Routh’s recent podcast show what my views were of holacracy as a way to manage a company.

Holacracy is a system for managing a company where there are no assigned roles and “employees have the flexibility to take on various tasks and move between teams freely”.

The organizational structure of a holacracy is rather flat, with there being little hierarchy.

Holacracy replaces the conventional management hierarchy with a new structure.
In holacracy, instead of operating top-down, power is distributed throughout the organization – giving individuals and teams freedom “while staying aligned to the organization’s purpose”.

It encourages individual team members to take initiative and give them a process in which their concerns or ideas can be addressed.

Proponents of holacracy argue that…
“it empowers team members to freely contribute ideas much like in an idea meritocracy. It is possible because employees from all levels are autonomous and are given the freedom to discuss ideas they believe will benefit the organization.”

Holacracy is a system that removes traditional managerial hierarchies “allowing employees to self-organize to complete work” in a way that increases productivity, fosters innovation and “empowers anyone in the company with the ability to make decisions that push the company forward”.

What I like about holacracy.

▪️Movement of people among teams can enhance employee experience and personal development.

▪️Empowering people can speed up the decision making process.

▪️Flat organization structures typically improve the strategy execution process with the removal of layers in the organization structure.

What my concerns are.

▪️ The concept looks good on paper but the challenge is how to OPERATIONALIZE the concept without reducing organizational effectiveness and performance.

▪️ The most appropriate structure for an organization should follow this process:

— What is the Strategic Game Plan?
— What are the fundamental processes to use to deliver the Game Plan?
— What organizational structure is best suited to the processes defined?

The structure chosen must be the most effective one to deliver the organization’s STRATEGY; structure shouldn’t be chosen for any other reason.

You simply can’t “empower anyone in the company with the ability to make decisions that push the company forward.”

In my world that’s a crazy notion :(

️ ▪️ Staying ALIGNED with the organization’s purpose is a major issue with holacracy; defining the ‘box’ for the teams to play in.

Rather than allowing employees to do their own thing, effective alignment between what people do and what the organization’s strategy says requires Line of Sight leadership to prevent dysfunction and to ensure the strategy for the organization effectively executed.

▪️ FOCUS. It’s all very well to have a structure that encourages new ideas but this has the potential for people to ’chase stuff’ —the possible many—rather than stick to the priorities—the critical few— inherent in executing the organization’s strategy.

▪️ EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT. To maintain executional focus, some employee’s new ideas will not receive attention which would damage the purpose of self directed teams.

▪️ Teams will COMPETE with themselves which is another version of internal SILO competition which can create dysfunction and loss of focus on strategy execution.

▪️ Teams have people with varying degrees of skills, competencies and experience. Decisions made by inexperienced teams could jeopardize the overall PERFORMANCE of the organization.

▪️ The delegation of traditional leadership responsibilities to numbers of teams has the potential of negatively impacting strategic leadership roles.

It could be a slippery slope to the ABDICATION of what leaders are there to do: create a high performing organization that executes its strategy brilliantly!

▪️Holacracy can be too INTERNALLY FOCUSED, impacting customer service. For this reason, Zappos has backed away (quietly).

Zappos executive John Bunch, who co-led the rollout of holacracy, has explained that the company, famous for its exceptional customer service, encountered some “big challenges” in its business metrics and sought to redirect employees’ focus back to the customer (an oft-cited criticism of holacracy is that it is too internally focused).

Like many gee-whiz organizational ideas, the holacracy notion marches to its own drummer rather than being an effective and helpful tool to execute strategy and build performance.

Organization structure should serve strategy and process. Period.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 7.11.22 at 04:12 am by Roy Osing
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July 9, 2022

Why a customer engagement strategy is critically important to your business

Why a customer engagement strategy is critically important to your business.

Businesses these days are realizing the importance of customer engagement and its effects on their overall success.

A customer engagement strategy is a plan to improve the relationships you have with your customers.

Customer engagement has a major impact on your bottom line. Happy customers will continue to do business with you and they are also more likely to recommend you to others.
On the other hand, unhappy customers are more likely to leave for your competition and they will also spread negative reviews about your business.

Check out the infographics below by GetVoIP that includes 6 clever customer engagement strategies to boost your customer loyalty and your business.

— Md Umar Khan is the SEO Executive at Wild Idea Marketing. He loves writing about marketing, entrepreneurship, and technology. In his free time, he loves to play video games.

• Posted 7.9.22 at 06:35 am by Roy Osing
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July 4, 2022

My 4 simple ways to be an audacious leader

Source: Pexels

My 4 simple ways to be an audacious leader.

‘Audacious’ = bold, courageous, controversial, contrarian, risky and edgy.

What does it mean to be an ‘Audacious’ leader?

When I talk about audacious leadership, I’m referring to these four principles that have proven to be essential ingredients for a high performing organization and A BILLION IN SALES.

#1. BE DiFFERENT!

Look for ways to be special and stand out from the crowd around you and be the ONLY ones who do what you do.

It’s the first principle of Audacious Leadership because being different from others in a way customers CARE about is essential for business survival and growth.

My observation is that even though the world has become fiercely competitive, organizations have not improved much at distinguishing themselves from their competition.

‘CLAP-TRAP’ DOMINATES!

Expressions still used to stake competitive claims — BETTER, BEST, #1, LEADER. PREMIUM, MOST RELIABLE, GREAT TASTING.

Examples:

“(Beverage company) offers the best coffee and espresso drinks for consumers who want premium ingredients and perfection every time.”

“We work hard every day to make (Card company) the world’s most respected service brand.”

ASPIRATIONS CONTAMINATE!

These are lofty helium-filled statements helium-filled claims at the 10,000 foot level that, as a competitive claim, are essentially meaningless because they can’t be proven and leaders can’t be held accountable for delivering them.

Aspirations have other value—as statements of intent—but to distinguish an organization from their competitors and make the buying proposition clear for potential customers, they’re not at all useful.

Examples:

“We’re in business to save our home planet.”

“To inspire humanity — in the air and on the ground.”

’ONLY CLAIMS’ are the solution

‘ONLY’ competitive claims The ONLY Statement to express an organization’s uniqueness.

“We are the ONLY ones who…” is the form of The ONLY. It is specific, understandable, binary and measurable.

Examples:

”The North Delta Business Association is the ONLY team that:
1. Links you to other businesses; 2. Connects you with experienced & knowledgeable people to help you lead & grow your business; 3. Constantly challenges you to do things differently.”

“St John Ambulance is the ONLY First Aid Advocate that provides safety solutions anywhere, anytime.”

“Roy Osing is the ONLY author, entrepreneur and executive leader who delivers practical and proven ‘Audacious Unheard-of Ways’ (no one else talks about ‘Audacious Unheard-of Ways’) to build high performing businesses and successful careers.”

“Roy is the ONLY coach and advisor who offers The ONLY Statement as a practical and proven tool to create a competitive advantage for organizations and individuals.”

RULES of ONLY

▪️PROCESS
✔️Choose the customers you intend to serve—your WHO.
✔️Define what they CARE about; what they CRAVE.
✔️Determine your top 3 skills and competencies.
✔️Match what the WHO cares about with your skills and competencies.
✔️Draft your ONLY.

▪️TEST your ONLY
✔️ Is it compelling and relevant? — does it accurately express what the WHO craves?
✔️ Is it TRUE — do they believe you actually deliver on the statement consistently?

▪️Never include PRICE in the statement.

▪️Keep it BRIEF. Your ONLY is a sound bite that consumes a few lines, not a narrative consuming a page. If it looks like an essay it isn’t a viable claim.

▪️ONLY must speak to—target—the specific CUSTOMER GROUP you are targeting, not the market in general.

▪️Your ONLY is a DRAFT which is always susceptible to change given the unpredictability and dynamics of the markets you play in.
Take your almost-there only statement and start using it as your competitive claim.
Experience how effective it is in competing and getting business. Refine it as you go. And stay alert for a response by a competitor who may suddenly come awake when they see your move.

#2. EXECUTE!

The key to execution is to have a PLANNING PROCESS designed to execute, as opposed to one that tries to create a perfect plan—which doesn’t exist.

Most organizations spend 80% of their time on creating a perfect plan and 20% on how to execute it in the real world.

The Strategic Game Plan

My process, the STRATEGIC GAME PLAN process—SGP—is designed to produce a workable game plan quickly so execution could begin as soon as the plan is complete. It typically requires a 2-day investment to complete an effective SGP.

The SGP process answers 3 questions:

How BIG do you want to be? — This is your top line revenue goal over the next 24 months (remember, 5-year plans aren’t terribly helpful to drive execution). The answer to this question also determines character and risk of your plan.

WHO do you want to SERVE? — Which customer groups have the potential to deliver your 24-month revenue target?

How will you compete and WIN? — How do you intend to win your WHO given the competitive alternatives available. This is where The ONLY Statement as discussed above forms the answer to the question… “We will compete and WIN by being the ONLY ones who…”

Other Execution Moves

▪️Assign a Strategy Hawk to oversee plan execution.
▪️Cleanse the Inside of the organization of obstacles to getting stuff done — Dumb Rules and CRAP.
▪️Focus on and support the frontline.
▪️Hold leaders accountable for establishing direct Line of Sight between the plan and the role of each employee .

#3. SERVE!

A common definition:
“Servant leadership is a leadership style and philosophy whereby an individual interacts with others—either in a management or fellow employee capacity—to achieve authorityrather than power.”

My view of serving is that it isn’t about achieving authority at all, rather it’s a STRATEGIC ACT to improve the effectiveness of executing the organization’s Strategic Game Plan.

It’s a means to THAT end.

I discovered that one of the first approaches to get leaders in the workplace—Management by Wandering Around—didn’t go far enough in terms of using employee input to improve the performance of the organization.

I took it further by practicing what I introduced as Leadership by SERVING Around—LBSA—designed to HELP people not merely report on what I saw them doing.

The essentials of LBSA:

▪️It’s based on asking employees “HOW CAN I HELP?”.
▪️It’s a PERSONAL question, not an organizational one.
▪️It’s an enabling process to allow people to do their jobs easier and more effectively and to eliminate barriers—Dumb Rules—to customer satisfaction. I would ask “What’s preventing you from saying ‘Yes’ to customers?”

#4. DO-IT-YOURSELF!

DIY leadership is all about what I call ‘strategic micromanagement’ where a leader decides, based on the strategic importance to the organization, where they need to jump into the details and micromanage.

In my experience, leaders delegate too much to the point with some it simply becomes abdication of their responsibilities. Leadership dogma says that leaders should stay out of the details and let people do their jobs, and so they do exactly that regardless of the strategic consequences of their delegatory actions.

There are certain areas where leaders must wade into the water, take charge and ‘get wet’.

The execution of the organization’s strategy should be the primary focus of the DIY leader. If execution fails, performance falls and strategic goals don’t get met. I can’t think of a more important area where a leader needs to get personally engaged and leave their fingerprints.

Audacious leaders NEVER delegate the stuff relating to the execution of their strategy.

These are a few specific activities that I personally took on; they formed the platform of my weekly calendar:

▪️Communicating the Strategic Game Plan of the organization.
▪️Architecting the Customer Moment; what the customer engagement process ‘looks like’.
▪️Auditing the organization to see if its values are being practiced consistently.
▪️Performing the role of the Strategy Hawk to ensure that our strategic game plan’s objectives were met.
▪️Personally getting involved in interviewing candidates for Frontline Management positions to ensure the right ‘people lovers’ were hired into customer contact roles.

Audacious leaders are DIFFERENT, they focus on EXECUTION, they SERVE people and they’re masters at DIY.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 7.4.22 at 04:25 am by Roy Osing
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