Are their “bums” the right shape for the seats?

By this I mean, who is on the bus with you?

We often think of being in business as exciting, rewarding and liberating!

The dream of setting your own hours, demand a fortune for your goods and services, have a team of staff who know exactly what to do, when to do it and who never make mistakes. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to take long holidays overseas, not being told what to do by anyone and living the life, just like Richard Branson I suppose.…

It’s all just so easy, isn’t it?

 Truth be told, for every business person like Richard Branson there is another 10 Million who aren’t doing it so effortlessly…

Human beings, we are all very different and we each have our own unique personality traits, strengths, weaknesses, qualities and flaws.

Being professional is all about managing this ‘varied bag’ of tricks by working to your strengths or engaging your emotional intelligence to manage your weaknesses.

The idea of a team is to engage the strengths (experience) of the group and to apply each of their strengths to a task that maximises those individuals’ talents in that area.

Most experts believe that we generally have a mix of the following character traits..

• Dominant
• Supportive
• Communicative
• Attention to detail

We tend to use the personality trait that serves us best in different situations…

Here are some examples…

Some people are great at organising others and themselves …they make great supervisors, managers and leader

Other people are fantastic and managing a budget, putting together a new TV and setting it up, these people make great book keepers and administration staff

Some people love to talk and socialise, perfect for the front desk, customer service or sales.

Finally someone who cares about the wellbeing, welfare and happiness of others makes a great supervisor, counsellor or trainer.

When we look at employing or engaging a;

• Business partner
• general manager
• line manager
• supervisor
• sales person
• operations
• customer service
• finance
• from desk
• accounts receivable
• marketing executive
• cleaner

It is important to know that the role you need filled, is matched to the person you are considering filling it…

The two insurance executives…

I remember hearing the story about the two insurance executives who made a fortune for the company they worked for (and a small fortune for themselves) and thought they could do so much better for on their own, so they both quit and set up a business in East Perth and they both sat in their office, looking at their beautiful surroundings, admiring themselves.

After 6 months of sitting around, which is what they never did when they worked for the insurance company, they hadn’t built a list of new clients, their previous clients stayed with the insurance company, the money had run out, they went bust and eventually went back working for the man.

The problem was that as sales reps for a big company, they were brilliant, as business owners, they forgot what made them successful, both of them did, so nothing got done.

The admin /receptionist

A colleague of mine owned a business down south and they advertised for a receptionist, administration staff member.

They interviewed some candidates and employed a person immediately. That person was working for around a week and the phone was never being answered, the customers were complaining about the girl on the front desk and the paperwork was piling up!

When she was finally confronted and asked “why was the phone not being answered, did she have an issue talking with customers at the front desk and why was the paperwork not filed away?” her response was… “if I had known I had to do all those things that I hate, I would never have taken the job!”

The estimator employed to save 10% on COGS

When a position came up for an estimator, an experienced estimator was poached from the opposition, the toughest commercial builder in the state. She was recruited with the goal of reducing costs of client builds by 10%, this would make a significant improvement to the number of jobs won and the profitability of the business. 6 months into the role, non of the costs had really changed, when asked “what was happening in relation to the strategy of reducing costs. The response was “I’m not good at confrontation and I prefer to do things via email” there goes that plan out the window…

What to do when creating a role and filling that role

How do you get the right people on the business bus with you?

When looking at filling a new role or replacing a person that has left from an existing one, think first about;

• Do we need to replace?
• Could we create a better role for the business?
• Could we amalgamate some roles?
• Could we outsource this function?
• Understand what the role is and what skills are required?
• Could we systemise the role and replace the position with a junior?

When I took over as state manager of Mayne Pharmacy, the team appeared to be stuck in the 1950’. Everyone had their own little office, they came in at 8.29AM, shut their door, did who knows what and then bang on 4.59PM they had packed up and were out the door…

I replaced a state business development manager, P/A secretary and a numbers analyst with a 21 year old, paying her $25k. I had just saved the business around a quarter of a million dollars annually.

I have the 21 year old, create the reports I needed on a daily basis, covering the topics I needed on a weekly basis, to know what was happening to improve the performance of the business. She was great, got it done, never complained and the business was able to make informed decisions on where it was heading, sales and profit went through the roof!

• Define what the business needs
• Clarify the roles required
• Advertise correctly to attract the right person to the role
• Train the up and keep them happy

 If you would like help in defining what your business needs, understanding the roles required, how to advertise correctly to attract the right candidate and to them keep them, but you don’t know where to start…we can help!

At ABC Business Improvement we have or are assisting builders, tradesmen, retailers, restaurants, wholesalers, manufacturers, professional service providers like accountants, lawyers, pharmacists, dentists, importers/ exporters and we can assist you too!

At ABC Business Improvement we will organise a meeting where you will;

–         Uncover the challenges you are facing

–         Define a path to overcome them

 –         Create a first step plan to move forward

 –         Gain a sense of excitement and relief, knowing where you are going

Be one of the first 5 to contact us this week and we will organise a ‘bums on seats’ strategy session today…