The diner dilemma
The restaurant business is getting much more competitive. Not only are you competing against other restaurants, now you must also compete against the supermarkets and the much improved quality of their ready-made meals. Once a potential diner has chosen the restaurant route, they are faced with the choice of “stay-in or takeout”. It is not until this point that they are actually ready to choose a restaurant. Many diners will then go online to see what is available. Some go to online restaurant directories; some look for a particular restaurant’s website – if they have one. The point is, diners need a reason to choose your restaurant tonight and it is a tricky business standing out from the crowd.
Improving your odds
As the above example shows, there are two things you can do to improve your odds. First, ensure you offer both the eat-in and takeaway option. We have an Indian restaurant for a customer. His restaurant holds about fifty people. Forty percent of his business however, comes from doing takeaways. Second, make sure you have an online presence. In this day and age, a website is must. My opinion is that having your menu listed on someone else’s website has a place, but what you really need is a website of your own. You want a place to tell your story, to build your brand the way you want it and most important of all, a place from which to build a customer database.
Marketing, marketing, marketing
A website however will do you little good unless you market it. Again, every takeaway meal you make is a marketing opportunity for your restaurant. By putting your website’s address on your menu and adding promotional material in each takeaway bag, reinforces your brand and improves diner loyalty. This means they will choose your restaurant more often.
Convenience is king
Finally, customers want convenience. This is where online ordering fits into the picture. A well presented website that enables diners to order their meal online is a compelling reason to choose you. What could be better than just before leaving the office, you place your order for tonight’s supper online? By the time you get off the train, your delicious meal is there waiting for you.
So what’s the verdict? Takeaways, combined with a self branded website, an online ordering system and ongoing marketing will definitely add value to your restaurant. They will also give diners a compelling reason to choose your restaurant more often, spend more each time and enable new customers to find your more easily.
All the best
Barry Larson
http://www.orderwizard.co.uk
Better systems for your business™
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Patents and SMEs
Good morning everyone. I was recently asked about the value of patents for SMEs. I thought this may be a topical questions, so today’s blog is my input into the subject.
Definition
Let’s begin with a simple definition of a patent, and I apologise in advance for the jargon. A patent grants a temporary monopoly to the “claim(s)” it discloses. The claims explain the implementation of the idea and its scope. The activities in the patent may be performed by a person or corporate body in relation to a product or a process within the scope of the claim(s). In other words, the person holding the patent tells the world that if you do these three steps in this particular way, you will get a specific result. And by the way, if you do want to do these steps, you need to speak with me first, at least for 20 years.
3 elements needed to create value
All of this sounds great, but like all things, there is a trade-off. Primarily, this comes in the form of the time and money required to secure the patent – typically £100k – and then the prosecution and defence of the patent once it is granted. All three of these components need to be in place or the patent has little real value.
Claims strategy
Another key point is that the patent itself must support your business strategy. Patents that don’t do this are a waste of money, especially for an SME. As you consider how a patent could support your business strategy, keep these three themes in mind as your develop your claims strategy.
· First, ensure your claims cover the most commercially important part of the invention.
· Second, draft the patent to support your licensing strategy (i.e. design the product so that the highly novel elements are included into a single or few component(s)).
· Third, ensure you disclose and claim the complete process.
Seek professional advice
If my legal jargon so far hasn’t prompted you, let me do so here. Seek professional advice. I recognise that £100k is a lot of money, but if patents are a key supporting element to your business strategy, trying to save a few pennies on legal fees is a false economy.
Barry’s view
So where does all of this leave you. Well, if you are an SME with a hot new technology that will be the core revenue stream for your business, then by all means, consider patenting and consider how the drafting of that patent will maximise your idea’s commercial value. If this is not the case, I personally would find it hard to justify the investment.
A final thought
As I highlighted at the outset, patent law is a complex issue. You should seek professional advice to assess your personal situation. My goal is writing this blog, is to give you some insights that will help make that discussion more productive.
All the best.
Barry Larson
http://www.arbutusridge.co.uk
Better systems for your business™
Definition
Let’s begin with a simple definition of a patent, and I apologise in advance for the jargon. A patent grants a temporary monopoly to the “claim(s)” it discloses. The claims explain the implementation of the idea and its scope. The activities in the patent may be performed by a person or corporate body in relation to a product or a process within the scope of the claim(s). In other words, the person holding the patent tells the world that if you do these three steps in this particular way, you will get a specific result. And by the way, if you do want to do these steps, you need to speak with me first, at least for 20 years.
3 elements needed to create value
All of this sounds great, but like all things, there is a trade-off. Primarily, this comes in the form of the time and money required to secure the patent – typically £100k – and then the prosecution and defence of the patent once it is granted. All three of these components need to be in place or the patent has little real value.
Claims strategy
Another key point is that the patent itself must support your business strategy. Patents that don’t do this are a waste of money, especially for an SME. As you consider how a patent could support your business strategy, keep these three themes in mind as your develop your claims strategy.
· First, ensure your claims cover the most commercially important part of the invention.
· Second, draft the patent to support your licensing strategy (i.e. design the product so that the highly novel elements are included into a single or few component(s)).
· Third, ensure you disclose and claim the complete process.
Seek professional advice
If my legal jargon so far hasn’t prompted you, let me do so here. Seek professional advice. I recognise that £100k is a lot of money, but if patents are a key supporting element to your business strategy, trying to save a few pennies on legal fees is a false economy.
Barry’s view
So where does all of this leave you. Well, if you are an SME with a hot new technology that will be the core revenue stream for your business, then by all means, consider patenting and consider how the drafting of that patent will maximise your idea’s commercial value. If this is not the case, I personally would find it hard to justify the investment.
A final thought
As I highlighted at the outset, patent law is a complex issue. You should seek professional advice to assess your personal situation. My goal is writing this blog, is to give you some insights that will help make that discussion more productive.
All the best.
Barry Larson
http://www.arbutusridge.co.uk
Better systems for your business™
Thursday, 22 November 2007
Too cool for school
I was reading the November 18th, 2007 Sunday Times business insert entitled "Enterprising Britain" and saw the article called "Don't be too cool for school". The article was written by David Molian, visiting fellow at the Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurial Performance and Economics at the Cranfield School of Management. At the end of the article, David asked readers to join the debate through the Timesonline website. I felt so compelled by the topic that today's blog is my input into this debate.
Sunday Times Blog
I have always been skeptical about business schools. It wasn't until my first entrepreneurial empire collapsed that I realised pure energy would only get me so far. I needed some legal, financial and marketing skills. As a result, I completed a bachelors degree in business. As I climbed the corporate ladder, I saw how those base skills made my presentations, pitches and ability to deliver more effective, so I did an MBA. The challenges I face in business are rarely solved by the "textbook answer". However, the tools I learned at uni give me a framework in which to think about and resolve those challenges. If I had to sum it up, I would say there are three parts to business success: training, practice and practical experience. Business school give you the first two. Work the last.
Regards,
Barry Larson
http://www.arbutusridge.co.uk/
Better systems for your business™
Sunday Times Blog
I have always been skeptical about business schools. It wasn't until my first entrepreneurial empire collapsed that I realised pure energy would only get me so far. I needed some legal, financial and marketing skills. As a result, I completed a bachelors degree in business. As I climbed the corporate ladder, I saw how those base skills made my presentations, pitches and ability to deliver more effective, so I did an MBA. The challenges I face in business are rarely solved by the "textbook answer". However, the tools I learned at uni give me a framework in which to think about and resolve those challenges. If I had to sum it up, I would say there are three parts to business success: training, practice and practical experience. Business school give you the first two. Work the last.
Regards,
Barry Larson
http://www.arbutusridge.co.uk/
Better systems for your business™
Friday, 16 November 2007
Keeping on top of your timesheets
Hello everyone. Today’s topic is the important question of timesheets and billable hours. Important because your company’s income could depend on how well you manage your timesheets and billable hours. You know there really might be something you can do to improve your billing system. But it's so easy to put off to some more convenient time to deal with!
Typical billing system
A typical billing system goes like this.
The person responsible for collecting the billing information sends a memo round on Friday reminding staff to send in their timesheets. By Monday or so, staff have duly filled in a paper form or Excel spreadsheet with a list of dates, hours, job and customer. The admin person then collates these hours against the bill for each job. This gets multiplied by the hourly rate and, hey not very presto, you get your bill for labour, which you invoice to your clients.
We find a number of problems with the traditional approach:
Billing accuracy
If you have weekly timesheets you tend to forget bits of time, which means you bill less than the full amount.
Also, staff tend to “adjust” time after the event. They record the time they think the job ought to take rather than the time it actually does take. You have little idea of the real costs of each job you take on. It also makes it difficult to price quotations.
For accuracy, record your hours at least daily. Ensure you capture the previous day’s hours by a set time the following morning.
Even better, you can invest in some time recording software that records the hours as you go. You set the stop watch as you start work on that job and switch it off when you pause or move to another job.
Repeated data entry
With traditional timesheets, the admin person has to re-enter all the details a second time and possibly a third time on the actual invoice. Each time they reformat and collate the information. They also must make sure that tickets are entered under the correct and consistent headings. In many cases, they need to refer back to the original staff member to be able to categorise the ticket. This is very time-consuming.
We suggest, at the very least, you adopt formalised timesheets, where staff members select from lists of recognised customers and job items. Excel allows you to do this using drop-down lists in the relevant cells.
A more powerful approach is to setup a CRM, or Customer Relationship Management system for your company. This acts as your company database. The system allows you and your staff members to record tasks and billable time against each of your customers.
A CRM system doesn’t have to be expensive. Indeed, Business Contact Manager comes bundled with certain versions of Microsoft Office and can handle billable tasks in this way. A CRM system should be a worthwhile investment. It also provides you with valuable sales and marketing support as well.
Analysis
Electronic billing and CRM systems also enable you to analyse your billable hours. Perhaps more importantly, they allow you to track time that couldn’t be billed. Generate reports of billed time and unbilled time against customer, job and staff member, when costing a job. The analysis ensures you don’t underprice or overprice the job. It also helps you allocate tasks to the appropriate personnel and use your staff most efficiently.
This kind of analysis is very hard to do with traditional timesheets.
Moving to the next stage
The next step is to review your current time recording arrangement. Decide on how you want to replace it in a formal company-wide system. Also decide on your goals for that system.
Establish the rules you want you and your staff to follow. Make the rules rigorous enough for you to achieve your goals. But ensure they are acceptable by all staff, because you will have to enforce these rules for the system to work properly.
For that reason, you may decide on a staged approach for your billing system. Put the basic infrastructure in place and get the staff using it. Once the basic system is running smoothly, start introducing the specific rules.
Now choose the software you are going to use. This might be Excel spreadsheets, a CRM system, a time management system, specialised company management software or a combination.
The new system will require setting up. The amount of setup obviously depends on the sophistication of the system you decide to adopt.
Finally, plan the implementation and roll-out. There should be a period where you are running your existing systems in parallel to the new. You want to be quite sure the new system is running smoothly before switching over, to avoid system failure during transition.
The other major pitfall is the new system doesn’t get used for real, at all. Therefore set a “D” Day for the switch over. After that day no-one must use the old system.
Friendly advice
Arbutus Ridge works with smaller companies in improving their IT systems and business processes. This includes billing systems. Why not give me a call for a friendly chat about your systems? We might to be able to provide some useful pointers.
Happy billing!
Francis Candlin
http://www.arbutusridge.co.uk/
Better systems for your business™
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
What makes a great IT service partner?
Good morning everyone. I recently attended an event on brand identity. The speaker was the global brand manager of a well known professional services company. After spending millions of pounds, he came to the same conclusion as me: a brand is created by each customer's experience with the company.
His research also matched my belief about what customers expect from a great professional services company. This blog highlights these three key expectations.
First, customers want suppliers to invest time with them and to really understand their business challenges.
In an effort to cut costs, many IT suppliers have standardised everything and hoped you fit into one of their boxes. The penny pinchers out there love this idea because it takes cost out of your operation. However, as a customer, this approach leaves you feeling like “I am just a number”. When I designed Arbutus Ridge’s customer experience, I built no less than three face to face visits with each new customer into the process. I believe it takes that investment of time to truly understand the challenges you face and to design an IT system that meets your immediate business goals.
Second, customers want suppliers to proactively suggest improvements.
Similar to the first point, many IT suppliers claim to work with you. The truth however, is that with a “cookie cutter” business model, it is not in their best interest to do so. The less time they spend with you, the more money they make from your monthly service fee. Equally, if your IT supplier only does something when you ask for it, you are justified in thinking they are hardly being proactive. The Arbutus Ridge team makes regular contact with our customers. We have a brief chat about the projects they are working on and where they are experiencing bottlenecks. More often than not, the system they have can be modified to solve the bottleneck with very little effort. Best of all, there is usually no additional fee for our proactive approach to helping you get more value from what you already own. For me, being proactive means helping you even when there isn’t an invoice attached to doing so.
Third, customers want suppliers to use all of the resources at their disposal to create value for them.
Many IT suppliers focus on what they deliver and not much else. The idea of bringing in a partner organisation is only considered if they can make a margin on it. Some people might think this is a good idea, but if I was the person paying for the service, I would not be too happy to learn that a solution to my problem existed, but my IT supplier didn’t tell me about it because there was nothing in it for them. Arbutus Ridge is a small and growing company. We are more than happy to recommend third parties who are better placed to help you. That is of course what being a trusted IT partner is all about. In addition, despite our size, we have an unusually large international network. Within our team, we speak 5 languages and we have relationships with partners around the world whom we can call on for help with your project. If you need it, we will make the call.
The Result
If these are the three things customers of IT/professional services want, what are they actually buying? The answer is remarkably simple: Confidence in their IT decisions. It’s worth noting this is very different from off-loading your IT system risk to a third party. These discerning customers want to be in control of their business and to know the decisions they take are good ones. Arbutus Ridge’s Jumpstart™ IT Service packages are designed to do exactly that.
So where does this leave us. If you want a trusted IT partner who understands you, is proactively helping you and has access to a wide range of expertise, please feel free to contact me for a chat. You never know what we could discover.
Regards,
Barry Larson
http://www.arbutusridge.co.uk
Better systems for your business™
His research also matched my belief about what customers expect from a great professional services company. This blog highlights these three key expectations.
First, customers want suppliers to invest time with them and to really understand their business challenges.
In an effort to cut costs, many IT suppliers have standardised everything and hoped you fit into one of their boxes. The penny pinchers out there love this idea because it takes cost out of your operation. However, as a customer, this approach leaves you feeling like “I am just a number”. When I designed Arbutus Ridge’s customer experience, I built no less than three face to face visits with each new customer into the process. I believe it takes that investment of time to truly understand the challenges you face and to design an IT system that meets your immediate business goals.
Second, customers want suppliers to proactively suggest improvements.
Similar to the first point, many IT suppliers claim to work with you. The truth however, is that with a “cookie cutter” business model, it is not in their best interest to do so. The less time they spend with you, the more money they make from your monthly service fee. Equally, if your IT supplier only does something when you ask for it, you are justified in thinking they are hardly being proactive. The Arbutus Ridge team makes regular contact with our customers. We have a brief chat about the projects they are working on and where they are experiencing bottlenecks. More often than not, the system they have can be modified to solve the bottleneck with very little effort. Best of all, there is usually no additional fee for our proactive approach to helping you get more value from what you already own. For me, being proactive means helping you even when there isn’t an invoice attached to doing so.
Third, customers want suppliers to use all of the resources at their disposal to create value for them.
Many IT suppliers focus on what they deliver and not much else. The idea of bringing in a partner organisation is only considered if they can make a margin on it. Some people might think this is a good idea, but if I was the person paying for the service, I would not be too happy to learn that a solution to my problem existed, but my IT supplier didn’t tell me about it because there was nothing in it for them. Arbutus Ridge is a small and growing company. We are more than happy to recommend third parties who are better placed to help you. That is of course what being a trusted IT partner is all about. In addition, despite our size, we have an unusually large international network. Within our team, we speak 5 languages and we have relationships with partners around the world whom we can call on for help with your project. If you need it, we will make the call.
The Result
If these are the three things customers of IT/professional services want, what are they actually buying? The answer is remarkably simple: Confidence in their IT decisions. It’s worth noting this is very different from off-loading your IT system risk to a third party. These discerning customers want to be in control of their business and to know the decisions they take are good ones. Arbutus Ridge’s Jumpstart™ IT Service packages are designed to do exactly that.
So where does this leave us. If you want a trusted IT partner who understands you, is proactively helping you and has access to a wide range of expertise, please feel free to contact me for a chat. You never know what we could discover.
Regards,
Barry Larson
http://www.arbutusridge.co.uk
Better systems for your business™
Saturday, 6 October 2007
Why do business systems matter?
Hello everyone. Today I thought I would cover a topic that is of interest to many small business owners – why do business systems matter? Most of us think about systems in terms of complicated IT projects that rarely deliver what they are suppose to deliver. Whilst this is true in some cases, there are reasons we persevere to make these things work. Here are three of the best reasons for wanting to get the most from your business systems.
1. You start a business to sell it
Whilst it is great to enjoy going to work every day, the time will come to exit the business. There are couple of ways to do this, but most people hope to sell the company for as much as possible. If that sounds like you, think about how much your business is worth if it can’t operate without you being there – not much. Ultimately, it is your business systems that allow you to automate the decisions and processes that enable the company to operate when you aren’t there. And as a result of good systems, your cash-flow is more robust, predictable and bankable, which means your business is worth more.
2. Create more time for yourself
There is an old adage that you should work harder “on” your business than “in” your business. Working “on” your business means creating solid plans from the information your systems are giving you, developing your people and finding new opportunities. Working “in” your business means doing operational tasks that can and should be delegated to your team. My last blog highlighted 3 things you can quickly do to create more time for yourself. Time you can choose to enjoy with your family or to work “on” the business. And for some people, the best part of those tips was that no IT was required! If you want to read these tips, go to my “3 top time saving tips” blog.
3. Enable your business to grow
Another way to ensure you get the most value from the sale of your business is to design your systems to make you scalable. By scalable I mean the business’ growth is not constrained by operational bottlenecks. Ask yourself, if your wildest dreams came true and you doubled the size of your business this year, could you cope. If the answer is no, it’s time to start system planning.
As you probably guessed, all 3 of these reasons demonstrate why integrated systems make good sense. Achieving this however, is not easy for an SME. Software vendors suggest their products will solve all of your problems. Whilst this sounds great in principle, the reality is often much different. The reason is pretty simple. Software is designed to meet a specific need, whether it is accounting, sales or warehouse management. To succeed, each supplier has had to specialise in a particular area. They also have a commercial interest in keeping their system self contained, thereby locking in the customer. Your business however, does not work that way, and neither do integrated systems.
Unfortunately, the resources and skills required to do this integration are often only available in large companies. As a result, SMEs don’t do it and simply “make do”. Sound familiar? Arbutus Ridge is different because we like to build integrated systems that meet the needs of owner managed companies. And we don’t try to force you to buy a bunch of kit you don’t need. In particular, we specialise in making independent software applications work together for you. We also train your team on the best way to make these systems deliver results. If you are interested in discovering what you could be doing to get better system, please let me know.
Regards,
Barry Larson
http://www.arbutusridge.co.uk/
Better systems for your business™
1. You start a business to sell it
Whilst it is great to enjoy going to work every day, the time will come to exit the business. There are couple of ways to do this, but most people hope to sell the company for as much as possible. If that sounds like you, think about how much your business is worth if it can’t operate without you being there – not much. Ultimately, it is your business systems that allow you to automate the decisions and processes that enable the company to operate when you aren’t there. And as a result of good systems, your cash-flow is more robust, predictable and bankable, which means your business is worth more.
2. Create more time for yourself
There is an old adage that you should work harder “on” your business than “in” your business. Working “on” your business means creating solid plans from the information your systems are giving you, developing your people and finding new opportunities. Working “in” your business means doing operational tasks that can and should be delegated to your team. My last blog highlighted 3 things you can quickly do to create more time for yourself. Time you can choose to enjoy with your family or to work “on” the business. And for some people, the best part of those tips was that no IT was required! If you want to read these tips, go to my “3 top time saving tips” blog.
3. Enable your business to grow
Another way to ensure you get the most value from the sale of your business is to design your systems to make you scalable. By scalable I mean the business’ growth is not constrained by operational bottlenecks. Ask yourself, if your wildest dreams came true and you doubled the size of your business this year, could you cope. If the answer is no, it’s time to start system planning.
As you probably guessed, all 3 of these reasons demonstrate why integrated systems make good sense. Achieving this however, is not easy for an SME. Software vendors suggest their products will solve all of your problems. Whilst this sounds great in principle, the reality is often much different. The reason is pretty simple. Software is designed to meet a specific need, whether it is accounting, sales or warehouse management. To succeed, each supplier has had to specialise in a particular area. They also have a commercial interest in keeping their system self contained, thereby locking in the customer. Your business however, does not work that way, and neither do integrated systems.
Unfortunately, the resources and skills required to do this integration are often only available in large companies. As a result, SMEs don’t do it and simply “make do”. Sound familiar? Arbutus Ridge is different because we like to build integrated systems that meet the needs of owner managed companies. And we don’t try to force you to buy a bunch of kit you don’t need. In particular, we specialise in making independent software applications work together for you. We also train your team on the best way to make these systems deliver results. If you are interested in discovering what you could be doing to get better system, please let me know.
Regards,
Barry Larson
http://www.arbutusridge.co.uk/
Better systems for your business™
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
3 Top time saving tips
Hello everyone, here is a little thought for the day.
For busy small business owners “Plan your escape now. If your business depends solely on you being there, no one will want to buy it when you retire.”
As business owners, it is easy to get stuck into working in your business and not spending enough time working on your business. As a result, when I started thinking about this blog, I wanted to give you some practical steps that did not require a huge IT investment. In fact, you can implement these steps without changing any IT at all. So here you go.
Top Tip Number 1 - Schedule your time off
Taking a break is a low risk way to see how robust your business systems are. Before you go however, here are some things to keep do in advance.
- Document what you do
- Plan who will cover what responsibilities while you are away
- Prepare a set of instructions for your team to follow and get them to record their actions
- Brief them before you go
- De-brief them on your return and evaluate the results.
An added bonus may be that by using the new systems you have set up for your break, you will be able to delegate some of your current workload – a break without taking a break.
Top Tip Number 2 - Delegate one of your current tasks
Think of something that you are doing regularly now. Ask yourself, “Am I really the only person who can do this task?” Write down the steps you take and share them with a member of your team. Ensure the actions are clear so that you and your team can track what is actually happening. Go through it a couple of times until they can do it on their own.
Top Tip Number 3 - Empower your staff to take on aspects of your role
As owners, we get nervous about what happens when a new customer contacts us. This is partly because we never seem to happen enough and partly because of the investment we make finding them in the first place. However, whilst you may not want to surrender complete control, your team can at the very least deal with the initial enquiry and setup a meeting for you. You can then take over. Having a standardised script available with the click of a mouse will go a long way to helping remove this pressure. This tip ensures you have excellent communication between you and your team which leads to a seamless customer experience.
You could put all 3 tips into action in the next 60 minutes if you wanted. Of course, to be scalable and more robust, means putting a little more thought into the process. It may also require a little outside help. This is what Arbutus Ridge is all about – helping you manage your business through the use of better IT and business processes. That's why we created our Jumpstart IT service packages: to meet the needs of today’s small but yet growing businesses like yours. Business who are increasingly looking to integrate their office's contact management, email management, automated accounting, marketing intelligence, remote working and internet commerce.
In any event, I hope these tips help you as you think about designing your business to meet your personal goals. As part of Jumpstart, Arbutus Ridge offers a variety of IT and business related services to help streamline your operations. Interested? Then by all means get in touch!
Regards,
Barry Larson
http://www.arbutusridge.co.uk/
Better systems for your business™
For busy small business owners “Plan your escape now. If your business depends solely on you being there, no one will want to buy it when you retire.”
As business owners, it is easy to get stuck into working in your business and not spending enough time working on your business. As a result, when I started thinking about this blog, I wanted to give you some practical steps that did not require a huge IT investment. In fact, you can implement these steps without changing any IT at all. So here you go.
Top Tip Number 1 - Schedule your time off
Taking a break is a low risk way to see how robust your business systems are. Before you go however, here are some things to keep do in advance.
- Document what you do
- Plan who will cover what responsibilities while you are away
- Prepare a set of instructions for your team to follow and get them to record their actions
- Brief them before you go
- De-brief them on your return and evaluate the results.
An added bonus may be that by using the new systems you have set up for your break, you will be able to delegate some of your current workload – a break without taking a break.
Top Tip Number 2 - Delegate one of your current tasks
Think of something that you are doing regularly now. Ask yourself, “Am I really the only person who can do this task?” Write down the steps you take and share them with a member of your team. Ensure the actions are clear so that you and your team can track what is actually happening. Go through it a couple of times until they can do it on their own.
Top Tip Number 3 - Empower your staff to take on aspects of your role
As owners, we get nervous about what happens when a new customer contacts us. This is partly because we never seem to happen enough and partly because of the investment we make finding them in the first place. However, whilst you may not want to surrender complete control, your team can at the very least deal with the initial enquiry and setup a meeting for you. You can then take over. Having a standardised script available with the click of a mouse will go a long way to helping remove this pressure. This tip ensures you have excellent communication between you and your team which leads to a seamless customer experience.
You could put all 3 tips into action in the next 60 minutes if you wanted. Of course, to be scalable and more robust, means putting a little more thought into the process. It may also require a little outside help. This is what Arbutus Ridge is all about – helping you manage your business through the use of better IT and business processes. That's why we created our Jumpstart IT service packages: to meet the needs of today’s small but yet growing businesses like yours. Business who are increasingly looking to integrate their office's contact management, email management, automated accounting, marketing intelligence, remote working and internet commerce.
In any event, I hope these tips help you as you think about designing your business to meet your personal goals. As part of Jumpstart, Arbutus Ridge offers a variety of IT and business related services to help streamline your operations. Interested? Then by all means get in touch!
Regards,
Barry Larson
http://www.arbutusridge.co.uk/
Better systems for your business™
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