Your omputer systems should do two things:  1) help you get the job done and 2) provide useful management information that underpins decisions. For instance, in a project tracking system, recording the status of each project and the date that it changed can create a simple traffic-light system that shows at a glance where things are going awry. Extrapolating from the specific to the general: All businesses can be thought of as a series of flows and balances (or pipes and buckets if you prefer). Management information tracks the speed of these flows, the volume of flow and the level in the buckets.  Examples of flow volume are number of new enquiries per day, value of invoices issued per month or, in my client’s case, projects completed per week.  Examples of flow speed are average project duration, sales lead-time or quote turnaround time.  Examples of levels are debtors, or quote bank, or cash in the bank. Every part of your business can be thought of in this way....

Business owners tend to look shifty when leadership comes up in the conversation.  They don’t see themselves as leaders – even though they are. Leadership doesn’t mean they have to suddenly become Napoleon or Gandhi, but it might help them to understand what leadership looks like and do the things that leadership requires.  The quality of the leadership will to a large extent decide the scalability of a business. Google returns over 244 million pages when you search for “leadership books”.  Amazon returns over 60,000 titles.  The subject has been fascinating people for thousands of years.  We all know it when we see it, and recognise when it is absent, but a practical, implementable definition remains elusive. The development of leadership thinking and research over the last few decades can be summarised as: First, people started by examining leadership traits Leaders were born Certain traits recurred, like intelligence, empathy, confidence However, the traits u...

 Goering allegedly once said  “When I hear the word culture I reach for my revolver” . I’m a bit like that.  When business owners talk about culture, I know that I’m in for a platitude-strewn conversation.  I’d put a small bet on the words “customer-focused” appearing within the next few sentences. Too many business owners seem to see “culture” as something to be implemented, like a new accounts package.  They see it as a some kind of mantra, developed in a couple of faintly embarrassing employee workshops facilitated by some bloke in a suit, or perhaps beard, sandals and pullover, and trotted out whenever the need arises. So…tick…done the culture.  Got the pictures on the wall (cue stirring slogan and glossy image of man climbing mountain, or the Red Arrows).  What’s next on the list? In fact, culture is what it feels like to be an employee, and by extension, what it feels like to be a customer, of your organisation. What  do  you think it f...

Do you think your business could be more productive?  How important to you is improving the productivity of your business?  When did you last take action to significantly improve productivity?  When did you last measure the productivity of your business? I'm guessing the answer to most of these questions is "Errrr..." If the average UK SME achieved the average productivity of larger UK businesses then it would double its output per head. Double. Its. Output. Per. Head. What do you think doubling turnover without hiring any more people would do to your profitability? Wouldn't you like to be able to grow your business without having to fight to find new employees and, if you can find any, paying them inflation-busting salaries? Perhaps after all you should pay a little more attention to the productivity of your business. To help you, here is an ebook that explains how business owners can improve the productivity of their business.

Delegation is the single most important skill for a business owner to master (discuss). That makes it depressing that so many business owners are pants at it.  Here are some excuses and reasons I’ve been given with my responses – feel free to add your own: My employees will make mistakes.   Of course they will.  That’s how you learned.  Support them so that they don’t make big mistakes I do not have the right staff, they are not up to it.   From experience I suggest that this may be the case, but probably isn’t.  Employees’ performance usually reflects their manager’s capability.  Leaders understand that people live up to (or down to) their leader’s expectations. It is quicker to do it myself.   Well, it might take you an hour to show someone else what takes you five minutes – but if you don’t invest that hour you will still be doing it yourself in one year or ten years It’s cheaper to do it myself.   This is clearly nonse...

How well do you run your business? Research by HBR 1 shows that many managers (and by extension, business owners) are unable to judge objectively how well or poorly their business is run. In fact, the research found zero correlation between self-perceived management quality and actual performance. The same report finds that only 6% of businesses are well run, and that the difference between them and the worst-run businesses equates to 25% in growth rate and 75% in productivity. Of course, you are probably one of the 6% - aren't you? Just think about those figures. Take a modest business (say £1m turnover, 10% net margin, 5% annual growth) and assume the owner is in the middle of the pack (12.5% potential improvement in growth, 37.5% potential improvement in productivity). Over 5 years, the gap is over £200k of net profit. £40k per year. Just for getting the basics right. No fancy strategy or miraculous new product required. Curiously, the same skewed perceptio...

There are two critical elements to running a scalable business:  People and Numbers. We know that a scalable business is one where the owner focuses on developing the capability, capacity and accountability of employees.  But you need numbers to do that. If you want to delegate properly you must delegate the responsibility for a business result - not a task.  To do this, you need a clear, agreed definition of success and this is almost always a number. If you want to develop employees you must develop their business understanding, commercial awareness and ability to plan.  All of these things require conversations and coaching based around numbers; what they should be, what they actually are and what needs to change to close the gap or improve. If you want employees to consistently succeed by achieving their number then what is delegated must be a repeatable, teachable, measurable process. Some business owners think applying numbers to managing employees will be ...