The goal is not efficiency. The goal is productivity. Completing a process that doesn’t need to be done at all, efficiently could be wasting your business thousands of dollars. Here are a few real life examples of efficient processes that waste money. Hiring Process If you are hiring and firing employees at a high rate, you are absolutely losing money. If you have an efficient system that brings in 10 new hires a month but you are losing 10 employees monthly because there is no system for retention. You are losing potentially $80-$100,000 a month. Even though your hiring system is efficient. The cost of recruiting, on-boarding, training and then removing, covering for and retraining an employee are high. One study shows the cost of losing an employee to be ~$8,000. Other studies indicate the cost of employee turnover to be in the tens of thousands of dollars per employee. This is especially true in the skilled fields and managerial roles. Even slight improvements in this area will yield significant financial gain and improved morale. Creating a repeatable system that ensures you hire well, train and on-board for the right fit employee so that they stay with your company saves 10’s to 100’s of thousands of dollars. Invoicing Utilizing effective systems to invoice clients automatically always pays off in dividends. This is one area I see the most that owners hold on to. The owners have become efficient at creating and sending invoices such that they spend no more than 4 hours a month on this process. However it usually happens on quiet weekend mornings or in the evening while watching TV. While that may not seem like a big deal, it is cutting into deep work and personal time. Creating a system that can be automated such that you are paying software to invoice and follow through on payments can bring the cost down to a negligible amount. Creating a system that a bookkeeper can implement brings the cost to $140 month for 4 hours at $35/hour. If the owner remains involved and they bill at a rate of $300/hour (that is typically a low amount for what the owner can bring into the company) the cost is $1200/month. You are losing approximately $1,000 a month on this task alone. Client/Lead Followup Again, if we imagine that the owner of the company bills at $300/hour, which is low, they may create an ‘efficient’ process that allows them to complete follow-up in just 1 hour a day (~25 hours a month or $7,500). Many owners enjoy this process as it keeps them in front of new potential clients and existing clients. However, this efficient process could be implemented by an administrative assistant bringing the cost down to $1,250. Parts could be automated or eliminated and the cost could be under $500 a month. Report Creation This one is easy to overlock because the workarounds seem so small and inconsequential. And, if you don’t know the tools you are using, you may think that solving the problem is more difficult than it really is. Your Goal - Have the information in hand to see what invoices are paid (or not). In the example below, there is a 10x cost savings to automating the process (in the example, that savings is $9,161!!)
A deep dive into your systems and processes will always yield a high return. Not sure where you stand? Let’s chat. Schedule a 15 minute CEO Call here.
0 Comments
I have invested in the Frequent Flyer program with Southwest Airlines. I applied for the credit card and receive points for shopping. In this situation, being a frequent flyer has served me well and I love the dividends. Flying with Southwest, I have structure, I know what to expect and I am served with consistency. Flying is good.
Flying by the seat of your pants, outside of an airplane? This frequent flyer plan not only doesn’t yield great dividends, it can easily end up costing you a LOT in time and money (and your sanity). These are the excuses that I hear for business owners who are part of the frequent flyer club: 1 - I don’t have time to create systems 2 - I can’t afford more help 3 - I love the novelty of new ideas Let’s look at each one. Systems, contrary to the feeling of dread you feel when you read that word, are a big part of the structure that your business needs to thrive. I get it, you have built your castle successfully without out them (or with few) but a well documented system can save you jet planes full of time and money in having a repeatable, easy to follow process, that provides a consistent experience for the customer and frees you up to do the work that you love (that brings in the bigger dollars). Use a Hit by the Bus System. This is a system that is so well documented that even if you were hit by a bus it could be implemented easily. (Join in the Systems Masterclass on April with Jen Hickle) Money: Early in your business, it made sense that you were bootstrapping tasks to help you grow to your next level. But there comes a point of critical mass (critical mass is like in the movies when the thing begins to generate energy itself rather than be fed energy) where if you are still doing tasks that you could be paying others for to do faster, more efficiently and better then you are not yet a Momentum Business Owner and you are still in the frequent flyer club. Doing the payroll at midnight happens because you have not yet set aside a few hours of time to find and hire an appropriate person to do this job and free you up to (again) work in your unique brilliance. Where is is this showing up? Where else are you using money as the excuse for not finding and hiring the right person for the job? Novelty: I get it. All the entrepreneurs that I know at 7 figures are visionary. They love new ideas. However, the ones that have really hit their stride in success have picked Just One Focus to put their energy towards. They are not bored because they are using their unique brilliance to make this Just One Focus blossom. Instead of being frustrated that they never quite get where they want to go, they have the accomplishment of seeing success and then tackling a different aspect or a new project that will give them that thrill again. What is your Just One Focus that you could get behind and stop the flying by the seat of your pants club? If you are ready to ditch your Frequent Flyer Card, join me in the Momentum Business Association. It’s a group of entrepreneurs and business owners, just like you, who have already built their castle and are ready to make it operate to serve them and their kingdom best. And, it’s a complimentary benefit of being part of MY domain. Join here: CreatingMomentumProgram.com/Club Ready to find out how you can take your business to the next level of success, operating efficiently and reclaiming your time? Let’s chat. You are an entrepreneur. Your days are long. You are hustling to make things work. You have lots of ideas and not enough time (or energy to do them). When you complete a goal it is such a high and you love when the business is rolling in but it can be feast or famine. You are often creating something new. Sometimes you forget about the tools and systems you already created. Things are moving so fast.
There are times when you feel like, "Geez, I thought I would have this figured out by now.” or “Life was just easier when I was working for someone else. Maybe it’s time to throw in the towel.” I get it. I hear you and I have been there myself. It’s embarrassing to say. I am an organizer. I am time management and productivity coach. And yet, keeping up your energy, momentum, organization, time management and productivity as an entrepreneur. It is completely different when you do it for yourself. So much information is out there about how to manage your time, structure your day, set and reach your goals. But, most if it is directed to people who work for someone else. And that is not you. You have the responsibility of not only implementing the vision but creating it too. You aren’t just using the systems you are creating the systems. You are creating the structure in your day, your business, your life AND you are trying to be creative within that structure. It’s hard, time consuming and tiring. No wonder there are times you want to just throw in the towel. There is another way. You not only desire something different, your business and life depend on it. What if you could wake up and know what to do every day? What if you knew that every day you were moving towards and taking action on the biggest goals? What if you had a mechanism for getting the ‘clutter’ out of the way to focus on the most important work? What if you could be supported in a community of people that are all also in the same boat, rowing together towards a common destination? (I like to think of this as the most fabulous island getaway that has everything you ever wanted) What if you could not only SEE the Vision but know how to break it down to make it actionable? What if you could learn a framework that worked for entrepreneurs just like yourself to provide structure and the space to be creative at the same time? It is absolutely possible, entrepreneurs just like you are doing it every day. They are reaching their goals and doing it faster than they imagined. They are gaining clarity, focus and the support of a community they knows just what it’s like to be an entrepreneur. And you can, too. I was in the same place as you are now. I had a successful business and yet was feeling more and more burnt out. Things were going well but they took so much energy to operate and I was getting tired. What I had created was great for a smaller business but it wasn’t scalable to reach the biggest heights I wanted to reach. And then I figured it out. What I do takes me 5 minutes every day to plan AND with another 15 minutes to implement. I am consistently taking action on my goals. That’s it. Less than the time of 1 Netflix tv show, daily. Starting March 17, I’ll teach you how to do it, too. All you need to do is sign up to participate in One Focus 30 Days. The information you need is right here: CreatingMomentumProgram.com/Challenge At the end of November, I spent 5 days in Nashville at Funnel Hacking Live with Clickfunnels. It was an amazing conference and in that time I gained a lot of clarity around the Momentum Programs. I came home ready to implement these changes as quickly as possible because I want you and others to benefit as quickly as possible :-) You may have already seen some of the program name and graphics changes. There will be more. My plan is to quickly implement now and make changes along the way. I hope all of this makes things less confusing, more accessible and of greater value. Here are the highlights so far and I welcome you to respond with any questions, celebrations or suggestions. Big Change #1 - You have a new club that was built and designed for YOU! The Momentum Business Association is for Visionary Entrepreneurs to come together, share resources, make connections, gain clarity, focus, find support and accountability. Your membership is complimentary and you can access it here: CreatingMomentumProgram.com/Club Big Change #2 - I have created a clear path for you to continually receive the support you need to grow your business. It's easy to feel alone as an entrepreneur. There's no big boss anymore to hold you accountable to the vision you have in your mind. This graphic, hopefully, visually explains how you can receive support in the Momentum Programs. Big Change #3 - The Momentum Masterclass Series is now available LIVE in the Momentum Entrepreneur Club. Next week, Frank Demming will be joining us to share HOW to Select the Correct Source of Traffic for Your Business without guessing. March 13, 12pm EST. Frank IS the Local Business Marketing Guy. You do not want to miss his course. If you think you might, sign up for Insiders and you have access to his class and every class in the series along with the Creating Momentum Program, CEO Secrets and MORE! Big Change #4 - One Focus 30 Days a BRAND NEW 30 Day Challenge is coming to YOU and starting on March 17. BUT... you are going to want to get in now and SIGN UP! You are the very first to see this opportunity and I cannot wait to support you to reach your big goals. 30 days to focus in and get it done!
Learn More HERE & Register. |
AuthorBeing an entrepreneur and business owner is hard! Once you have your business up and running it's not uncommon to hit a few snags: scalability, staff retention, launching growth projects, getting enough sleep! Archives
November 2021
Categories
All
|