Images_Digital_Edition_September_2019

www.images-magazine.com KB BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SEPTEMBER 2019 images 43 The countdown to record- breaking results Marshall Atkinson says there’s still time to ensure that 2019 is your best year yet You are not a unicorn. Those same problems turn up in shops everywhere G uess what? 2019 is more than half over! How are you doing with the goals that you set back at the end of 2018? Crushing it? Almost there? Never got started? Lots of people get stuck or have underwhelming results. Some people start off strongly but then peter out as they realise that this industry is a marathon, not a sprint. Regardless of your performance so far, these next four months can have a tremendous impact on your year. How are you going to use them? Focus on teamwork Use your team. If you don’t have a team, get one. The most precious commodity you have is time. Yet, when I talk to shop owners and managers they all tell me that they don’t have enough of it. When we dig down into their day, they are spending a lot of their precious time doing things that they could hand off to someone else. Every minute you spend doing something that you hate, aren’t good at, or could delegate, is a minute of your day wasted. Do yourself a favour: chart how many minutes of your day you are using up on tasks like this. Is there someone on your staff who could accomplish any of those tasks for you? Is there an outsource partner that could do it? Maybe an app or some software? There are plenty of ways to get things done besides you slogging through it — and the results could be even better than if you handled it yourself. Then, you can spend that hour or three on something that really matters… growing your business. Have a psychological safety net Is your crew scared to speak up? Can they tell you that the ‘emperor has no clothes’ or suggest a better way of doing something? One thing that holds companies back is fear. To be more successful, sometimes you need to do things differently. So what happens when nobody wants to suggest something, or learn a new way of operating? Nothing. That’s the point. When you are in the conference room or out on the production floor and your crew can’t honestly open up about your challenges, then that is bad management and leadership. The best shops I’ve seen work together to solve problems. Their crews have the psychological safety net built where there can be discussions, debates and even arguments without recourse. This is how engaged teams operate. You need this freedom to explore crazy ideas. ‘What if?’ ideas don’t come out unless there is a safe place to stand. Instead, people simply keep their mouths shut. From now until the end of the year, what crazy ideas are being discussed with your team? If your answer is ‘nothing’, then think about how that translates to your growth. Think about the fundamentals One thing that holds a lot of shops back in their growth is their inability to consistently complete the standard, everyday tasks the same way. This is about process. The internet, and especially Facebook groups, are full of these challenges. ‘Why is my white ink bumpy?’ ‘How would you quote this…?’ ‘My customer called and they are upset because…?’ ‘I’ve been in business for five years and my sales are stagnant at…?’ These are all process-controlled areas for your business. When things go wrong, your shop has to take a step back to fix something. You are never going forward as fast, as you spend time, energy, and capital trying to fix something. What makes superstar athletes, professional chefs and other high-calibre people excel? Their understanding and practise of basic fundamentals in what they are doing. Do you want to finish stronger in the last few months of the year than the first? How are you on the standards? If you don’t know these things, what are you doing in an on-purpose effort to learn them? Take a minute and work on creating the processes you need to achieve success. Once this is in place, performance and expectations elevate. This is in sales, customer service, production, marketing, employee management, even hiring. You can do better. I know you know this. Track your metrics It’s not a secret. Metrics. Data. Numbers. Are you keeping these? Do you know your numbers? Are you even talking about what numbers to track and why they matter? Often the reason why we don’t get the results that we want is that nobody is benchmarking performance along the way. It’s not enough to set a goal. Goal setting is great, but if you aren’t charting your progress how do you know when, where and how to adjust? Is it any surprise that you don’t reach your goal? Let’s look at two examples here: ■ Learning something new For the sake of discussion let’s say your shop wants to learn a new technique to increase sales and have something different to offer your customers. This is the goal of a lot of shops. The number one predictor of success? Actually doing the work and failing. Shops that spend a lot of time learning how to print with waterbased ink or learning to digitise and embroider 3D puff on hats are actually more successful at it than