Tag: business strategy

Hiring Tips: to take your business to the next level

HIRE FOR THE FUTURE, NOT WHAT YOU NEED RIGHT NOW
Writing this as it came up yesterday in a session with a client that was asking me who they should hire to take them from $2m/yr to $5m/yr. When they started with me they were turning over $50K/mo and are now doing $200K/mo and 680 5-star reviews. They are at their next growth point and time for new skilled and experienced team members to take them to the next level.

Tip for environmental startups/scaleups looking for team members and interested in growth:

1. Make sure you hire someone that will help take you to your 1, 2, 3 yr vision. Always keep your vision front of mind when writing your job ads and interviewing candidates. Use your vision to excite the right person and use it to check each candidate against. Hire slow, fire quick. Too many businesses hire quick and fire slow and as a result lose valuable time (and money!) by going in the wrong direction or not achieving growth targets. Take time in hiring and testing candidates and get good at letting them go in a trial period as soon as your gut tells you they are not a good fit.

2. Hire for the tasks, skills and experience you need in 1, 2 or 3 years. Don’t just have the mindset you are hiring to fill the immediate role with the business in its current position and turnover. Think of the future especially if its a leadership role. What will your business need in 1 year? 2 years? 3 years?

Some candidates will be looking to just be doing the same tasks in 1, 2 or 3 years and nothing wrong with that but are they what you need? Will the requirements of the role change as you grow? What additional tasks will be added to the role? Additional pressures? Additional KPI’s? Additional skills? Are they motivated to help a business grow? Or are they adverse to change?

It takes time and money to get any team member up to speed and you can’t get more time in life so the lost time in not growing or going in the wrong direction can’t be regained – so don’t waste this by hiring someone that is not going to cut it after 1-2 years of growth.

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Hope this helps. Shoot me a message if you have any questions.

#businesstips #hiringstrongcandidates #businessstrategy #businessstrategies #hiringtips

200 5-Star Reviews, and charging more than competition!

Two Contrasts yesterday…which one are you?

I had great sessions with a couple clients yesterday. Both have important lessons to share.

Client 1:

Let’s call him ‘John’. When I started supporting him two years ago he charged $270 per call out. Yesterday he said it’s up to $675. He’s gone from around $300K/yr to $1.3m and I’m supporting him to reach $12-15m/yr.

Is this about just getting more dollars for nothing? Absolutely not!

He’s had the state manager of Google come and visit him because he has over 200 five star reviews!

John is obsessed, and I literally mean obsessed, about customer service and delivering 110%.

Making the customer happy is repeatedly encouraged and enforced with his team on a daily basis. His team are measured on 5 star reviews they get.

What is even more interesting is that his competitors always assumed he was beating them on price and that was why he was getting 5star reviews. There has been feedback they are really getting annoyed and scratching their heads now they know it’s not price! LOL

Client 2:

This client is helping import a new product from China that sells for $15K-25K.

This is around 30-40% cheaper than the competition and they are excited about this and guess what?

The price difference is their main selling point. They are pushing how much cheaper it is. And getting excited about this fact.

I had to burst their bubble. I see this quite a bit. A startup gets the idea that they can bring in a product far cheaper than the current suppliers.

Where’s the bubble?

The new startup has very low overheads.

In this case no factory or real fulltime staff. No marketing budget. No warehousing costs. No warranty repairs yet.

The competitor on the other hand has figured out that to pay wages, pay overheads, stay in business through the slow months, etc etc…they need to charge that 30-40% more. Make sense?

The other issue I have with undercutting the market is that it lowers price expectations with customers. It ruins it for everyone and costs us jobs.

Hence we are seeing so many stores close in Australia and jobs lost. We think about ourselves only and want cheaper cheaper cheaper, but lose sight of the real costs of this to others including the environment.

LOOKING FOR TIPS ON GETTING TEAMS TO HELP INNOVATE AND IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS?

Here are two of my strategies I use to help teams innovate to turn the business around or take it to the next level.

Staff and customers are fantastic sources for ideas on what to improve, yet many businesses don’t tap into these gold mines well.

1. Permission to fail.

When encouraging staff to suggest and try better ways to do things (that are not life threatening or financially crippling), make sure you give them permission to fail.

“Try it, if it doesn’t work, change it or try something else.”

It’s that simple. No big deal. Encourage your team to try new ideas they have.

The culture has to be one of giving permission to try.

I see so many teams frustrated and demotivated because they can’t implement their ideas. It is common to see morale turn 180 as soon as the team feel listened to and able to suggest ideas.

2. Ask customers for suggestions.

The trick here is to appreciate they can have a fixed opinion of what you can do.

They have put you in a ‘box’. Therefore you need to encourage them to think outside the ‘box’.

I will literally say something like, “if anything was possible, what features would you really love to see?”

Encourage them to forget what they believe you can offer, and to talk about what they would really love to have. Sure, some ideas will not be practical, realistic or feasible but in my experience, there is always at least one good idea that helps improve the business.

If they seem a bit stuck for ideas, ask them if there is anything your competitor does really well that they like.