Read the 7 Pillars to Building a Better Business

‘Seven Pillars’ Provide Foundation for Improvement

The company is called Your Business Your Future, and they want to help you build a better business for yourself. Their program, The Seven Pillars of a Better Business, will be presented by SIPA in London on Tuesday, Oct. 11. Even if you are here in the States, it’s worth it to read the Seven Pillars below and get an idea of what it’s all about. It’s a good primer for any kind of improvement.

1. It’s up to you! Your business looks and feels the way it does today, and has the opportunities and challenges it has today, because it’s yours. So, if you want a better business, become a better leader. That reminds me of travel advice I once heard from Rick Steves on radio. Someone called in and said that he thought by visiting a far-off place, he would put the world behind him and adapt to that place, but it didn’t work. Steves laughed and asked what the common denominator was between home and that far-off place. “You,” he said. “You still bring all of your ‘stuff’ with you. It’s hard to change that but you can get better.”

2. Know what you want. Ensuring that your business enables you to achieve what you want personally creates clarity, focus and energy. I’ve also read in more than one place that it helps to write down your goals.

3. Become a strategist. Working on your business, rather than in it all the time, is key to releasing its full potential. Edward Hess wrote about this in his book, Growing an Entrepreneurial Business. “…growth requires the entrepreneur to plan for more growth, to put in place new and better processes, and to be constantly upgrading processes and resetting priorities… Entrepreneurs in my study found that they had to be disciplined in getting away from their businesses for short periods of time to think and plan.”

4. Know where you’re going. If you have an inspiring vision of the future you want, and a plan of how to get there, you’re much more likely to achieve it. This pretty much lines up with number two.

5. Stick to the knitting, and stand out from the crowd. Remarkably, 88% of high growth businesses succeed by selling more of their existing products/services to their existing customers, and others just like them. The first time I heard this popular quote I wondered why everyone should be knitting, especially if we aren’t good at it. But now you hear it often, and it makes a lot of sense; it’s also theme 6 of Peters’ and Waterman’s In Search of Excellence.

6. Master the (right) numbers. What gets measured, gets done. So, knowing your numbers and defining your key measures is vital to success. Many businesses equate growth with increased revenue when it’s really increased profit. Taking less “low-margin work” might be a good start.

7. Build a better team. It’s what your people DO that defines what your business actually becomes. So, if you want a better business, build a better team. “When confronted with impending growth, entrepreneurs often panic and hire employees too quickly, making snap decisions based on little data,” wrote Hess. “…They made much better hiring decisions when they learned to hire against a competencies and cultural scorecard; conduct multiple interviews; have multiple people interview prospects; hire on a trial basis; establish mentors for new employees; develop a good on-boarding process; and encourage good employees to make hiring referrals.”

If you’re in the U.K., you should definitely look at signing up for this one-day workshop. “It made me stop and look at the business clinically and develop a really robust plan,” said David Reed, chief executive of Prestige Purchasing. And if you’re in the States, maybe we’ll be able to bring it here at some point. Stay tuned.

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SIPA UK’s Business Owner’s Workshop:
The Seven Pillars of a Better Business
With Insights from 600 of the UK’s most successful owner managers
Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011, at 8.00
Telephone House
69-77 Paul Street
London
Sign up today!

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