Introduction
Self help books
all have one thing wrong with them. They expect you to do it yourself. But there
is a reason for that, it is the only way that works. This booklet is designed
to make you complete each section as you go through. You can skip bits if you
have a particular problem, but I strongly recommend reading the whole thing
through at least once.
Good luck in
marketing your place,
Karen Fainges
PS If you are
thinking whether or not this book is worth worrying about, just go through the
index. I have called it a checklist because you can just run your finger down
the list and see what I recommend. If there is even one thing that looks
interesting, get it. Just one thing made Henry Ford a household name, (mind you
that one thing was automation.)
WORKING
OUT WHERE YOU WANT TO GO
WORKING
OUT WHAT YOU HAVE (Parts of your Office)
- MANAGEMENT
- STAFF
- AUXILIARIES
- INTERMEDIARIES
- CUSTOMERS
- PAPERWORK
HOW TO USE WHAT
YOU HAVE
MANAGEMENT
- MANAGE BY
WALKING AROUND
- BALANCING TIME
TO TALK, THINK AND ACT
- MAKING REPORTS
MAKE SENSE
- TRAINING AND
WORKING WITH IDEAS
STAFF
- A FUND OF USEFUL
INFORMATION
- LET THEM KNOW
WHERE YOU WERE AND WHERE YOU'RE GOING
- WHAT ARE THEIR
GOALS
- PROBLEM-SOLVING
AUXILIARIES
- GET TO KNOW THEM
- LEARN TO DO IT
PROPERLY
INTERMEDIARIES
- OPEN A TWO-WAY
- GET THEM IN ON
THE ACTION
- BOTH OF YOU MAKE
MONEY
CUSTOMERS
- REALISE THEIR
IMPORTANCE
- GIVE THEM EVERY
CHANCE TO GIVE YOU MONEY
- KEEP THEM WISE
AND HAPPY
PAPERWORK
- FOLLOWING THE
PAPER TRAIL
- ASKING WHY WHAT
WHO
- SYSTEMISE/
COMPUTERISE
THE FOUR P'S
PRICE
- EXPLAIN YOUR
PRICE
- ENSURE ALL
DISCOUNTS ARE RECEIVED
- ENSURE ALL EXTRA
BENEFITS ARE RECEIVED
- DESIGN SOME
LOCAL EXTRAS
PLACE
- IMAGE
- FUNCTIONAL
- CHARACTER
PRODUCT
- PRESENTED
(TYPED)
- EXPLAINED (Keep It
Short & Sweet)
- AFTER SALES
SERVICE
- ADAPTABLE
PROMOTION
- COUNTER -
SERVICE
- INFORMATION
- CURIOSITY VALUE
- INDUSTRY - LINK
IN
- NEWSLETTERS
- ADVERTISING -
LOCAL IMPORTANCE
- RESPONSE
MEASURES
- RESPOND
Every now and
then, every one looks around their office and thinks that there must be a
better way of doing things. Then things get busy again and they never have a
chance to actually do anything about it. This booklet is a way of setting aside
the time to do something. It is not a ready reckoner for success. It will not
lead you by the hand. What it will do is give you the chance to look at every
part of your operation and adapt it to what needs to be, not what has just
seemed to happen.
WORKING OUT WHERE YOU WANT TO GO
The first part of
change is to find out where you want to go and, even more importantly, how to
know when you get there. There are a great many Guides To Goal Setting (see
bib) and almost as many distinct ways to go about it. One thing that all
writers agree on though, is writing them down.
SETTING GOALS
Every child is
asked, "What would you like to be when you grow up?" For such a
common question, very few people take it seriously. It is the same in business.
People sit and daydream but never actually make their ideas concrete. The
easiest way to do this is to do a SWOT analysis. This lets you look at your
businesses Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats and make some
decisions based on what is really out there. Quite often people tend to be
negative goal setters, i.e. I am fat therefore I will lose weight. It is
important to highlight strong areas as well, i.e. I have a great personality.
The easiest way to explain how to set goals is to do it.
Exercise One
First write down
your strengths, the things the business excels in. To start with write them
down as you think of them, then arrange them in order of importance. One
example is a great staff/customer relationship.
STRENGTHS
|
1 |
1ST |
|
2 |
2ND |
|
3 |
3RD |
|
4 |
4TH |
|
5 |
5TH |
Then do the same
for your weaknesses. (Perhaps an overlong processing time.)
WEAKNESSES
|
1 |
1ST |
|
2 |
2ND |
|
3 |
3RD |
|
4 |
4TH |
|
5 |
5TH |
Opportunities are areas
in the marketplace that are opening up i.e. a Motor Registration office opens
up next door.
OPPORTUNITIES
|
1 |
1ST |
|
2 |
2ND |
|
3 |
3RD |
|
4 |
4TH |
|
5 |
5TH |
Last, but not least
is the threats to your business, outside forces which will have a strong impact
on what you can get away with i.e. AAMI opens up next door.
THREATS
|
1 |
1ST |
|
2 |
2ND |
|
3 |
3RD |
|
4 |
4TH |
|
5 |
5TH |
Now you are in a
good position to start setting your goals. Take each area in turn and think how
you can use that to get where you want to go. Some will be obvious, if one of
your strengths is that you can gain a new customer a week, then 52 new
customers a year is not unreasonable. You have to ask if that is enough though.
Look into how you are getting those new customers, how long they stay, how much
they spend etc. Once you have answered all those questions, a possible goal
might then be,
'Gain 52 new
customers this year, retain 70% of them and get them to spend $100 per visit
over two visits'.
The essence of a
good goal is that it answers four main questions, WHAT do you want, HOW will
you get it, HOW MUCH will you get, WHEN and WHY. This will then make the answer
to the main question, HOW WILL I KNOW WHEN I'M THERE pretty obvious.
The WHAT is the
actual goal itself, say,
more money in
the door.
HOW is the step by
step process of getting more money in.
1 Improve service.
2 Promote word of mouth 3 Advertise 4 Follow up the advertising.
HOW MUCH is the
level of achievement, i.e.
an extra $1000
a week.
WHEN is the time
frame you are working within, i.e.
. short-term,
(1 year), by April 1994.
WHY is why do you
want to achieve this goal, what is the emotional reason behind it. Just as it
is not enough to say I'm fat, you must also show yourself why you want to lose
weight. The same goes for business, you must know why this goal is important.
This is especially important if it is a goal imposed for above. It is pointless
to implement a new process, if all the staff think the old one is better and
can not see any point to changing.
How will I know
when I'm there is a way of monitoring your progress towards fulfilling your goal, (more
of this later).
Exercise Two
GOALS
|
|
WHAT |
HOW |
HOW MUCH |
WHEN |
WHY |
HOW WILL I
KNOW WHEN I GET THERE |
|
FINANCIAL |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ADMINISTRATION |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SERVICE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PRODUCT |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
STAFF/MANAGEMENT |
|
|
|
|
|
|
I have given a
table here but if you can fit your goals in these boxes you’re not doing it
right. Copy this out roughly and then write it neatly. Then hand it around, see
what the rest of the staff think. They might think the levels too high or too
low, they might have another goal they think is more important. No set of goals
that you can right down in one sitting is worth having. A goal is a changing
thing. By definition, it is something you are working to attain. It must change
as you grow closer to achieving it. Problems and benefits that you didn't
originally see can come into play and goals must change.
Now check each
goal to see if it is realistic.
1 Can you really achieve
it?
2 Is it too easy?
3 Is it a goal
that everyone cares for?
4 What is the best
thing that will happen if you achieve this?
5 What is the
worst thing that will happen if you don't?
If your answers
are:
1 No
2 Yes
3 No
4 Nothing, or
5 Nothing, then
forget it. This goal is pointless!!!!
GET A NEW ONE
!!!
Once you have
checked that your goals are suitable and realistic, the next step is to
implement them and see if they work.
This is not as
easy as it sounds. Often the actual goal-setting is SOOO much fun that by the
time you are finished, everyone is too tired to get them working.
This is where the
"How" section comes in. In it there should be a step-by-step guide to
implementation. Make someone responsible for the project, in other words make
them kickable! In other words, this goal is to be started by a firm date, up
and running and its first progress report (see Paperwork) to be reported on a
set date. Each stage of the process should have a name attached. It is then
this person's responsibility to make sure it is done and done on time.
However, just as a
goal must be realistic, so must its implementation. The person made responsible
must be given every opportunity to succeed. Time, money and information must
all be made available on request. It must be clear at the outset how the person
is to achieve the goal, and what he/she will need. This can vary from Bill must
wash the shopfront every Tuesday and has $50 a month petty cash available for
cleaning aids, to Carol must introduce two new marketing schemes by the End of
Year Report, and has the full facilities of the marketing section, and a
$50,000 budget.
The important part
of goal setting is knowing how far along the track to completing your goal you
are. Reports are vital for this, but they must be useful AND used. If it isn't
something everyone can look at and it isn't useful in the day-to-day running,
don't produce it. Keep the data by all means but don't waste your time writing
up something you won't use.
(See Report
Writing)
Any useful goal
must be flexible. In order to be truly successful, any business must constantly
re-evaluate where it is going and how is it getting there. Let us take an example,
say the goal is to increase business. First we ask why, why do we want to
increase business? Let's say we want to increase business so we can justify
some extra equipment we want for the office. The "how" to achieve the
goal is extra advertising, the "how much" is a $5000 increase,
"when" by end of financial year. The "how will I know"
section will be found by asking each customer why they came to your branch, and
monitoring the cash in the door. The monitoring will be done by putting down
the number of customers and amount of money down on a graph, and Joe Bloggs
being responsible to update it with each report to show how close to the goal
you are getting.
The flexibility
comes in at the halfway point. Here it is the manager's responsibility to check
the customer's response to the advertising, see if it increasing or decreasing,
and decide if it will meet the goal. If not then a new tack should be tried. If
the results are way under the target, i.e. only $500 by the halfway point, then
you also need to examine if the goal itself is realistic. You might find that
business has increased, but it was due to the Council cutting down the tree
that hid your signage from the passer-by. Stranger things have happened, and
the opportunity should not be wasted. Maybe an add that says "see us now,
we are the ones behind the tree", next to a report in the local paper
showing the Council's improvements in the area, (i.e. the tree pruning).
Celebrating your
success is, perhaps, the most important step of all. How will you ever hope to
continue being successful, if you never take a step back and look at how good
you really are? It takes away that awful feeling that you are never getting
anywhere.
Celebrating can be
easy, to take the previous example, let us say the goal was implemented, and it
worked. 3 days before the end of year, the branch only had $100 to go. Everyone
pulled out the stops. Customers where shown the graph and encouraged to let
their friends know that they could help. Finally the day came and with the last
renewal at close of day, Joe Blogs coloured in the graph to the $5000 mark. YOU
MADE IT. Party hats come out with a bottle of cheap bubbly and the customers
are invited to join in. A photo is taken for the paper, (to tie in with the
advertising thanking the customers that helped make it possible), and every one
eats some of Margaret’s delicious cake. Three cheers for us, and a fund of
inexpensive advertising and goodwill that will be invaluable in keeping the
gains high.
Many people say
that they have a great business, if only it wasn't
MANAGEMENT
STAFF
AUXILIARIES
INTERMEDIARIES
CUSTOMERS
PAPERWORK