I Need to Know What I’m Doing

Doesn’t it seem as though each year goes by faster?  We know that’s actually not the case, but it sure feels like it.  Since our strategies, technology and clients are more complex, our pace has increased significantly over the past ten plus years.  You know the old adage “time flies where you’re having fun”.  Unfortunately with the complexity of the world we live in today, we cannot let our days, weeks, and months be managed by chance .  It will not be fun and we will find ourselves a year further along in the same place – not where we want to be. 

Whether you are running a multi-billion dollar company or starting out on your own, your long-term success will depend on two things – each year redefining specifically where you want your company to grow in the next 12 – 36 months and making sure the activities (aka work) of you and your team not only perpetuate the intermidiate plan but fall into one of these three buckets:

 

Actions for pay now– things you do today that you get paid for today.  Repeatable work that results in revenue day in and day out.  Transactional business that keeps the accounts receivable department in business.  This keeps your short term plan in order. 

Actions for pay later – things you do today that will result in revenue in the short and long term future – your annuity work.  For example:  M&A planning, building your sales pipeline, launching retail marketing campaigns ninety days before the holiday season begins, activities that will increase your trust and visibility in the industry or community (pro-bono work, networking, civic roles, volunteerism, etc.), and continuing education.  These activities can exponentially increase your volume and/or scale.    

Actions for pay while asleep.  This is where it gets fun and crazy!  What are you doing that will generate revenue without activity on your part?  Is it self service opportunities?  Franchise structure?  Is it an exercise in activity based costing and/or staffing up so you pay someone else to do the required activities that don’t generate income so you can?  This work is the “hockey stick” revenue plan  (see before/after illustration).  You and your team should continuously be asking these questions:

• What we can offer to the ever growing “on-demand” consumer population? Don’t be fooled by the often failing “self checkout lines.”   Self-service is king.  Here are some examples that generate business while you sleep – online retail sales, syndication, books, webinars, self-assessments, decline-pass-through programs, etc.  
• What should we be investing in that will grow faster than our revenue plan?  Capital investments, Joint-Ventures, investment strategies, barter agreements for distressed assets, etc.
• Can we leverage outsourcing for continuous processing, volume capacity, time management, and/or speed to market (think subcontractors)? Pay less get more!
• What are we doing to grow our talent?   Grow your leaders and your teams so they can multiply your efforts or replace them all together. 

Analyze what you do and ask yourself  “what bucket does it fall in?”  Now, Later, or while I sleep.  If it doesn’t fit any of those, it probably shouldn’t be done – at least by you.  Got your answer, but need help turning the ship?   Consider brining in someone in from the outside like a business or executive coach.  They can help you resist the muscle memory and accelerate your launch forward. 

Lead On! 

Lori Day