No 1: Be Difficult to Work With.
Do WHSmith let you walk out of the store with a bundle of paperbacks under your arm?
If you apply to Santander for a mortgage do they give you the money before or after you sign the paperwork?
If you don’t pay your gas bill do British Gas sit in their offices waiting for you to call?
You don’t need to automatically offer credit terms to anyone.
You should always work under an agreed contract.
It’s OK to expect to be paid for your work, and to chase up anyone who doesn’t pay on time.
No 2: Measure (almost) Everything.
If we asked you which brand of coffee a 32 year old woman, living alone, with 3 cats, a subsription to Country Life, a household income of £42,000 per annum and who dyes her hair red in winter, but blond in summer is most likely to buy, would you know? Nope, us either. But we bet Tesco do.
Tesco collect and use this information because it helps them target their customers more effectively and make more profit. For most smaller organisations this level of information is unavailable, and unnecessary. But…. if the two main things which affect your profit are the money you spend and how you use your time, you’d be mad not to keep a very careful track of that data. Wouldn’t you?
Even the smallest organisations can, and should collect and analyse data about their time and their spending. For instance, do you know what proportion of your time you spend networking, using social media, meeting clients, calling people, filing accounts, and how much of your income these activities relate to?
No 3: Spend more time out of the office than in it.
One famous large management consultancy allocates an average of 5 desks per 100 of their most senior sales partners. This is the proportion of at-desk time they have calculated is appropriate to generate the level of income they need.
One of our Associates picked up a major client contract whilst hanging around in the car park of a different client, trying to get a mobile phone signal.
Be seen, be out and about. Whenever you get a chance to do what you do, but somewhere else…. take it. Plus, working from your client’s premises is a great way to get to know them, and their challenges better.
No 4: Fail Quickly, and Often
Despite their size, and relative stability even big businesses don’t have much tolerance for pet projects. No matter how fantastic you think an idea is, if the market is telling you the time, or the product is, shelve it and move on – you can always come back to it later.
You need to have more than one tool in your toolkit, so be prepared to diversify and modify your approach. Get new approaches to market as soon as possible, even if its only a small test phase. Too many small businesses have one big idea, which hasn’t yet been proven with the market, and no Plan B if that idea doesn’t take the world by storm.
No 5: Demonstrate your faith in your product
How would you feel if you visited a major building company who didn’t build their own offices?
What would you think if you walked round Microsoft Head Office and everyone was using a Mac?
Do Kenco serve Nescafe in their meetings?
Demonstrate your faith in your own product.
If you advise people on social media- make sure that they’ll be impressed when they check out your own social media presence.
If you sell telesales, make sure you call back when someone leaves you a message (true story).
If you know your product will save your clients money, construct an offer which proves it.
Oh, and a history of failed businesses, does not make you a “serial entrepreneur” (but might still make you a very valuable asset).
No 6:Separate Sales from Delivery
There are a number of reasons why most big businesses separate the sales process from the delivery process- some are to do with skill sets, some are to do with pay structures and some are to do with tradition. However, for small businesses there is one big reason why you should seek to replicate this as far as possible- the power of the subconscious mind. If you are the person doing the selling, and the person who is going to be responsible for delivering all the work you run the risk of:
only selling when you’ve already run out of work to deliver
subconsciously not wanting to close a sale when you know you are already busy
being very emotionally attached to your product and finding any rejection hard to take
If there is more than one person in your organisation have a serious think about whether you can split these functions between you. If there is only you, and outsourcing sales activity isn’t an option, just be very aware of the pitfalls, and put robust processes in place to protect yourself, from yourself.
No 7: Create a business which is stands on its own two feet.
All businesses have needs. Small businesses are especially fragile, and also have needs. If you are creating a business to address your own needs, that is OK – acknowledge that and bear it in mind. But…. if you are hoping to see significant business growth, or have an exit strategy in mind you may need to acknowledge that the needs of your business will not always be the same as your needs. In fact sometimes, even quite often, what your business needs will be difficult, tiring and inconvenient for you. Sorry about that.
Sometimes to make a decision, when you are up to eyes in work you will need to consciously re-frame your thinking to find the right solution. If you find yourself saying “I need” or “I want to”, or even a slightly petulant “I don’t want to” you may need to distinguish whether this personal discomfort can be resolved in a way which fully meets the businesses needs. It may be about outsourcing, or new systems, or a new approach. Unfortunately, some of the time, it may just be that you need work for your company a bit more, before you can expect it to work for you.
No 8: Be Dispensable
This rule, is very closely related to the previous rule, but requires a different way of thinking. You need to be completely dispensable in your business. Now, before you pack your briefcase and head our the door, bear in mind that this is an eventual goal. But, you do need to keep it at the forefront of your mind. Are you doing enough to create processes which exist outside individuals? If you get hit by a bus, would your business be able to keep going? For a day? For a week? Forever?
Big Businesses can’t afford to develop indispensable individuals. Small businesses can’t afford it either.
No 9: Understand Risk
Big Businesses thrive on risks. This doesn’t mean they gamble, but nor does it mean that they avoid all risks.
Big Businesses:
obsessively track risk
research and understand risks
look far into the future when predicting the impact of market or legislation changes
assume that things will (rather than won’t) affect their business
create multiple strategies for multiple outcomes
understand that some risks are reputational
almost never forget to balance against the risk of not doing something
No10 – Set fewer Goals
Small businesses are obsessed with goals and milestones and often they are heavily geared towards financial survival and growth.
In general the most successful big businesses actually set fewer goals than you might think, and the ones they focus on most are important.
Focus on core ideology is AS important as focus on profit, and paradoxically it has been demonstrated that companies with the most compelling core ideology actually make more profit than their more profit-focussed counterparts. (You can read more about this in John Kay’s book- Obliquity)
You went into business for a reason, make that reason central to how you sell, not just why you sell.