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Would you believe business people spend more time planning a vacation than on their business?
Take this quick survey. When you went on your last vacation did you plan a route? Did you have a GPS or a map? Did you service your car, checking the oil and filling up the gas tank? Did you make reservations and other travel plans? Did you budget your trip?
Now compare these answers to your business. Do you have a business plan? A business plan is the map for planning your future. Without it, anything you do is okay for there is neither plan nor accountability to keep you on course. Your dashboard in your car tells you when to fill up your tank, check your oil or service your engine. The dashboard in your business is your budget. Do you have one? How do you know what your cash flow requirements are? Do you have too much or too little inventory? Are the expenses being managed successfully?
A business plan (okay, map) and a budget (okay, dashboard) are two of the most basic fundamentals of any business. Don’t the dollars from the business pay for the vacation?
Managing time based on your personal biological clock.
What is your best time of the day? When do you accomplish the most and are the most productive? Many individuals are “morning people;” others work best in the evening. Determine your most productive time of the day and use that time to concentrate on your more difficult tasks or the things you procrastinate doing. Easier and routine tasks, or the things you like to do are better suited for your less productive hours. The result is a “better return on your time investment” and an increase in your productivity. Once you are in a habit (it takes twenty eight days to change a habit) of managing your time effectively your attitude improves and work becomes more enjoyable.
Listening is an art
Have you ever wondered why God gave us one mouth and two ears? Could it be He designed us to listen more than to talk? I heard a wonderful quote recently that states “you have to first listen to understand before speaking to be understood.” Think about how profound that quote actually is.
How do you listen effectively? By using your THREE ears:
- The first ear is to listen to what people are saying.
- The second is to listen to what people are NOT telling you.
- The third and most difficult one is to listen to what people want to say but are unable to express their thoughts and ideas.
We naturally hear others talking but spend too little time listening to what is being said. Without truly listening, the words do not register and the idea or thought trying to be shared is usually lost. As one begins to improve listening skills it becomes noticeable what is not being discussed. By listening to the discussion points it becomes more apparent as to what has been omitted from the conversation and by asking the proper questions other pertinent information becomes part of the conversation.
As one’s listening skills are sharpened, attention can be turned to what the other person is having difficulty expressing. Probing through questions helps the other person gather their thoughts and provide additional information. There are many individuals who are better “thinking out loud” rather than to themselves. Improving the art of listening creates a win-win for all those involved and helps to eliminate “surface thinking.” Often, the real thought or solution is hidden and needs to be discovered.
Understanding the importance of the business side of your practice
Most professionals go to school to learn to practice their art in a chosen field: law, accounting, architecture, medicine, engineering, etc. Their energy and attention is devoted to being the best they can be in their field.
Success approaches, their firms grow and now a new element emerges—the business aspects of the practice. New associates and partners join the firm and create communication issues. Expectations are undefined and files are not attended to as promptly or as effectively as when the office was smaller and there were fewer people involved.
Client service begins to wane, fires must be put out, conflicts arise and a crisis environment begins taking hold of the once smooth-running machine. Morale takes a nosedive and what was once a fun place to work quickly becomes drudgery.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel, however, and it’s all a matter of gaining control over the crisis environment and becoming proactive, both with the practice itself and the business elements that, in reality, protect the practice.
Think of the practice as enfolded in a cocoon of business fundamentals. Best practices of business support the “art” being practiced. When a practice is treated like a business, attention can be redirected. Instead of going from crisis to crisis, clients can now be handled in the manner that was originally intended.
So how does one do this? What is the secret? The simple answer is to utilize the basic fundamentals of business. In my opinion, business is not hard. It’s people who make business hard. Proper planning and effective communications (the most basic of business fundamentals) are overlooked and there goes any decent “return of the time expended.” Fees begin to melt away due to poor or ineffective business methods. More hours are spent to make less income.
Most practices evolve rather than being planned. As an example, two lawyers who have been friends for years decide to leave their individual law firms and open their own practice. Each has a different specialty of law and the chemistry works between the two. All is going well. The client base increases and now there is a need to add a paralegal and a secretary. These individuals are hired and the partners breathe a sign of relief knowing they can direct all of their time and energy on their clients.
But here comes trouble! The paralegal performs well and more work is “dumped” into her lap. The secretary is overwhelmed with paperwork, filing and emails and neither understands the expectations of the partners. The partners are not interested in defining anything as their time is totally booked, regardless of how productive they are. “I’ll get to it later,” is a common retort. Additionally, the two lawyers feel they are paying good money to both of the support staff and the latter should naturally understand what is expected of them. Soon there is a blowup caused by frustration and a lose-lose situation is created; a loss for the partners, the staff and most of all the clients.
When asked why a Position Development Plan was not created for the paralegal or the secretary, the answer is typically “I didn’t have the time.” That is false efficiency. If the time was taken to discuss how to do the “right things the first time” and expectations were clear, then the time taken to correct the situation would have been minimal. A good rule of thumb: if it takes one time unit to perform a given task efficiency, then it takes four time units to correct any deficiencies. This is obviously not a productive use of time. Remember, time is money.
In my book, “A Journey with Mac,” this situation is explained fully and I describe how to properly plan and communicate effectively to avoid repeating the same error. The remaining fundamentals are spelled out in an easy and fun read.
Who said a professional cannot also be a successful businessperson? Don’t make your practice more complicated and frustrating by continuing to use “natural evolvement” as a business plan. It just doesn’t work. Learn the fundamentals to create a practice that is successful, rewarding and enjoyable.
Is there really a bottom to this economic recession?
YES! In my opinion we are officially at the bottom and the crawl of recovery will slowly occur during the remainder of 2009. Many companies have been looking over their shoulders at the economic dilemmas that might be chasing them. Now it is time to turn our attention to the future and position our companies for the economic turnaround. My prediction: the true turnaround will take place in the second and third quarters of 2010.
So what do you do to capitalize? Here are four suggestions to consider:
- Take an inventory of all of your resources and determine if you are positioning yourself to create a competitive advantage. Will you be ahead of your competition in reaching out and serving your customers when consumer demand increases?
- Procrastination is a “Killer!” Too often the leaders of an organization fight these questions: What comes first? Do we begin taking a positive initiative now or is it better to just wait until we see more business and cash flow? The results frequently lead to little or no action being taken and the competition passes you by.
- Would you consider your company to be “lean and mean” with the cuts that have been made – particularly in payroll? Determine how you will remain financially lean and at the same time apply the necessary resources and dollars to meet and beat the competition?
- Run a smarter company. Take advantage of the remaining work force. Cross-train and motivate them to excellence.