Many entrepreneurs are firefighters by profession: they put out fires all day, rushing from one disaster response to the next. They do their actual work in the evening. It would make more sense to establish functioning fire protection so that there is no fire.

Concentration on the essentials: efficient processes and standards increase the output

Clear recipes instead of vague concepts

When you eat out in a good restaurant, you expect consistent quality. You don't want the sole to be limp today and too salty tomorrow. That doesn't happen either because professional chefs follow a clear recipe. You do not work with vague concepts that are implemented one way today and differently tomorrow, depending on the day, mood or personal preference.

Many entrepreneurs do it differently: they only do the actual work when their Employees went home, or on weekends when their Family she'd rather have to herself. But fire protection would make much more sense so that the numerous large and small fires do not start in the first place.

That is the basic mistake of many Companys: There is an approximate one there though Concept, how to answer a customer inquiry, write an offer or a Projects is organized. But these "concepts" leave a lot of leeway for individual decisions and personal failure. Something is always forgotten, something else is done twice, interfaces don't work, schedules are doomed to fail, which provokes queries or angry customer calls - and thus creates all the everyday crap that you can then mess around with as an entrepreneur and damage limiter on duty.

You don't have to put out fires that don't start

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Processes and standards are elementary for a successful company because they ensure the quality of the work results Implementation of orders can be planned in terms of content and timing, accelerate processes and significantly increase the efficiency of the company. Clear standards and processes enable reliable calculations, binding fixed prices and make processes scalable. If not everyone im Team Also, doing things his own way, new employees can be trained more quickly. Vacation replacements also work smoothly.

flow charts, Checklists and similar instruments for important, repetitive Tasks too developed, of course, takes time, but this effort amortizes rapidly fast. There are fewer breakdowns, the number of queries is falling rapidly, and employees can solve problems independently. Functioning standards and processes are created by jointly developing the best ideas from the individual ideas of different participants Solution distill it, write it down and commit everyone to it (including yourself!).

Quality saves money. This applies to both process quality and result quality

Many entrepreneurs think that more quality means more Costs. The opposite is the case when you are well organized and your processes are right. Greater efficiency saves Money. Fewer errors and delays save money. Bind convincing results customers and generate recommendations. Better quality makes it possible to enforce higher prices and thus brings in money. In the case of service-focused service portfolios in particular, it is advisable klare Defining standards, because then you can do such work with higher quality.

You can also make reliable statements about how long something will take, what it costs and what restrictions are to be expected. This also solves the problem if you only have one or two top employees, with whom everyone Customer want to work. Standardization allows everyone in your organization to deliver consistent quality. This creates enthusiasm among new customers. They have often said goodbye to a competitor because things were too chaotic there for them.

Exercising won't help if you're constantly changing disciplines

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Standards and processes enable employees to steep learning curves, making your company highly efficient and maximizing Turnover and profit. Once processes have been developed, you can communicate them throughout the company and continuously improve them through observation and training. But that only works if you don't constantly and ad hoc develop new offers - maybe because a single customer asks for them or because you were inspired at a trade fair.

Innovation is important, yet companies without clear Strategy are on the road and are constantly realizing new concepts, give away many opportunities. Instead of constantly developing new offers, it makes more sense to think like a franchise entrepreneur. Simply ask yourself how you would have to define work processes so that these can be communicated to new employees in the shortest possible time so that these employees can also achieve the same results in other places without your direct involvement. This is how you create the basis for scalability.

Loyalty is dangerous

It is often not at all clear in the company who is doing what and whether the division of labor is expedient. Many employees were never fully instructed in their work tasks and have come to terms with it over time, again and again improvise to have to. Peoplewho need clear guidelines and structure leave the company, the others stay. Over time, loyalties develop between entrepreneurs and Executive and employees. Over the years you get to know each other better and you also tolerate personal quirks.

As a result, employees who the entrepreneur sees as “loyal” are often promoted. What is underestimated is that loyalty alone is not enough to do a good job. New tasks require new skills. It is therefore important, in the course of process focussing, to get an overview of what skills individual employees have and what skills are required in what form for which tasks. According to this, employees should be deployed appropriately, namely where they have the best qualifications for a task or through training light can acquire. The fact that someone "has been there for so long" should not be a qualification criterion.

More success with objectivity

Just a successful business that makes sales increases and profit surpluses, can pay solid salaries, secure jobs and promote committed employees. The most important lever for the company's success is a clear sales focus. If the thinking in the company is geared towards acquiring lucrative customers, serving them efficiently, satisfying them as best as possible and retaining them permanently, the company's success cannot be avoided at all. Sales is the only function that drives customers to bring money into the company.

Of course, entrepreneurs can still tweak thousands of other details. However, you will achieve the greatest effect if you focus on maximizing a company's sales power. Ideally, you start with the desired results. If these are clearly defined, the necessary ones can be reversed Measures develop the substructure required for this Set to achieve.

Where are you losing customers?

If you want to increase your company's sales success, you need to make sure that you have a clear picture of where you are pissing off customers. You then consistently eliminate the cause. The indicators used are complaints, the non-commissioning rate and the number of offers that need to be improved.

The devil is in the details. Systematically tracking it down seems a nuisance, but it leads to a significant reduction in your transaction costs, i.e. all those costs that arise in the initiation and execution of transactions without being billed. To put it simply: the more complicated it is and the less you concentrate on really lucrative customers, the higher your transaction costs.

For example, the organizational effort involved in initiating a large order hardly differs from the bureaucratic effort involved in a far less lucrative small order. Acquisition, negotiations, offers, contracts and invoices are the same for both. Many entrepreneurs wear themselves out with "small cattle".

Only deals bring cash

In addition to low transaction costs, the ratio of offers to orders is a key factor in success. Some employees in sales seem to have set themselves the goal of becoming world champions in quotations. They neglect, however, that only deals bring you cash. In fact, it comes down to writing fewer offers and more order confirmations.

A well thought out one Sales strategy filters out unpromising prospects at an early stage. an early one No customer's is always better than a late one. Sales talks should be conducted in a conclusion-oriented manner. Elaborate advice and concepts should never be created free of charge, but made subject to a fee. If you appear convincing, your customer will pay for it too. If a prospect wants in-depth know-how for free before signing an offer, he is not a customer for you, but a transaction cost accelerator.

All of this is unfamiliar to many entrepreneurs, but easy to implement as soon as you know the right parameters. An "offer" is usually free of charge. Call the same document “Project Planning” and give your customer the option to use it Planning also implement it with another provider, you can rather put your service in on account place. With the latter, you kill two birds with one stone: A fee-based consulting service can be more detailed and convincing than a non-binding offer. And a customer who has already invested in you and got to know your quality will most likely place the order with you.

“Bigger” is not necessarily more profitable

The result of the "Processes" module is a lean, efficient and highly profitable company that achieves high sales with a manageable number of employees. It is wrong to assume that in order to make a lot of money, you necessarily need a lot of employees to earn. Numerous companies have far too many employees who then have to be managed by additional managers. With all the staff, the size of the company increases, and in the end that too Risks, but not necessarily profitability.


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