The 31 March brings with it the end of the financial year for many.  The past 12 months may be ones to forget but lets put that behind us and look forward to the future.  Here are my 10 tips for kicking off the next financial year.

1. Business Plan. Create one, update the old one. Set goals and objectives. Plan to suceed, plan to change, involve your staff.

2. Budget. Create a financial budget so that the effort you are putting in is well rewarded.  Dont be happy with whats left over.  With creating a budget comes the responsibility of reviewing it at least monthly and measuring and managing. Share it with your banker even if you dant want/need anything from them.

3. Knowledge.  Do at least one thing a month that improves you. Buy a book, attend a course.  Do something with it!

4. Financial Accounts.  Get your stock tke done pronto and get your financial records completed and to your accountant so that you get information back sooner rather than later.

5. Staff. Invest in your staff so you get better performance out of them.

6. Change.  Doing the same thing all the time will generaally give you the same outcomes.  Be open to change, also makes things happen.

7. Social media. Love it or hate it, it wont go away.  Can you use this or other technology to help you.

8. Customers. Do some reasearch on them as to why they do business with you, what they like and dont like. Get mystery shopped and be brave enough to value the feedback you get.  Promote the benefits you offer not the features.   Find your top 20% and love them to bits.

9. Celebrate S.  The S can be for Success or Survival.  Your choise.  But find ways to be positive.

10. Have Fun.  Enjoy what you do and amke it the same for those around  you.  Make coming to work every day something to look forward to.  Enjoy the challange

Good luck for 2011

If your business can answer yes to any of these questions then maybe a Man Chair is for you.

Your target market is predominately female.

You get men standing outside your store (waiting )

You would prefer your target market to stay longer in your store

Get a Man Chair.  Somewhere for the blokes to sit, give opinions on things being tried on, something to read.  Please have a variety and things that are current.  Make it comfortable.

Even put up  sign in the window welcoming blokes in to use it!!

There is plenty to research and read on why businesses should be using the various social media tools to develop consumer “attachment” to your business.  Most of the commentary is based out of the US  so it is easy to say or pretend that it cant or doesn’t apply in New Zealand.  How wroing you are. 

The youth of today who are your customers today and tomorrow are using these tools flat out.  You will even find me on Facebook.

Here is a link to a story of an Ice cream palour in Auckland.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/small-business/3501543/Networking-in-an-icy-community

Changing Attitudes

All too often, well planned programmes designed to create change within an organisation fail to achieve what they set out to achieve. The intentions were good, the process was good, the plan was well established, but the end goal was not achieved. Why is this?

Research shows the answer lies in people’s attitudes - how they think and behave on the job - not only those in leadership positions but everyone throughout the organisation. For genuine change to take place, things need to be done differently. This means people will need to think and behave differently. [1]

Every successful change programme has one key element common to all - they address thinking and behaviour, and approach changing attitudes through learning. Changing the way we do things is all about learning - learning new ways of thinking about what you do and how you do it.

Those programmes which do not end in successful change usually fail because it expected people to do things different simply because they were told to. Whether it’s a CEO’s new vision and values, a services firm trying to improve customer service or a factory attempting to improve its safety record, posters, directives, announcements and other exhortations simply don’t work.

There is a truism in adult learning: adults learn through a process of enquiry and discovery. This means people need to be involved in a process which makes them decide the best thing to do is to change. But most organisations just try to tell people they have to change. To put it bluntly: people will tolerate the conclusions of their leaders, but they will ultimately only act upon their own conclusions.

So what does this mean in terms of successfully implementing improvement programmes?[2]

1. Involving organisational members in small groups to learn problem solving and goal setting.
2. Training those in leadership positions in the skills required to do this.
3. Using groups to explore the issues, set goals and build solutions.
4. Providing feedback to managers to help them learn leadership and management styles that facilitate rather than constrain people’s performance.
5. Educating those in leadership positions in achievement thinking and achievement motivation so they are aware of strategies for building this throughout the organisation.
6. Building genuine leadership capability - transforming managers into leaders.
7. Focusing on the organisation’s culture and how this encourages or hinders change.

There is so much cynicism about change because most change initiatives go about it the wrong way. In my experience, people can and do change. Entire organisations can change. I have seen the results both good & bad. At the individual level it is known people change because use of tools to measure behaviour. In pre-and-post tests, 75% of managers show significant positive change.

In one company, independent academics reviewed the data and related changes in managers’ styles with changes in performance of their business units. This study showed the more managers changed to constructive styles of leadership, the more sales went up, staff turnover went down and other factors affecting profit improved. In fact, the study showed, on a return on expenditure basis, for every $1 spent on leadership development the company received $10.80 return on investment (from increased sales and increased profitability) at the business unit level.

So, how do you think it is all going in either your organisation or the business unit you are involved with? Time for reflection?

I hope you have a productive & satisfying week.

kenn butler

www.kennbutler.com

A recent addition to the many business related books is Life is Leadership by Kenn Butler.  I have known Kenn for a number of years through various contacts.  He has brought together a wealth of information from his extensive reading as well as his spin on how we can all lead better lives, run better business, be better people.  The challenge the book faces, as do all of us in a training role is to get the very pertinent comments made in the book into action to create change.

Well done Kenn for being bothered to bring together this volume of insight and knowledge which I can recommend to not only business owners but anyone who fancies them selves at being a better person.  The link above will take you to Kenns site where you can order online.

There is a new and very cool feature within google maps to add detail about your business, club or venue.  Local Business Centre

It is free, you can get a lot of detail into the listing.  Cant think of any reason why you would not do it.  Your customers will love you for it.

Go on.

Thank you for firstly listening to me and taking the hint to visit my site and then my blog. To those who hve left comments. It is appreciated as you generally all say nice things.
I hope to get more active so watch this space.

To be really brave click on the subscribe button, leave your e-mail address and you will get new updates sent to you as they occur.

Todays thought. What do shop assistants say “Are you right there?’ What does it mean?

Your thoughts.

Always nice to be published and here is a piece I submittted to Letters to the Editor to The Nelson Mail.  It was in response to a couple of earlier letters as to the state of Customer Service in Nelson.  As always your comments are welcomed.

All is not lost with Customer Service (Judy Crowe Mailbox 4 Nov) and there is hope for those that fail to exceed their customers expectations.  We can already see our retailers slashing prices and having summer sales.  As we enter Christmas retailing here are some simple solutions to give a better customer experience. 

Invest in your staff.  Provide training and set expectations.  Give feedback and opportunities to really enjoy the role.

Get a copy of the Kiwihost Customer Service survey.  The key demands of consumers can be understood.  1. Listen and understand the customers needs, 2, Take responsibility, and most importantly 3. Show a willingness to help.

Don’t just process the customer.  I have had too many shop assistants do this by asking “Are you happy just browsing?  “No, I would like to spend”, should be the reply.  The other favourite is HiHowareyouCanIhelpyou!  This should not be spoken as though it is one word, nor does it exceed expectations.

The term “Buddy” and “Mate” should be saved for those people who actually are, not those people you have just met in your store.

Remember that 100% of your profits will come from your customers. 

A quick story on how (hopefully) just doing the right thing pays dividends.  I stopped at Reids Store at Maruia on Sunday.  This is between Murchison and Springs Junction.  I left my wallet behind (I am the plonker).  I rang them later in the day and we came up with a solution to get it back to Nelson.  Later in the day they managed to find a better solution and it was delivered to me by a friend of theirs on Monday afternoon.

So whats the point….  For every business their are opportunities to be marketing.  It might not seem like it at the time but this is a classic case.  I would like to think that I am now doing my bit and spreading the good word and that by them being bothered to help me out I will in turn do them a good favour.  They do great coffee and food, relaxing surroundings + the comforts every traveller will need.  So stop by and say you are their because of the plonker who left his wallet behind. Enjoy a laugh at my expense.