Imagine you’re planning a big family trip.
You know just 3 things about this trip.
It’s going to be a big one, with lots of adventures, and it’s going to cost a lot of money.
But.
You don’t know where you’re heading, for how long, or how you’re going to get there.
Neither you or your family have agreed where they want to go or what they want to do.
So you don’t know what you need to take with you, or what currency you might need, and you don’t have any guidebooks or maps.
And none of your family know what they’re supposed to be doing to get ready for this trip.
You’ll be making it up as you go along.
Liken this to a business with no real plan for its future. (Maybe yours?)
Where your people don’t know how they fit into the future of the business, don’t have clearly defined roles or know what they’re responsible for.
Because you don’t know where you’re going, you don’t have a business or financial roadmap to get you there.
So much like your undefined trip, day to day business is random, seeing where you “end up”.
And because you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never know if you get “there”. You’ve no way of measuring how you’re doing, and your team don’t know if their efforts count for anything.
Profit and financial success aren’t something you happen across. Just working hard isn’t enough – there are just too many variables, too many options, too many things that can (and do) go wrong that the odds of your business delivering what you want and need are slim. Very slim indeed.
I’ve worked with hundreds of companies over the last 25 years and I can tell you for certain, chaotic businesses rarely make money.
What do you want?
So the starting point is getting some clarity on what you want for your life – you know, you the person, not you the MD. And what is it you want from your business? So many people skip this step and go straight to what the business wants to achieve. If you forget to put your needs at the centre of this, don’t be surprised if your business never delivers on its promise of the life you were supposed to have.
What does that mean for your business and your people?
When you know what you want, then you can create the roadmap for your business. Create very clear goals and a direction of travel, then make sure everyone in your business knows their role in this journey, and exactly what they’re responsible for.
Businesses who are airy fairy around structure and responsibilities will find that things keep going wrong, keep falling over and are generally chaotic.
A business has to have order and structure (if you want it to work)
I’ve heard many business owners say they dislike structure, and they want to be free to be creative without any bounds. And I get that, to a point. But if you’re serious about your business having a future, and securing your financial future, then you need some structure.
Things like regular communication with your team, getting your numbers every month, looking at the cash flow and flash report weekly, doing your planning regularly. No one wants to be boxed in or overwhelmed by meetings and structure, but the right level of structure gives you freedom. It means the important things happen like clock-work and so the wheels are less likely to fall off.
Conversely, chaotic businesses tend to lurch from one problem to another, with no one taking responsibility and processes not being put in place to stop the problems happening in the first place.
I think this Lewis Carroll quote says it all
Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
I don’t much care where –
Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.