10 Things Great Businesses Do

Rick was very frustrated with his business. Despite the fact he was working harder than ever, the business growth has stalled or plateaued. The business is wildly dependent on him and he couldn’t seem to get free.

Jennifer had a good business. Money was decent. She could take a little time off from time to time. But she knew deep down that the business wasn’t great. The business was far from its full potential. Her dream of building something extraordinary seemed more and more elusive to her. The business hasn’t clearly defined or differentiated itself.

The one thing Rick and Jennifer have in common is they are both stuck. They are intelligent and hard-working. Both were on a journey to build a great business. Although in different places in their businesses they are both on the continuum.

We all are on a continuum to move our business from perhaps barely surviving to modestly performing to performing well but yet highly people dependent to a growing and profitable, professionally managed, scalable, differentiated, system driven business that really matters with a powerful and compelling culture that genuinely serves the lives of the owners, customers and contributors to the business.

We have our own definition of greatness and I believe we all want to get there. If not, why bother?

The Level 7 System started with the premise – How to help entrepreneurs build great businesses that serve their lives.

We developed a set of Level 7 Core Principles; productive ways of thinking about business if you will. The idea is that if we embrace the RIGHT thoughts it will lead to the RIGHT actions.

Then came the Level 7 Implementation Program. We need to help business owners and entrepreneurs to apply the right thoughts in the most productive and effective manner. I am happy to say, my team and I have done a pretty good job of helping our clients accomplish that goal.

Everything changes. Innovation Happens (oh…that could be a t-shirt)

Not too long ago, at one of our Annual Level 7 Roundtables, a client asked me about the key activities of a Level 7 Business. I gave it some thought, did some research and concluded that there are 10 Absolutely Essential Activities Business Must Do to Become Great.

Here they are:

1- Get Your People Fired Up and Enthusiastically Engaged. Great businesses engage in consistent, intentional and varied leadership directed communication with the purpose of creating an enthusiastic collective focus with the people in the organization. Through these communication forums, leadership communicates goals, vision and values in a way to will inspire and get people bought in an on-board with the direction of the business.

2- Pay Attention and Listen. Great businesses expecting people to take an interest in the vision, goals and values of the organization, must demonstrate an interest in the concerns, ideas, frustrations and issues of their employees. These forums, or one on one meetings, with individuals are not intended for mentoring, performance reviews or providing team members direction, they are simply to listen to their people and appropriately respond. Most Level 7 Business conduct 15-20 minute One on One Meetings once per month. Calvin Cummings of Valbridge Property Advisors in Los Angeles, California suggested that implementing One on One Meetings in his business was one of the most important and valuable things he has done for the health, employee satisfaction, engagement and growth of his business.

3- Review Your Systemization Report once a week. Great businesses are systems driven. There seems to be a lot of confusion about what it means to be a systems driven business however. Some people believe that once they have a set of written and documented systems in a three-ringed binder on a bookshelf means they have systemized their business. Or they think that just because they have identified some process or workflow in an area of their business, even though it’s in their people’s heads, they have a systemized business. Well not to burst anyone’s bubble, but this is not systemized or systems driven. Read more about becoming systemize driven here.

Essentially being systems driven means your business has effectively orchestrated the process of documentation, testing, training and implementing your systems. In other words, creating great, high performing, results focused processes that your people are actually USING. Once you’ve done that, your business will be then be engaged in the process of evaluating and innovating your systems to continually make your systems better. The cycle repeats and your business continues to improve.

The Systemization Report is your reference to the current status of every system in your business as it relates to the systems development cycle. The Systemization Report serves as the catalyst that keeps the process of developing, implementing and innovating your systems.

4- A Commitment Standard is in place. If you have a systems driven business, you can trust and have confidence that your business will perform. Why? Because great systems produce great results. However, most systems are operated by people and, as such, you much trust your people to operate the systems according to the way they have been written and developed. If they don’t, then you will not get the results you are expecting or counting on.

A Commitment Standard simply clarifies the company’s expectations when it comes to commitments and follow-through. It establishes an environment of trust between management and staff and employee to employee. Although we assume people will consistently keep all their promises, things frequently slip through the cracks, people don’t always do what they say they are going to do.

This impacting results and business performance. The details matter. And one small slip can cost a company dearly. But the fact is people don’t always complete tasks on time or do things the way they are supposed to be done but it rarely addressed.

The Commitment Standard provides clarity of expectations when it comes to accountability and follow-though.

5- Stop Firefighting and Solve and Eliminate Your Problems Well. Most business owners are effective at solving problems. We are great firefighters. But to build a great business, we need to permanently eliminate reoccurring problems and frustrations. We need a systematic and effective approach to identifying the core source of the problem and in a step by step manner eliminate it. The Level 7 Problem Resolution System is a tool that our clients and their employees regularly use to deal with frustrations and challenges. Not only does it give the business owner and effective approach to solving problems and frustrations but it helps employees to effectively resolve problems too.

6- Monitor and Report Your Employee Performance. Great businesses have clearly defined, objective and measurable goals and expectations for each employee in their organization. These goals are communicated and reported to each team member on a monthly basis. Great businesses are on the same page with their people. When people are meeting or exceeding expectations they get high fives and acknowledgement. For those that are falling short; time and energy is invested to help them improve performance so they can start succeeding. If your people are succeeding across the board, your business is succeeding.

7- Be the Conductor and Orchestrate Correct Behavior. Great businesses understand that we must get things done. If it doesn’t need to be done, then eliminate it. We create Work Prioritizers. Work Prioritizers are essentially check or task list of reoccurring activities your employees are responsible for doing. This is not micromanagement just in case that thought went through your mind. It’s actually empowerment. You are setting your people up to succeed by providing them a resource that keeps them on track. Sales people are reminded to make 5 outbound calls per day. Bookkeepers are reminded to generate month-end reports by the 5th of the month. Front desk people are reminded to purge old files every month. Managers are reminded to review their Systemization Report weekly and take appropriate business improvement action as required.

8- Don’t Take Any Chances and Thread Your Culture. Great businesses are intentional about their culture. Threading or embedding a set of values in an organization requires a lot more than posting a list of values on a wall someplace on your premises. A well-crafted and threaded culture differentiates an organization among its employees and consumers. Level 7 Businesses employ a wide variety of strategies to establish and maintain a powerful and compelling culture. The most notable and effective is to create a Culture Development Team.

Having a Culture Development Team that meets regularly to develop strategies to communicate and engage people in the culture transfers the ownership of threading the culture to employees.

9- Know Your Numbers. I’m not talking about the occasional monthly P&L you might be getting. I am suggesting a set of key indicators that monitor performance for each department and area throughout the business. You could be looking at client acquisition numbers, lead conversion performance, closing ratios, employee productivity, brand development, quality control, client retention etc. The numbers for each business is unique to each business. Getting the numbers however is not enough. It also requires a clear and specific approach to responding when an area of the business is falling short.

10- Get Your Best Minds Together. Innovation is vital to any growing enterprise. Great businesses engage their key people in the business to participate in specific forums designed to initiate and encourage improvement in areas of concern in the business. The Level 7 Brainbank Process brings people together, they look at areas or systems that require improvement and then discuss and implement changes to their current systems to improve the business performance. Innovation and improvement goes from random and haphazard and business owner dependent to systematic, intentional, purposeful and engaging that includes people within the organization.

Once a business effectively and consistent engages in these key activities, they will see and experience massive improvement in all the areas of performance, revenue, profitability, capacity to scale and replicate, employee morale and customer satisfaction while improving your quality of life and connection to your organization.

Want to discuss or evaluate where you might be or how we can help you implement these 10 Critical Activities? Let chat. Click here to check out times and availability for a 30 Minute Evaluation, Assessment and Recommendation Call.

Transform Your Business Fast

 

Going Fast I've concluded that the single most important thing a business can do to improve itself is to become a systems driven organization. This simply means that the key to successful execution of every activity, and subsequent result, is a system, process or procedure.
 
It doesn't matter what a business is or what it does. It doesn't even matter what the activity is. Every action has an underlying system or procedure behind it. The better the system, the better the result. If you don't believe me than either you haven't tried it in your business or you tried it but didn't execute correctly or effectively.
 
 
Within the Level 7 System we have a principle called Creating Replication. The Principle of Creating Replication suggests that a business must have a system or process in place to get their systems, processes and procedures developed and installed into the business. In other words, we have a system for successfully developing systems.
 
Well, Jennifer Maggoire and Heather Long and the team at MCM took me up on a challenge the other day to see how fast they could get all the systems in their business documented, tested and implemented. "The faster, the better," I suggested. (They are using the Level 7 System for Creating Replication as their system for getting the job done, fast.)
 
"Not only will it be good for employee morale to get a project like this completed as fast as possible but the improvements you will see in your business will blow your mind," I told them. "Your revenues will increase, profits should soar, customer's will be happier and you will have a lot less frustrations and challenges in the business. Just watch what happens!"
 
They took me up on the challenge and agreed they would get this phase of the Level 7 Implementation Process completed in 90 days. I believe that Jenn offered then team a night out on the town including margaritas once they complete the process. So for fun, we will call this 'The Great MCM Margarita Race'. I will be giving you regular updates on their progress and their results along the way too.
 
OK MCM. Ready…on your marks, get set, go…!
 
 

 

You Just Can’t Trust Anyone Today!

Trusting peopleBusiness owners have trust issues. It's true! If you feel trapped in someway by your business or don't believe your business can work without you – you have trust issues.
 
What exactly do we need to trust in order to establish freedom? What do we need to trust so we can feel confident in our business and our people?
 
In a typical people dependent business model, answering those questions can be quite difficult. Most of the time a business owner in that environment has to trust their people on many different levels. They have to trust their knowledge and ability to perform specific tasks and functions in the business. They have to trust their people's judgment and decision making ability. They have to be able to count on their people. They have to trust in their own ability to innovate and create a model for business that will work.  Just to name a few.
 
In a Level 7 Business, the business owner only has to trust 2 things.
 
They have to trust that they have systems, procedures and processes for doing business that will produce the optimal or desired resulst. In The Level 7 System we call this The Principle of Creating Replication.
 
They also have to trust their people to follow the systems. In The Level 7 System we call this The Principle of Facilitating Compliance.
 
You can't have one without the other.
 
Want to get over your trust issues, build an amazing business and establish freedom? Focus on building a business based on creating the best possible systems that produce results and establishing an environment of accountability with your people.
 
It's really that simple.

Running business on a wing and a prayer…

There are still a few spots left for tomorrow's Level 7 Experience Teleconference. Click here >>.

 

Taking the risk to start and get into business takes courage, guts and confidence. I admire that about business people. I admire their aspirations to make things better. That's what business owners do. They take an idea, a situation, a condition and look and find a way to improve upon it.

 

To me, that's admirable.

 

Man praying However, that same confidence could also lead to their demise. Over confidence could result in an unwillingness to admit or recognize our short comings.

 

Over confidence could lead us to believe we have it all together. The reality is that most businesses are just "wingin it". What does that mean?

 

When it comes right down to it most are just trying to figure out how to make their business work. Some will spend a life time, granted with some or even above average success, to ultimately reach a level of accomplishment only to get stuck. Not knowing how to get to the next level.

 

In other words, they don't really have a formula. A system. A method. A philosophy that could be replicated time and time again. In any business, at any size. It looks more like survival rather than certainty.

 

Perhaps its the thrill of the unknown that we enjoy. Maybe we really like the idea, deep down, that we don't know how our efforts are going to play out. Although, I don't buy it. Most the people I know that own businesses want some certainty of success beyond their confidence in themselves or a prayer (Prayer can be powerful however).

 

If you want to stop relying on a wing and a prayer then…

 

…here are seven things every business must do to ensure continued and replicable success.

 

1- Set goals like crazy. Be intentional about everything the business does.

 

2- Measure your goals objectively. That which gets measured gets done.

 

3- Create systems so that every goal you have has a consistent, predictable way of accomplishing it no matter who is operating it.

 

4- Thread your culture on purpose. Most problems in business stem from people not knowing and understanding the key beliefs and values of the business. Businesses must be intentional about building a self sustaining culture. Otherwise the culture is dependent on the owner.

 

5- Ensure accountability. The business must be absolutely certain that people will do what they say they are going to do. EVERY TIME Period.

 

6- Make sure your business communicates effectively. This included communication from leadership through the organization, communication from employees to management, communication from employee to employee and even communication from the business to it's clients. Quality communication demystifies expectations.

 

7- Be intentional about innovation and improving performance. Don't over innovate or under innovate. Great businesses innovate and improve in areas when its relevant to do so.

 

If you want to better understand these 7 Core Business Principles – Read The Level 7 Manifesto: A Simple, Common Sense and Proven Approach to Businesses Most Complex Problems and Frustrations. Get it now >>

Simple Business According to One of the Richest Men in the World

                Warren Buffett
 
There are seven simple behaviors that work and will transform the results you get in your business and your life if you apply them.
 

Be very clear on goals and expectations in every area of the business.

Be objective when you evaluate performance.

Be intentional when it comes to developing your company culture.

Develop great systems that produce optimal results.

Establish appropriate intervals to innovate your systems and business.

Make sure you have great communication throughout your business.

Create an environment where you and your people can trust, are accountable and can count on each other.

 
Take a moment and think about these for a moment. If you consider every piece of "business advice" you have every heard or seen, they all fall under one or more of these catagories.
 
Example. I see tons of folks out there promoting "how to get more business or touting cleaver or innovative marketing techniques".
 
What are they really saying? See the list above. They are really pointing to developing and innovating better systems.
 
Another Example. You are having a difficult time dealing with some of the people in your business. How do you solve a complex problem like this one?
 
It's actually rather simple. Take the list of Level 7 Core Principles above and ask yourself the question, "Which of these areas haven't we applied effectively?"
 
It's possible you haven't established clear expections. Or you haven't developed a good company culture. Perhaps you need to work on your accountability standards.
 
Business growth and problem resolution is quiet simple when you process them through The Level 7 Core Principles.