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Let’s break this idea down to its most basic concept: How do you create a process for anything? For instance, how do you create a process for making Thanksgiving dinner? Continue reading
The biggest benefit of a professionalized business process is that it delivers consistent results while allowing you to rapidly scale your ability to capitalize on those results. As I mentioned in part one, there are two general categories of professionalization: Generating revenue and managing expenses. I covered the revenue side of this equation in the previous post, so now it’s time to talk about managing expenses.
The most obvious place to start is with production. This also includes various kinds of product-related work, such as program management. It doesn’t matter what kind of product you’re producing, it’s really about what you’re delivering for the customer. The process for making that product — whatever kind of product it is — is what needs to be professionalized. Continue reading
When people ask me about which process in their business they should professionalize first, I inevitably tell them to start with sales. In case you haven’t picked up on it yet, I’m a big believer in sales, and it’s no coincidence that I tend to give it the highest priority. A refined and professional sales process is an asset that will deliver great returns for your over and over again throughout the life of the business.
Why start with sales? Because it’s hard to uproot and replace an entrenched sales system — even one that doesn’t work very well — and every day you wait, the more difficult it becomes. If there’s one thing you want to get right as early as possible, it’s sales. Continue reading
When a business doesn’t have professionalized processes in place, it’s obvious. Their performance is erratic and unpredictable. Instead of clearly organized methods and practices for accomplishing their operations, they’re essentially throwing spaghetti noodles at the wall and seeing what, if anything sticks.
That’s not an efficient way to run a business. By replacing that haphazard approach with a proven, reliable and scalable set of practices, those processes perform more consistently. In other words, it becomes “professionalized.” Every business has processes that benefit from being professionalized, from production to HR, and from finance to sales. Continue reading
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On a basic level, costs are easy to identify. For instance, let’s say your company is a bakery that makes organic cookies and snacks. Ingredients will be one of your most obvious costs. It’s fairly easy to work out your per-unit needs for each ingredient, and to scale that up to the bulk price your supplier will charge. Continue reading
A flight of craft beers. Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ckgolfsolutions/
The best way to start this process is by talking to people who are in a similar position. You need to find and connect with your peers. Continue reading
As an entrepreneur, you always want to make sure you see a solid return on your investments. This is true whether you’re talking about a traditional financial investment, or something harder to quantify, like an investment of time. When you look back at those investments, you want to see positive results. At a minimum, you want to see that you’ve gotten more out of those investment than you put in.
The same is true of your customers. Continue reading
Planning your retention strategy is one of the most valuable and important things that anyone in a renewal-based business can do. You can take my word for it. I’ve been on the front lines.
Early in my career, when I was working in enterprise-level sales, one of the products I worked with was a subscription-based service. As a rep, my primary task was to hunt new business, but I was also responsible for maintaining a set of renewals. Continue reading
If you want to boost your membership retention rates, you need to understand the motivations of your subscribers. A bit part of this is simply asking current members about what they value about your service, and asking returning members why they came back. The more open and comprehensive the dialog, the clearer the picture becomes.
Of course, not every subscriber will be strongly motivated to share their feedback freely. In that case, you might need to create an incentive to encourage participation from a wide range of customers. Even something like a free month or a discount on their next renewal can be compelling. Continue reading