March 11th, 2018Simple Business Advice
Business advice doesn’t always need to be complicated. Perhaps the best advice might often be the simplest. I was advising one particular business and asked what their biggest issue was.
“Getting paid!” was the immediate reply.
I asked what they currently did about credit control. The reply was a little longer…
“Well, the credit control is done by Sue. I don’t think she’s very good at it. She’s very organised but she’s too nice really. When she’s on holiday Jane covers and she’s brilliant at it! She’s dogged, determined and won’t take any crap!”
We sat in silence for a moment or two before he spoke again…
“I should get Jane to do the credit control all the time really shouldn’t I?”
I’d love to claim the credit for this lightbulb moment but the truth is all I did was two things:
1. Ask a question which meant he was thinking about his business strategically for a moment. How many of us spend all our time dealing with the urgent and mundane that we never ask these questions?
2. Create a small amount of time for him to think about the problem himself.
So my simple piece of business advice for the day is this.
Think about one small area of your business that bothers you. Think about why it bothers you and then take an action to do something about it. Don’t get distracted by the hundreds of things you could do. Just pick one and make the changes you need to make.
