Is your business running smoothly and gradually growing in a controlled way, or are you simply reacting to whatever comes your way with no time to plan ahead or put strategies in place for the future? View this presentation to see how to work out the right steps and what you need to measure regularly to keep on track.

1. How to regain Control over your
Business
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2. All of us are running well-oiled business machines – right?!

3. Of course not – we all have times when we feel out of control – when
it seems like we have created a business monster that is
controlling us and is never satisfied.

4. Some of us seem to go from ‘feast to famine’ – one moment we can’t
keep up, and the next we don’t seem to have anything we need to
do

5. Even big businesses that you would think must have it all under
control by now are not as great as you might think looking in from
outside!

6. So how do we start to gain back control from the monster we have
created?

7. Perhaps a time management course is the answer? – well it might
help and it is important to manage your time but we need to look
at some fundamentals first

8. Controlling a business is about doing the Right things and doing
things Right

9. It is a continuous cycle of things we need to build into habits – it
consist mainly of Direction, Focus, Goal Setting, working out what
it takes to get there, making time every day to move towards
that goal and reviewing performance against that goal regularly
and adapting as necessary

10. We have covered Direction and Focus in
two other slides where we understood
the importance of strong shared core
values and core purpose, and also the
importance of focusing on something
scalable with the right cash flow
model.

11. • Now we need to set ourselves a challenge – what are we shooting
for? If we know what we are aiming for then we can decide
whether we are on track and whether what we are doing will
directly help us get there

12. Try this exercise: Imagine a journalist is doing a write-up of your
business in 10 years time.
1. Who are they working for (local newspaper, National, International?...).
2. What are the key things they are saying –
• what are you known for,
• what milestones have you reached,
• what awards have you won,
• what do your employees think,
• how big are you (turnover, staff),
• what kind of customers have you got and how many,
• what kind of products and services are you providing,
• where are your offices/ premises, are they owned or leased………

13. Take the 5 or so most exciting snippets and convert them into a
powerful description of your business in 10 years’ time.

14. Now you have this – can you pick out a ‘stretch’ goal? Something
that is linked back to the core purpose. This can be numbers
based or more qualitative:

15. • Become a £1m turnover business with 20% net profits by year 10

16. • Become the business most known in your area for helping SMEs
build on-line relationships

17. • Be seen as the Rolls Royce of catering equipment industry in the
UK

18. So how’s this helping me with control you ask?

19. Well now we have a goal that is linked back to our core purpose and
values, and we have agreed our focus; we can start to work out
what we must do to get there – which means we can start to
control what needs to be done.

20. • We need to make time each day to work on the things that need
doing – because they will move us a step closer to our goal.

21. So if you want to gain control – you need to know what things are
important and work on them, and you need to recognise what
things are less important and find other ways to get them done

22. If you get in the habit of asking “Will it move me closer to my goal?”
then you will begin to regain control

23. If you develop some measures linked to your goal (e.g number of
meetings held with prospects per month, number of telephone
calls, number of new clients, average sale per client etc) then you
can track progress each month – and adjust as you go along!

24. Simples!

25. •Need a sounding board for your ideas?
•Need to know what to prioritise?
•Want someone to challenge your assumptions?

26. BizSmart –
Where Smart people go to surround themselves with other
Smart people, to gain business success.