Josh Brammer

Be ready to grow in a small business

Small businesses can quickly go from organized to chaotic as customer demand increases. So what makes a small business positioned to quickly expand for growth? Is your business growing? How will you be ready as you get more customers? 

Think of it this way: Do you have the ability to add staff (quickly) without decreasing quality or the value your customers expect?

Being able to grow a business often hinges on how well equipped you are to handle employee training. Without the ability to train new employees, you will have a bottleneck in your ability to provide services.

If you can’t train people to deliver at the current quality level, you risk customers seeing a lower value. Improper training could put you in at risk for losing future revenue and stopping the path to grow in it’s tracks. 

Planning for growth: Questions to consider

1. How do I make it easy to teach our systems to a new employee and have them succeed? 
2. Is training slow? Does it take a steep learning curve to make sure our service is provided at the level customers expect?
3. What are the base skills does an employee needs for our training program to get results quickly?
4. What skills can I train?
5. What specific skills do employees need to bring to the table?
6. How do I provide a service that is more valuable to the client that what they pay for it?
7. Can I add a new level of service provided by more experienced team members?
8. Is it time for a price adjustment as we grow? When is the last time you raised prices?

What questions work for your team? Do you have any tips on making sure your team can be trained to match the pace of growth for your company?

I would love to hear your thoughts below. 

4 easy steps to better delegating

No one likes a micro-manager. Use these tips for better teamwork and delegation.

1. Be clear about the results. Make sure that you both agree on what ‘done’ look like. Do you both have a clear picture in your mind of what the world will look like when the task is complete?
2. Talk timelines. Does it need to be done tomorrow, by lunch, next year? ASAP is very unhelpful, so pick a time that can be put on a calendar.
3. Give the right resources. You might have resources available that are necessary to complete the task. Do they need passwords, pencils, $100,000 in small bills?
4. Say Thanks. When someone does something for you, it is important to say thank you and acknowledge their help. Even if it is their job, make sure they know that you respect their time, attention, and helpfulness.

Avoid Over Planning With Teams

When you are exploring new territory for a project, it’s best to not over plan. You’ve never been where you are going, so how can you *really* plan ahead?

Instead try this:

• Decide what success looks like. Start working backwards.
• Come up with the next 3 steps you need to take. If your team thinks the steps sound good, get started quickly.
• Keep moving forward with small steps / chunks. Don’t make huge milestones. They will slow you down and you’ll lose momentum.

How do you keep projects moving with your team? Any tips that work for you?

7 Tips for Getting Projects DONE

Managing projects is not for everyone. If you do find yourself in a project manager role on your team, these tips might help you keep your cool and keep things running smoothly.

Get a clear vision of what “DONE” looks like. In an ideal world, what would it look like to say “Hooray, this project is complete and it was awesome!” If you can picture it in clear detail, you can project manage it.

Create mini-goals. Mini-goals are those items that make up the big picture. Some will be a MUST, while others are more flexible. Once you define the mini-goals of the project, you can know what methods you can try to reach them.

“Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.”

Tom Robbins

Leave your options open. It can help to delay some of your decisions, giving you as much info as possible before you have to commit. General Patton said It can also help to avoid boxing you into decisions that limit your options

Ask Questions. Start by asking lots of questions to make sure everyone is on the same page. This will give you an idea of what will be in bounds or out of bounds on the methods to reach your goal.

Leapfrog due dates. Instead of setting a complicated timeline, keep things moving quickly with mini-decisions and daily progress. Lots of time can be wasted on a project simply waiting to get closer to due-dates instead of making process at a faster pace.

Take the Lead, avoid the committee. Projects get done when someone takes point. If decisions are open to the group, opinions and indecision can lead to slow progress.

“A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion”

Chinese proverb

Communicate, just enough. Find the best way to keep people on the same page, without overwhelming them. Meetings can be great. Email can be great. Ask questions, then communicate decisions. Over-communicating is often a main culprit that slow things down. 

What project tips help you keep things moving? I’d love to hear them!