Implementation Is Key To Building Any Business!

How close are you to reaching your targets for this year?

We work with dozens and dozens of business owners, each with varying degrees of success, but I can tell you for certain, the most successful businesses and business owners we work with have clearly defined goals, objectives and targets. They also monitor progress EVERY month—at our insistence.

This is something we’ve learned along the way.  Most business owners that do set goals and targets are often poor in following through. It’s my belief the key reason for this and a lack of achievement, is very little monitoring and measuring.

There’s little use in setting goals if you only review them once a year or even two or three times a year. Each and every month, you need to…

• Review your goals, objectives and targets
• Monitor if you’re ‘on target’ or ‘off target’. In fact, there’s a very good reason to monitor twice a month—once mid-month and then again at the end. If you leave your monitoring until the end of the month, you have no way of meeting the monthly target, but midway through you can do many things to get on target by the end of the month
• After monitoring progress, you can then alter, amend or scale up your tasks and activities to make sure you  get back on target or  take advantage   of   the   over achievement, to blow your targets out of the water

With this level of monitoring, coupled with the frequency of doing it, you’re much more likely to achieve the targets you set your business—on one condition...

...and that leads on nicely to the heading of this article — IMPLEMENTATION.

To achieve any of your goals, objectives and targets, implementation and follow-through is key.

Sure, sometimes you can get lucky and, when a business has momentum, this can continue for some time, but it’s never worth the (foolish) risk of inactivity.

As a general rule, you’ve either got to do more or change what you’re doing, if you want to improve performance. Doing the same thing won’t change anything. It really is that simple. But, ultimately, one question I often ask clients is ‘How badly do you want it?’ Time will tell!

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Moments Of Truth

In 1987 Jan Carlzon, the CEO of Scandinavian Airlines, wrote the book, ‘Moments OfTruth’. It explained how he took the airline from deficit to profit by ‘moving’ the airline to a customer-focused organisation.

Now, as you know, there have been many books written on customer service, but where this book and Carlzon’s strategies really differ is his focus on each interaction the customer has with the business.

He calls these ‘Moments of Truth’ and, of course, each interaction can be a positive or a negative experience.

ScandinavianAirlines prospered because they worked very hard to make sure each Moment Of Truth with their customers was a very positive experience, and the results they achieved were a testament to this.

Little did Carlzon know that with Moments Of Truth he created, in my opinion, arguably the best, easiest and most amazing customer service system ever devised!

Take a look at the diagram below. It shows how at each contact (Moment Of Truth) you need to ensure each interaction is a favourable one for the customer.

So a Moment Of Truth is an interaction between the business and the prospective customer, client or patient.

It’s called a Moment Of Truth because, irrespective of the type of interaction that occurs (meeting, letter, phone call, e-mail, etc.), the outcome can either be a positive or a negative experience for the prospect or the client.

What continues to surprise me is how few businesses use Moments Of Truth or similar strategies to ‘WOW’ their customers or prospective customers.

Think about your own experiences with other businesses—from a business perspective or simply as a normal consumer. Think back over the last ten years or so and try to pinpoint an interaction that occurred between you and a business where you said to yourself, ‘WOW, that was amazing’.

So where and when should you be looking to implement Moments Of Truth in your business? That’s easy. Look at all your interactions with your customers, clients or patients and for each single interaction write down what you could do to make them think ‘WOW’ or at least make them think ‘that was impressive’.

Once your team grasp the concept of Moments Of Truth, they too will come up with even better ways to create WOWs for your customers. But like everything, you have to implement—otherwise you’ll never get the results you deserve.

Now I’d like to finish this article by giving you one of the best examples I’ve ever seen regarding Moments Of Truth.

I’ve taken it from a book I recommend titled ‘How To Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive’ by Harvey MacKay.

When I read this, I thought it was the perfect remedy for any of our clients who didn’t feel Moments Of Truth would work for them, or felt they were too difficult to implement. It’s a short story of how a cab/taxi driver has implemented Moments Of Truth in his business and the effect they have had on it. Read this very carefully.

It’s full of nuggets you can use right now in your business...

Harvey was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine.  

Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie and freshly pressed black trousers, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey.  

He handed Harvey a laminated card and said: “I'm Wally, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement.” Taken aback, Harvey read the card.    It     said:  ‘Wally's  Mission Statement:

To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.’  

This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!  

As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, “Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.”   Harvey said jokingly, “No, I'd prefer a soft drink.”  

Wally smiled and said, “No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice.”  

Almost stuttering, Harvey said, “I'll take a Diet Coke.” Handing him his drink, Wally said, “If you'd like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today.”   As they were pulling away, Wally handed Harvey another laminated card.

“These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to listen to the radio.”  

And, as if that wasn't enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him.   Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day.   He also let him know that he'd be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.  

Then Harvey said, “Tell me, Wally, have you always served customers like this?” Wally smiled into the rear-view mirror.

“No, not always. In fact, it's only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do.

“Then I decided to do things differently. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.”

“I take it that has paid off for you?” Harvey said.   “It sure has,” Wally replied. "In my first year I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it, and I take a piece of the action.”  

Wally was implementing Moments Of Truth, even though he didn’t realise it! With just a few changes to the way he worked—and, more importantly, the way every other taxi cab driver/firm worked —Wally transformed his business.  

This true story demonstrates that if Moments Of Truth can be so successful for a taxi driver, it can work for any type of business – ESPECIALLY YOUR BUSINESS! 

Pushkar Joshi

Keeping The Entrepreneurial Spirit Alive

Summer is in full swing. The sun’s shining and as most people look forward to their holidays (or you may have had yours already?) it gives us all a time to reflect on our businesses and the progress we’re making!

As you know, we work with dozens of business owners. Many of them are what I would call ‘Entrepreneurs’ (with a capital ‘E’). Some are ‘Serial’ entrepreneurs, but they all have one thing in common—they are building something. Hopefully, something special. Something that defines their knowledge, expertise, hard work (blood, sweat and tears!) and commitment.

But from time to time, we all take a battering. I have never seen a business go from start-up, to growth and through to successful sale or exit where everything was perfect. And it’s at these ‘challenging’ times when the entrepreneur really shows himself or herself. It’s what sets us apart from the ‘pale imitations’ of the real thing.

Most of the successful entrepreneurs we work with have at some point taken a real battering, but they pick themselves up, dust themselves down and drive forward relentlessly (hopefully, learning from the mistakes they made).

Nevertheless, it’s at these points where our entrepreneurial spirit takes its biggest battering.

At times, because of the pressures of running your own business, your entrepreneurial spirit gets lost, hidden  and  often subdued. You must fight against this. It’s your entrepreneurial spirit that gets you up in the morning. That says, ‘Here’s another day full of opportunities’ (the ‘NON’-entrepreneurial spirit says, ‘I wonder what problems we’ll have today!’ - there’s a big difference).

One of the best ways to keep your entrepreneurial spirit alive and kicking is to keep working ‘on’ your business, rather than ‘in’ it.

That’s what makes you entrepreneurial. Reading success books (autobiographies written by sports stars, film actors, and business millionaires) and, of course, reading our Business Builder newsletter will keep the juices flowing and keep you thinking differently—as we do as entrepreneurs.

But you must keep the fire burning. Don’t take it for granted. And don’t let others squash your thinking. It’s what keeps us pushing our businesses forward.

Feel free to contact us if you need any help. 
At APJ, we can provide effective solutions for your business proposition by working proactively with you, taking your ideas and helping you to develop them into a thriving business.

3 simple tips to Make an Impact With Your Bid Presentations!

Being a Small Business, Contractor, or even Big Organizations, the pressure to win new business in today’s market is enormous. There are more firms chasing less work, the market now is competitive than ever. Therefore, firms have had to adapt and retune their business development models. How firms design and package their bid presentation can make the difference between winning or losing a client.


Here are 3 simple tips to make an impact through your Presentation:

3 simple tips to create an impact through your Bid Presentation

1. Be Energetic:

How you present yourself is a big influencer on how people react to you, especially if they are unfamiliar with your business. Of course, clients want to work with professionals and experts in their field. However, in today’s market they can afford to be selective and work with people who are dynamic and progressive. Creating a typical standard document gets you nowhere. Be prepared to be bold and clever in order to stand out.

2. Creativity At Its Best:

Tenders come in different shapes and sizes. Firms respond by using a variety of applications such as Word, PowerPoint and In-Design. There is no right or wrong application for replying to tenders, but In-Design or a similar design package can enhance the creativity of your response. Remember though, that accountants, lawyers and business development people are not designers. Focus on getting the content right and, where possible, use designers for the design work.

3. Perfectly Balanced:

There is a balance to be achieved in trying to design a document that satisfies the needs of different stakeholders. However, if you are not pushing how you present your key differentiating messages, brand values and personality, your competitors will be. When your client has a few tender documents in front of them, all roughly saying the same thing, they are more likely to reject yours if it’s just another run-of-the-mill document.

Are you still Confused? Our value added services are focussed on making sure you earn more money and keep more of that money for you, your family and your lifestyle... whatever the size of your business or wallet.

Request your FREE meeting today. If you're still undecided, watch this video first and/or phone us direct on 02089310165.

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Flexible Working Got More Flexible since June!

New employment rules mean the right to request flexible working extended to all employees with 26 weeks' service since June 30th.

Earlier, only employees with children under 17 (or disabled children under 18) and those with responsibilities as carers have a right to request flexible working.

New Flexible Working Rule

Under new measures, however, any employee with 26 weeks’ continuous service can ask to work flexibly for any reason, whether it’s taking up a further education course, combining work with caring for the grandchildren, or simply wanting to spend less time at work.

Eligible employees will be able to request a change to working hours, working time or work location.

The amended Children and Families Act 2014 removes the prescriptive statutory procedure for dealing with requests, replacing it with a duty on employers to deal with requests in a ‘reasonable manner’ and to notify employees of their decision within three months, unless an extension is agreed.

More employees will be able to request flexible working but it doesn’t mean they have the right to have that request granted. Similar principles are likely to apply when considering requests received and the grounds for refusing remain the same.

Employers will still be able to reject requests if there are legitimate business reasons for doing so; for example, if it would lead to additional costs for the company, affect its ability to meet customer demand or have a detrimental impact on the company’s performance.

The new flexible working rule is one of several ‘family-friendly’ changes in the pipeline over the next 12 months.

From October 1st 2014 a prospective father or a mother’s partner can take unpaid time off to attend up to two antenatal appointments, while from April 5th 2015 parents of newly born or newly adopted babies, and in some cases a mother and her partner, will be allowed to share a combined total of up to 52 weeks of parental leave and 39 weeks of statutory pay between them.

We have a specialist payroll service that can assist you in the continuing administrative requirements surrounding employment. We would be delighted to discuss these with you.

Contact us for more information at ☎☎ 020 89310165!

We are a team of Chartered Certified Accountant regulated and monitored by The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).