Struggling Or Going Bust? Traffic Lights To Turnaround And Success

I made some big mistakes. Absolutely huge, whopping ones.

Which is great. Because even though we went bust, it was a blessing.

In fact, it was a huge gift wrapped box of good stuff. Inside? Benefit Of Hindsight.

When you start out, you do so with high hopes. Nothing is a problem. And when one comes your way, you deal with it.

But when it starts to get tough, all those pearls of wisdom the experienced gave you echo and haunt you at night. If only you'd listened!

How We Applied Those Lessons; More Importantly How You Too Can Open Our Box Of Hindsight

This is for those struggling - but beware any successful people who accidentally start reading this article. This is for you too - because it can keep you there or even make you more succesful than ever.

There are lots of things to get right in business. Cashflow. Marketing. Sales. If you grow, taking on and managing staff. Systems. Taxes. The list goes on.

It is darned complicated.

And sometimes, if you're a paranoid perfectionist like me, it is very easy to fall into the trap of complicating it unnecessarily.

I've said this before, but I remember one sagely pearl of wisdom from our insolvency practitioner. For those outside the UK, these are professionals who advise and execute a company going bust. In the US, I think you use lawyers? Please correct me.

Anyhow, he told me that what we were about to go through could very easily overwhelm me and my partners.

What he said next has stuck with me ever since. It's so simple, but when you're struggling, you just do what you're told.

He told us all to treat it like a hurdle race. Just take them one at a time, and forget the rest. And as you clear each hurdle, it will become increasingly easy.

And since then I've been applying that.

Now get a green, orange (amber) and red highlighter and attack this list. If you haven't got that, simply put a "G", "A" or "R" against this list of stuff in business that's going wrong.

1. Marketing

2. Sales and Sales Targets

3. Cashflow

4. Staffing

5. HR Issues (contracts, policies, and that sort of stuff)

6. Key Costs Than Can Sink You (staff wages and taxes mainly!)

7. Customer Service / Satisfaction

8. Your own stuff...add a few things to the list...

How did you do? Too many reds? Or worse, all reds?

Don't worry. Just pick one from the list. And be tough, don't worry about the rest. It's one hurdle at a time remember!

Now tackle it. Get help. Ask partners in the business or friends in other businesses. Heck why not ask me for some advice? Hit the comments link underneath this article and use an alias under the nickname option.

Now Pick Another

And tackle it. Again, get help or advice if you are struggling.

And The Best Bit Of All? Stop This Happening Ever Again

Now you've tackled all the challenges in your business, did you know you can stop those "Reds" happening?

Create a system. A method for measuring each of those areas. Decide these three things:

1. What measure would I apply to say everything is okay?

2. And what measure would tell things are getting worrying?

3. And what would tell me things have gone bad?


Want An Example?

We're doing really well now. We went bust, but got back up and started again. But complacency is our enemy.

We decided that we're going to be the best darned IT support company a small business ever had.

So if you look at the list above, one of those areas we tackled was number 7 - customer service. And in particular the thing most customers want - the fastest possible response.

Take a peek at the page new clients visit when they sign up: Welcome Aboard; Traffic Light System.

In it we use these traffic light colours graphically on our systems. We keep things green! But should they slip into amber, we spot it straight away.

Even when it's become red, we build in a little contingency so we've still got a chance of solving the call within our principal target.

But you can apply this to everything.

Sales For Example

Cash is a separate target. You know how many sales you need to break-even and exceed to make a profit. But how many enquiries do you need to get a sale?

If 50% of people who enquire buy, and you need 5 sales a week, then you need 10 enquiries a week.

That's 2 a day.

Create a system in 2 minutes on a white board or sheet of paper you stick on the wall.

Write 5 headings - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

At the beginning of each day, write the number of enquiries you got the day before in either green if it's 2 or more, orange (amber) if it's 1, or red if it's a zero.

You are then focused on that. You know how you need to do today to make up for lost ground. And because you are targeting yourself so tightly and frequently, you can focus on other things if you're over-target because you have plenty of time to catch up.

What can happen if you don't target and measure yourself?

Well, you can go bust!

If you don't track enquiries, then a few days, weeks or even months can go by with insufficient enquiries coming in.

You'll soon start noticing though when cash becomes a problem.

But if you target yourself - simply like this - you can keep tabs on the easy things. If you go a few days below your enquiry target, you can think about doing a little marketing.

Sending an email out? Picking up the phone and calling a few clients or prospects? Sending out a mailing?

So, what do you do to keep track of things? Could a simple colour-coded traffic light system help you keep on track?

Let me know - hit the comment link below to share your thoughts - or challenges tackling a business problem for a bit of advice (you can remain anonymous!)

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