Set Motamedi
July 26, 2023
If you missed Bambee CEO and Founder Allan Jones speaking at the Hello Alice
Small Business Bootcamp, you'd want to read a recap of his best advice. From a
family of small business owners himself, Allan advises on many critical tips
that can help you become more efficient and focused.
Yearly Planning Process - You can put as many things into an
Excel document or Power Pt as you want, but if you or your core team isn't
held together with the glue, which is the discussion, the conversation, the
context, the plans, don't matter.
Spend a few days thinking and talking about what went well, where you went
wrong, and what mistakes you can identify that were made previously. Then
shift to thinking about making sure those same mistakes don't happen in
the future.
Once you define those key points, take another few days to think, what do
we want this year to look like based on our reflections?
Defining the new year goals - Keep it simple to start and
build quarterly
Choose at least 3 SBOs (Small Business Objectives) that are the focus
areas for the year.
These big overarching goals will move the needle in your business the
most. Create your plan around these critical areas.
Think about the fundamentals - They matter when it comes to
profitability.
Ask yourself what is my bottom line and do you have enough capital to get
me there and keep me there.
Define a few metrics that are important to your business depending on what
vertical you are in
Put yourself in your customers' shoes - They are the center of your business. The more unique perspective you have, the more you can add value to your offerings or services.
What do our customers need?
And specifically, what do our customers need that no other competitor can offer them?
Set tangible targets - Think big! Innovation happens under constraints.
Set crazy targets because it forces you to think about ideas and ways to
hit them that you would not have thought of if the targets were overly
achievable versus overly unachievable.
Constraints drive innovation, and conditions cause creativity. I only
have these four walls; what can I do? Without your conditions, you can't
innovate. So the only thing separating you from the non-innovators is who
is more creative under pressure and constraints. Everybody could do what
you're talking about with a million dollars, right?
Set Check-Ins with yourself and your team - It's a rolling process, hold yourself and your team to targets to make sure what you said would be executed is
Once a month, sit down by yourself or with team members that are a part of this exercise and ask, how are we executing the SBO?
Were we right or wrong about what we thought X would bring? How off were
we? How right were we? Should we deprioritize the following three things
because we have had so much success with item number one?
Have humility and trust during this process - You have to have the flexibility and build the ability to pivot and adapt to the structure you are trying to build
Realize when something we said would move the needle doesn't quite do it,
and then move something else up in its place that can help more or in a
different way.
Encourage vulnerability, appreciate it, or make it easy to feel in some
moments, as long as you think team members have genuinely learned from
their mistakes.
Decide how and when you will get involved. Try to get involved when it
comes to greasing wheels or spur good thinking instead then managing every
aspect.
Dealing with disappointment - It's unavoidable. You will feel
disappointed sometimes, one after another, sometimes in tandem with other
emotions. This is the time to regroup and reset
Choose a role model- whom do you admire, and why do you respect them? What
do they do that you can weave into your own life?
Create a system of discipline- whatever that discipline is, practice it
daily so it becomes a part of you to build your efficiency and
effectiveness.
Creativity and Strategy - Carve out time to do some deep
thinking about your impact on the business
Know where you need to dive into the weeds and where you need to get
involved versus where you need to delegate. My output was only valuable when
I was behind my desk.
Stepping away lends to creativity. Give yourself many moments weekly to step
away, whether it's a weekend getaway, a walk on the beach, or a good book,
and take inventory of what that does to your mind and body
Team Building - Only some people are suitable for your
company. Let the unsure ones go quickly. And I don't mean fire them, have the
conversation.
Everyone's not for you. The more precise you can be about that at the top,
the better you're sorry. At the bottom, the better you're recruiting at the
top.
Create hiring values that align with your culture and consistently score
recruits against that.