By Howard Partridge
“The secret is the system.” –Michael E. Gerber
In 2011, I had the pleasure of helping Tom Ziglar, son of American legend, the late Zig Ziglar, create a powerful business assessment for Zig Ziglar’s last book Born To Win, which Tom co-authored.
As we fleshed out the parts that every phenomenally successful business needs to have, we settled on five specific areas of the business. This month continues from last month’s article on the Five Secrets of a Phenomenal Business.
Secret #4: A Phenomenal Administration System
Administration is intrinsic in tracking results. It is also an internal office system that includes finance, purchasing, human resources, accounting, legal, and insurance.
Do you know what your cost of doing business is? Do you know what your marketing efforts are producing? Do you know what your sales closing rates are? Do you know what your production rates are? Do you have a budget for the next 12 months? Do you have the right insurance and legal protection?
The One and Only Reason Your Business Exists…is to be a Vehicle to Help You Achieve Your LIFE Goals.
If you want to build a predictable, profitable, turnkey vehicle that will take you where you want to go in life, it will be a lot of work to build it. But it will be worth it.
If you don’t make money, your business isn’t working! A business without a profit is just a hobby! And the only way you know whether you are making a profit is to track it.
Tracking helps you make more while working less.
Read that sentence again. Tracking will help you work less and make more. Why? Because when you get in touch with your actual numbers (prepare to be surprised), it will cause you to stop running harder on the hamster wheel and take action on the things that actually matter.
Secret #5: A Phenomenal Leadership System
I had the opportunity to meet John Maxwell, the world’s number one leadership expert. As the first person to become a founding member of John’s very first coaching program, The John Maxwell Team, I had the opportunity to spend time with John.
John says, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” Everything, can that be true? He goes on to say, “Leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing less; and to gain influence, you must add value to people.” Is leadership required for marketing? – Only if you want to influence people to do business with your company. And remember that all of business is about relationships. Marketing, sales, and service are about relationships. Tracking your numbers reflects your relationship with yourself! Are you serious about your life goals? Or are you using your business just to get by in life, to have something to do?
Speaking of this, John Maxwell also says, “The toughest person to lead is your self.” In addition, Dale Carnegie said, “When you begin to understand your strengths and weaknesses and you begin to understand how to add value to other people, to influence them and to enlist their willing cooperation to reach a goal, you can begin to build a phenomenal team.”
This means that you don’t have to do everything yourself. It means you can now find those people who can do the things you don’t like to do and probably aren’t very good at. My strengths are marketing, sales, service, and leadership. Did you notice that administration wasn’t listed? I hated the numbers until I got in trouble! Then I began to love the fact that I could predict a loss in the future and do something about it before it happened!
I have a staff of forty people who run my companies for me. I can tell you without hesitation that one of my greatest joys in life is watching my team grow. To watch my managers grow as leaders (there is a difference you know) is thrilling. The reason it is thrilling is because I now have a phenomenal leadership system.
Next month I will share an introduction on Phenomenal Marketing Systems and three ways to increase sales.
______________________________________________________________________
Howard Partridge, President of Phenomenal Products, Inc. and International Business Coach, is the author of 7 Secrets of a Phenomenal L.I.F.E. and 5 Secrets of a Phenomenal Business. You can contact Howard by phone at 281-634-0404 or visit his website at www.HowardPartridge.com.
