When I was a kid, skaters and surfers were cool, as was the totally rad lingo. I still catch myself using some words from my youth like, psych, dude, bro and even AWESOME! As an adult, I can appreciate a word like awesome for how powerful it is. The word means to be filled with great reverence, a mixed tremendous feeling deep within full of admiration or veneration.
In my youthful eyes, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich was “awesome,” but now, awesome applies more towards majestic mountain peaks or great human achievements- especially when those require overcoming hardship. I am constantly inspired and amazed at some of the things great leadership does for its business.
Over the years, I have seen, been part of and even used, a simple formula for creating something incredible in a business. Your business life can be overwhelming, but by breaking it down into five areas, you can achieve something truly awesome!
1. Planning
Basic business 101 dictates having a well thought out business plan. Depending on your goals and business size, you may need help creating achievable goals, procedures, methodologies, and specific measurable actionable items. Of course you need to establish a clear vision when you start a business. However, updating, maintaining and constantly improving your vision over the years is more important. Your clear vision is what leads the way for your team. Make sure you stay on track.
Financial planning is the backbone of your business. You cannot plan or predict every market condition, but that only means you have to plan for volatile markets as well as great conditions. Future planning relies heavily on past predictors, so establishing a methodology for your business is key. You should have a tracking and reporting system in place for all areas of your business, as well as expert analysis of the different areas. Your company may not be large enough for an internal team, but that’s fine. There are many experts in the field of financial analysis and planning you can hire short term, or for special projections.
2. Staffing & Recruiting Top Talent
Easy to say and hard to do in today’s uber low unemployment marketplace but these top talents are out there as we hire top talent for our clients every single day, day after day. Hiring and retaining these great employees are critical for building your brand, achieving sales, and help further the company mission. They represent your company, help keep your customers satisfied, and lower your overall operating costs. The list goes on, but I can’t stress enough how important it is to hire great employees. The reverse of that, a bad employee, can be toxic to your business. They promote dissatisfaction, impact your bottom line, and can cost you your valuable customers. Weed out the bad apples as soon as you spot them.
Consider strategically staffing your office. A good workforce strategy in today’s marketplace includes hiring a smaller, core group of permanent employees, and planning on temporary or contract employees for other positions. You should plan to have specialized positions that round out your core skill sets. It’s amazing how many businesses do not have a workforce strategy in place but you sure as heck know that these business have a business strategy, a financial strategy, a marketing strategy, etc but no workforce strategy? Last I checked, people still run businesses so please do your business a favor, put a workforce strategy in place.
3. Execution
The best strategies and planning you can work on mean nothing if you don’t work hard to execute them. From the time you started your business, to your situation today, you have the opportunity to achieve a dream worth doing. Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt said it a little more eloquently, “Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
However you say it, working hard, incorporating discipline, and staying focused on your work will be well worth your efforts.
Working hard doesn’t mean just sitting behind a desk all day, it also means building your network, making friends in your industry, and reaching out to the community around you.
4. Growth
Your business goals determine what good growth is for you. Increased revenue, hiring additional staff, or opening a new store may all be within your business growth goals. However, if you have a start-up company, one of the most important metrics to look at is your Revenue Growth Rate.
This monthly metric is a solid indicator of growth and is closely looked at by investors. Even after your business has passed the start-up point, it’s a metric every business owner should know immediately. It is the measurable, provable, unassailable number of how well your company is doing.
For instance, at HH Staffing we just opened a new office. With your trust and help, our company continues to exceed set goals and initiatives. With years of planning and exceeding goals we had set has led to us opening this new office. Thanks to all of our clients, candidates, team members and “believers” in HH Staffing!
5. Stay Positive – Have Fun!
One of my close friends is a survival expert. He says that all his survival classes start with one admonishment- no matter what the challenge- try your best to keep a positive attitude.
Although the world of business is not some jungle in Panama, you are the leader of your team. Like all good teams, a coach needs to stay positive and have a little fun. Optimism, positivity and work ethic are contagious and should flow from the top down. Embracing the idea you are a coach and a mentor to your direct reports and no matter what, you are a team, helps you to balance the weight of leadership, and staying on track. Great coaches have a vision, encourage others to achieve more than they thought possible, and nurture a positive environment.
Challenges will come up, challenges that strain our positivity to the max. But one of the greatest coaches of all time, Lou Holtz once said: “How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.” To me, this is exactly how a business is defined by its awesomeness. Do you rise to a challenge, determined to win and overcome? Or will you lose yourself, and fill your team with negative thoughts and emotions, sabotaging their efforts? I encourage you to choose winning, however you define wining.
Bringing It All Together,
Being positive and having fun is a choice. And it’s the right choice if you want to turn your business into something extraordinary. If you do these five things well- plan, recruit, execute, grow and lead with positivity, I can assure you with a degree of confidence that your company will reap the rewards.
Until Next Time,
Your Staffing Partner, Darrin Rohr- President, CEO and Chief Servant
Current owner of HH Staffing and Former Chief HR Officer for several successful Multinational Fortune 500 Companies. Brings fresh perspective from decades of experiences creating Great Workplace Cultures by building high performance teams while leading and managing people from all different backgrounds. HH Staffing is headquartered in Sarasota, Florida and is uniquely positioned to serve both local and national clients.
