Industry Magazine Get JACK'D Magazine Winter 2019 | Page 24

BUILD UP YOUR BUSINESS
accountant was working weekends before
it streamlined her workflow. That saved
her a good 20 hours a week. Now the firm
teaches the same pared-down approach to
its franchisees.
Love Your Accountants
Most entrepreneurs undervalue—and
understaff—their finance department,
viewing it as a necessary evil to keep the
tax collectors at bay, issue and pay invoices,
and provide monthly accounting statements.
Big mistake. Hire a sophisticated pro who
can gather the granular data you need to
see where you’re making money by product,
customer, location, or salesperson. It’s the
quickest way to double profits and cash flow
in a year
5
Teach Your People Well
Ways To Build Up Your
Business
Don’t Be Myopic About Marketing
BY: VERNE HARNISH
MOST ENTREPRENEURIAL companies
treat marketing as glorified sales support.
Even worse, they fail to use it to crank up the
flow of qualified job applicants they need
to win. Take a cue from one fast-growing
company I know that needed to lure workers
physically fit enough for trash collecting. It
posted ads in local gyms asking, “Would you
like to be paid for your workout?” The fliers
cost next to nothing, and the owner found
plenty of energetic candidates.
Fight Process Paralysis
Functions such as recruitment, billing,
and customer care are like hallway closets.
You have to clean them up once in a while—
not just throw more people at them—so
they don’t get sloppy. Nurse Next Door, a
home health care provider in the U.S. and
Canada, found that its payroll and billing
If you want the company to grow by a factor
of 10, you need 10 times the leadership skills
among your key people. They’ll need to excel
at predicting where the market is heading,
communicating the company’s values, goals,
and priorities—and delegating successfully
to their teams. Give them time away from
the fray to attend the conferences, classes,
and seminars they need to make a bigger
contribution—so you don’t have to pay for
their on-the-job mistakes.
Invest In Systems
Fast-growing firms need to upgrade
their infrastructure at three critical points
or their teams will get lost in inefficiency:
At 10 employees, you need a better phone
system; at 50, sophisticated accounting
software; and at 350, a single database that
links all key information, so a simple change
of address by a customer doesn’t trigger a
cascade of mistakes. Procrastinating on
this will kill your growth. Trust me: Your most
aggressive rivals made these changes—last
year.
ABOUT VERNE HARNISH
VERNE HARNISH is founder of the world- renowned Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), with over 12,000 members worldwide,
and chaired for 15 years EO’s premiere CEO program, the “Birthing of Giants” held at MIT, a program in which he still teaches
today. Verne is also Founder and CEO of Gazelles, a global executive education and coaching company with over 210 partners
on six continents, Verne has spent the past three decades helping companies scale-up.
gazelles.com
24