Risk & Business Magazine Miller Insurance Magazine Winter 2018 | Page 24

5 WAYS TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS
in the U.S. and Canada, found that
its payroll and billing 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.
5
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
Ways To Build Up Your
Business
DON’T BE MYOPIC ABOUT
MARKETING
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
BY: VERNE HARNISH
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
TEACH YOUR PEOPLE WELL
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. +
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.
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
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