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Leverage in entrepreneurship
What is leverage in entrepreneurship? It comes down to getting the best out of your people, systems and processes!
Let's break down leverage into 4 facets.
Part 1: People & education
Are you getting the best out of your team? Are they getting regular training or updates so that they can grow professionally, thus helping your business grow too? Are you delegating? If not, why not?
Doing it right not only frees up time, but it also gives your employees the chance to take on more responsibility and their motivation increases as well.
Regular reviews/assessments help, especially if there is the opportunity for 360-degree feedback. It is also important to look at your team's productivity - perhaps you have found that productivity has increased because people are working from home - if so, how/why?
Part 2: Delivery & distribution
This has everything to do with the delivery of your service/product to customers/clients. Do you consistently deliver excellent service worth 5 stars?
Whether it is or not; regularly review your systems/processes and make sure they are fit for purpose, now and in the future. Any necessary changes will work better if you involve your team.
Anything that is not automated when it could be, thus becomes worthwhile and covers 80% of situations, leaving only 20% requiring human intervention. Then this is where your staff handbook and training programme comes in.
Without such a manual, you will have to constantly tell your team what to do. A business manual and regular training also ensure that your standards are consistent. This means you spend less time resolving issues with clients or customers and you and your team can focus on making money.
Part 3: Accounting & financial processes
As an entrepreneur, you need to know your numbers. We cannot stress enough how important this is. Measuring = knowing.
How can you know how you are doing if you have no information about your starting point, or your current position! I don't just mean the typical € numbers, but also numbers like number of products/services sold, number of leads, number of customers, number of webinar attendees and conversion rates,... Know ALL the numbers!
Know your sales figures, costs, profit margins and make sure you set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for all areas of your business. This will help you visualise how successful (or not) each area of your business is. It will also allow you to see where valuations or improvements are needed.
Making sure each member of the team knows their individual KPIs means they are able to see the value they bring and also helps keep them motivated to do their best. There might even be room for a little friendly competition.
Part 4: Systems & technology
Having the right systems and technology in place will help streamline your operations. For example, a CRM (customer relationship management) system will allow you to manage your dealings with your customers.
This system not only records who your customers are, it can also track sales, profitability, feedback on what they bought and what marketing material you sent them.
With this information, you can better target customers with your products and services. Start with a flowchart for each area of your business, this will help you identify any bottlenecks
Automate routine tasks or outsource them as this will free up your time. This could be payroll, administrative tasks such as billing clients and managing social media.
Used properly, accounting software can also be a huge benefit. It allows you to create regular reports that clearly show the profitability or lack thereof of each part of your business, saving you time and effort.
All this will help you shift from working IN to working ON your business.
Don't forget the practical manuals that everyone can use - keep them. If you apply these techniques, you will grow your business.
Kurt Vervloet
Kurt Vervloet is a business coach, blogger and speaker. Since 2017, he has been coaching businesses around the world, ranging from solo entrepreneurs, SME companies to executive management teams at large organisations. His clients choose to work with him because of my proven, no-nonsense approach to optimising and scaling businesses. By achieving great results with his clients, he has already been rewarded with several Awards.
