What Are the 7 Proven Principles of Business Success? (Part 2) |
Principle 5: Build foundations for growth.
If you want to build your business to provide a lavish lifestyle, you need to build foundations, just like making any building. If you don't intend to increase your profits, you don't need foundations. If you want to seriously improve your net profit percentage (even without increasing turnover), you must have firm foundations. When they build a skyscraper, they don't build up; they dig a big hole down.
The foundations in business are two things. It is first, having documented systems. A system is the best way of doing something everyone knows and uses, identifies, and writes down. It helps consistency and efficiency, and as you grow, people are accountable to the systems, not to you, the owner. That means you save time checking on everyone. Plans only work when you have worked with your staff to become a TEAM.
Secondly, measuring everything is part of building foundations. If you haven't measured your Key Performance Indicators, how will you improve on them? Increasing Net Profit percentage of turnover comes from improving everything you currently do, remember?