Jeweller - December 2020

BUSINESS
Management
Set your business up for success in
2021 with a four-step strategy
A new year is the perfect time for a fresh start, writes DAVID BROWN, who recommends
a simple reflective exercise to organise your business priorities for the future.
There’s something about the beginning
of a new year that makes us take
stock and rethink our actions; gym
memberships have their highest joining
rate and diet programs get an influx of
new members.
It’s the ideal opportunity for a reset in
order to get ourselves back on track – to
undo those bad habits that have crept in
and make sure you’re getting the most out
of your time.
Your business is no exception. Although
it’s not spring, this is the time of year
when your business will most benefit from
a figurative ‘spring clean’.
You’ve got the rush of December behind
you, there is hopefully money in the bank,
and you may even have had a chance to
grab a few days off – if you’re lucky!
So how should your reset take shape?
Starting the process of change
Management expert Brian Tracy, who
has been a keynote speaker and business
training specialist for more than 30 years,
has identified four areas to change.
Now is an opportune time to take his
advice onboard.
Tracy breaks it down into four simple
key questions:
What should I do more of? – What are the
‘good habits’ you’ve managed to establish
in your business that you’d like to do more
often or more regularly?
Perhaps you only re-order your bestselling
products once per fortnight. Could
you step this up to once a week?
After all, the longer a best-seller is out of
the store, the more likely you are to miss a
sale you might otherwise secure.
What should I do less of? – What still
needs to be done, but perhaps could be
done by someone else? What are you
doing that could be done less often?
A failure to delegate undermines many
a good business. Are there tasks you are
responsible for that you don’t need to
Organise your thoughts by answering four management questions.
do yourself? For example, could someone
else be processing those re-orders?
Could you let a staff member deal with
something you don’t need to be doing?
Not only will this free you up to tackle
bigger issues, but it will empower another
staff member and provide a greater level
of job satisfaction.
What should I start doing? – What are
the habits you know you should have that
aren’t getting done?
You may, for example, have had intentions
of getting regular staff training sessions
underway but have kept procrastinating.
These sorts of tasks often fall under the
category of important, but not urgent.
They are valuable to your business but
because they are not pressing – your staff
can survive without the training for now –
you don’t get around to it.
The end result is a business still
functioning, but not succeeding at the
level it could.
What should I stop doing? – This can be
the toughest question to address, because
once made, a habit can be hard to break.
It’s the ideal
opportunity for
a reset in order
to get ourselves
back on track
– to undo those
bad habits that
have crept in
and make sure
you’re getting
the most out of
your time
Do you have regular distractions that are
part of your day that aren’t necessary?
One such distraction may be answering
your staff’s questions.
It may sound counter-intuitive, but
often staff already know the answer to
something – they simply need you to
give them permission to make their
own decisions.
Customer issues are also a case in point.
Do your staff come to you with every
customer problem or complaint?
Empowering them to resolve matters
up to a certain value will eliminate a
large percentage of your time spent on
unnecessary tasks. It will also make the
customer happier as their problem can
be resolved more promptly.
As a further bonus, it also allows your
staff to feel more in control during what
might be an uncomfortable situation
and that in turn gives them a sense of
resilience and confidence.
Set yourself up for success
If you’re looking for a starting point to
make some fresh changes in 2021, then
this exercise is a great place to begin.
Once you begin asking yourself these
questions, you’ll be surprised how many
areas of your business fit into each of the
four categories.
Monitoring your daily activity will soon
show up where you can start to make
meaningful changes.
The small amount of time it will take you
to complete this exercise and implement
some lasting solutions will be some of the
best time you will spend all year.
Don’t procrastinate – get started today!
DAVID BROWN is is co-founder
and business mentor with Retail
Edge Consultants. Visit:
retailedgeconsultants.com.
61 | October 2020