9 factors that will help you increase revenues in your business

The company is the beloved “child” of every entrepreneur. And as is the case when we take care of our children – sometimes we do not pay attention to “mundane” organizational matters, including costs. In the meantime, it’s really worth it.

When you run your business – whether it’s a large enterprise employing hundreds or thousands of people, or a small one-man business – it’s good to have the following questions constantly “in your head”:

• How can you avoid the frustrating “rush” of running your business?
• How do I find time to manage my business?
• How to manage your “human capital”, i.e. skilfully motivate employees to use their potential?
• How to improve internal communication?
• How to strengthen your self-confidence for important decisions?
• How to deal with competition and the price war?
• How to implement best practices
• How to limit rising costs?

And finally, “last but not least”:

• How do I find time for my family in all of this?

Many a businessman, absorbed in urgent, current affairs, no longer has time for such contemplation. Meanwhile, they are essential for success on the market.

Your company can grow by as much as several dozen percent during the year, if you skillfully use 9 factors developed by the Institute of Change Leaders as part of an innovative method called Change Value Process.

Change Value Process

It provides the principles of strategic management of the inevitable changes in your company and your personal transformation that takes place during this process. At CVP, we managed to combine start-up experiences – both small companies and large corporations – with a psychological and therapeutic approach to working with people. And all this is finally included in a coherent Strategic Action Plan of your company.

Leadership Mindset Community

To support our clients in the development of their companies and to develop optimal solutions for them using CVP, we have created the Leadership Mindset Community.

It is an organization that serves the development of managers. In this work, we use the tools offered by CVP.

Working in LMC on the development of his potential, the entrepreneur pursues 4 Personal Goals:

• To have more time to myself
• To have more inner peace
• Free yourself from blockages that often prevent you from making important decisions
• To strengthen your inner strength towards greater assertiveness and self-confidence

There are also 4 Communication Goals:

• Easier management
• More efficient communication in the company
• An effective team
• Efficient and quick making the right decisions

and 4 Business Goals:

• Increase of competitive advantage on the market
• Strengthen the personal branding of the company’s top leaders
• Strengthen the company’s branding
• Development of innovation leading to ahead of the competition and increasing revenues and profits of the company, which will also increase its value on the market

Of course, the value of the company does not only increase through the development of innovation, which will be discussed later.

We always encourage our clients to make it clear whether all of the above goals are important to them, or just some of them? Once they have made this selection, please mark their satisfaction level on a scale from “-3” to “+3” for each of the selected points. Here, “-3” stands for the proverbial “tragedy” and “+3” for the perfect condition. The more you are aware of which aspects of your business you should develop, the more “ahead” you are and the closer to success.

Having learned about this “positioning” of our client, we know what tools to offer him then. Is it, for example, strategic workshops “tailored”, or maybe individual counseling, or maybe finally participation in the classes of the Business School?

We have gained our knowledge in this area thanks to working with many market tycoons, such as Śnieżka, Google, Smyk or Orange, but also with much smaller companies that have achieved significant success on the market – of course, according to the measure and scale of their venture.

Now it’s time for the specifics!

4 factors thanks to which you can increase revenues in your business

In the full development model of the company we take into account 9 factors (see graphic below), but today we will discuss 4 of them. All factors stem from the 3 main areas of CVP:

Mentality – what “sits” in our head and in the minds of other participants of the market game

Communication – that is: how do we talk to people, be it when negotiating the terms of sale or marketing our company, or with our own employees

Strategy – it is a program of the company’s activity that allows to achieve the assumed goals using its resources and “production potential”

Feel free to find out about 4 factors in the Strategy area:

• operational efficiency implementation
• implementing a competitive advantage
• implementing innovation
• implementation of the sales and financial strategy

How to improve the company and regain time? Implement operational agility

Statistically speaking, most entrepreneurs want to improve and organize their business. We call it “operational agility implementation” and there are dozens of ways to do it. The first thought is that every company – whether large or small – should be more and more efficient in operation. And this “operational efficiency” can be measured using a variety of tools and thus improve its functioning in many areas. It then becomes “better” month by month, quarter by quarter or year by year.

We have many threads to “embrace” here: distribution channels, supply chain, implementation of IT systems, the speed of producing our product, the speed of customer service, or even the efficiency of conducting meetings, which are often unnecessarily prolonged. . Working with a given company, we create a whole “map” of its operational efficiency, thanks to which we can identify and then eliminate its weak points.

It is worth taking into account the strategic levels of the company’s functioning defined in the CVP. We can find among them: vision, strategic goals, operational goals, operational processes, scope of responsibility, scope of activities, instructions, development activities, value change, taking care of the needs and self-esteem of people working with us, the so-called “shadow work” and finally CEMK-i. It is an acronym formed from the words: Traits, Emotions, Mentality, and Competencies. The traits we especially care about are: courage and creativity, as well as the ability to deal with stress. What is also needed here is the mentality of a winner, an interesting person who is developing and who wants to win. On the other hand, competencies that are desirable in business are certainly foreign language skills and management skills – including decision-making.

This “straightening” the twisted paths of the company – developing the areas of its operation described above and implementing corrective solutions – is work for at least a year, although it usually takes us two or three years. Thanks to this, we increase the value of the company both in the eyes of its owners and in the eyes of potential buyers and investors. They then know that it is worth paying more for it, because it will be a good deal.

If, however, we are strongly associated with the company and therefore we do not see the possibility of getting rid of or selling our beloved “child”, then thanks to the implementation of the remedial actions described in this article, we will achieve an improvement in revenues – that is, higher profits.

An entrepreneur and leader in an organization should keep in mind the question:

Which aspects of our business venture can we do better every quarter, every six months, every year?

These issues can be discussed without any methodology. However, many people find it difficult to answer difficult questions by themselves. Therefore, they are happy to invite an external consultant to cooperate. It will be easier for him to point out our mistakes and suggest what we can optimize in our company.

For example, minimizing costs, thanks to which we will multiply profits. Experts from the Institute of Change Leaders have been working on the optimization of production processes for many years. Thanks to this, we have strong evidence that by moving the assembly table in the production hall by one and a half meters, we will gain 2 seconds in terms of the production time of a given product. And by moving the tools to another place, we will gain another 10 seconds. After implementing all such corrections, we can ultimately save hundreds of thousands of seconds per year, which will translate into savings of tens of thousands of zlotys, or euros or dollars. This is how the above-mentioned refinement of operational objectives leads to tangible financial benefits.

And the office workers? For example, they could learn to type faster or conduct daily office meetings more efficiently. If we manage to save 15 minutes on each of them, it will give us more than an hour on a weekly basis, five hours a month, i.e. half a day’s wage, which will translate into a whole week of work. And on a decade scale? Let us remember the famous “butterfly effect” in which a minimal change in the size of the flapping of a butterfly’s wings can cause enormous changes in a more distant perspective.

Describing processes and responsibilities is important for any company. And this large corporation with thousands of employees, and the small one with only a few people. And when we describe precisely the position and related operational processes, as well as the scope of responsibility of the employee associated with this position, then the implementation of his successor to work will take place with much less time and resources – and thus at a much lower cost. In addition, the new employee will then make much fewer mistakes at the beginning of his career in the company, which will also bring quite measurable savings.

Extremely interesting from the perspective of the so-called “Inner Leadership” is level 12 of our list of strategic levels (graphic above) – this is the so-called “shadow”, or the proverbial “topics swept under the carpet” that are not spoken of loudly. For example, the brother or sister of a small business owner is not competent enough, but she was hired on a “because you know …” basis. When I discover this, I take such an owner aside and ask directly if he is aware that in this way he is doing harm not only to his company, but also to his brother or sister, without giving them a chance to improve anything in himself. Why should they do it, if they have a certain income here on the old principle remembered from the times of the Polish People’s Republic: “Whether you stand or lie down, you should get three thousand”. The more the company grows, the more such “taboos” there are.

We start working in the company and observe when its owner – our client – becomes ready to touch the “shadow theme”. And when he begins to be ready, we say to him, “It’s time for a serious conversation. What’s with this guy? Is he to be fired? Or to press? Do you really want to keep it the way it is now? ”.

The issue of such a “shadow” also has its own communicative dimension. Because if people bypass such a person and do not want to cooperate, it has the effect of prolonging company meetings and slowing down the decision-making process – just because there is no trust between its participants. There is also a lack of mutual respect between them, because this “person” is lazy or is not competent enough. It hasn’t shown up enough. This whole situation has a very large impact on the operational efficiency – or inefficiency – of the company. And you have to keep this in mind, and above all, learn how to work with the “Shadow” of the organization, taboo topics that can destroy the company from the inside. This is the key task of today’s modern leaders.

Revenues increase in the company due to the fact that “production processes” – this term always means various types of activities related to the specificity of a given business venture – take place more and more efficiently in it. Something is done more efficiently, decisions are made faster. This lowers operating costs and accelerates the achievement of the desired final effect. Operational efficiency has many aspects.

How to strengthen your position on the market? Build a Competitive Advantage

It is important to know in the business mind that building this advantage is extremely important. Meanwhile, most entrepreneurs, including representatives of the management of large corporations, have a slogan in their heads: “the goal is to sell”. And it is actually one of the most important things. But not the only one of key importance for the future of your company. Of course its existence is based on sales. This was demonstrated by the recent months of restrictions caused by the pandemic, when many companies – unable to sell their services / products – simply would not have managed without state aid.

Nevertheless, if we rely solely on continuous sales, and we do not build a competitive advantage – which also includes building the company’s value – then something will still be wrong.

What is building a competitive advantage in companies? You can look at this issue in terms of its many aspects, but let us again refer to the three areas mentioned above: mentality, communication, and strategy. Mentality has to do with so-called emotional intelligence, communication with social intelligence, and strategy with business intelligence.

In the case of the mentality – emotional intelligence of leaders, we are talking about the fact that they have to make a decision: whether they want to continue to earn, or whether it is time to build the value of their company. One of my clients owns four e-commerce sites – he is just opening a fifth one – which generates over PLN 15 million in turnover per year. At the beginning it operated in quite a lot of organizational chaos, but this stage is fortunately behind us.

We have already done a lot and now, after a few months of cooperation, the time has come to decide: whether our businessman still only wants to generate more and more money, or maybe he would rather start building the value of his company, and then start selling shares or not at all sell a company? And when he says he chooses the latter, I ask him: at what point and for how much? Worldwide standards show that a business is usually sold for roughly two, three or four times its revenue. This, of course, depends on the country, the industry, and the historical moment. My client replies that the good time to sell the company will come when it reaches a turnover of PLN 30 million. Therefore, I estimate that he should then take 80 or even 100 million zlotys for it. We then set the mindset and strategy for three years ahead to raise the company to the level of PLN 30 million in turnover per year and this is the direction we are going.

A competitive advantage is built in the long term, depending on the goals you set. Because you can generate huge amounts of money and later, thanks to this, allow yourself to buy huge amounts of goods or some know-how. Or your competitive advantage will be that you will generate huge revenues, lower the margin and the profits will be smaller then, but you will generate such a recognition potential, such a huge base that someone will want to buy you. And then you will invest this capital in new know-how or in a new company. This is also your competitive advantage – when your competition is not able to do it, because somewhere it “revolves around its own tail”.

And when it comes to your mindset: do you have a company to work and earn, or to be the best? For example, many years ago I had an emotional block from being the best in Friars “I don’t want that pressure.” However, five years have passed and I am now able to say: “In this and this aspect, the Institute for Change Leaders will become a leader.” And we can see that this has already started to happen. As an expert, I already have one of the higher rates, I am invited – as a lecturer – to postgraduate MBA studies, I also make statements in the media. We have innovative products, we have different marketing systems and we are one of the best in some areas. And we can also get even better. Because when the above-mentioned mindset is established in the head of the company’s owner, the business reality also changes.

Now let’s move on to the topic of communication. And again, the manager has to ask himself: “Do you want employees who do – better or worse – it depends on their mood on the day – the tasks you commissioned, or would you prefer to have” ambassadors “who will promote your company and will they always be loyal to her, even in times of crisis? ”. So: what kind of communication with people will you create in the company? What kind of company culture will you build? Those referred to as “employees” will go to another employer for a fee of PLN 100 more. The latter will be ready even for a temporary fee reduction if the company gets into some temporary trouble and will give more. It is not about any manufacturing, but about the fact that they will want to support “their” company. And it is thanks to such “ambassadors” that you can build a competitive advantage, because they will do more and better when they are interested in the success of the company they identify with. They will be happy to offer you more quality in their work when you take care of them with due respect.

Also, a potential investor will probably notice that your people approach their duties differently than elsewhere, and this will also be an argument for him to buy your business. This will be an important added value.

Another example in the context of communication is advertising vs integrated marketing. Because you can invest in advertising in various places: here a billboard, here leaflets at a conference, here advertising on Facebook or in Adwords. However, you can choose the so-called “Integrated marketing”, which consists in establishing direct contact with your potential customers using the communication channels offered by social media. Then they are much closer to you and they perceive you as “a brand on a higher level”. And then they will be happy to buy from you, even at a price slightly higher than the competition. The ad runs for a week / month and is not working after that. But integrated marketing, which builds a strong brand, works really long term, additionally “loyal” to your customers as well.

Do you prefer to focus on the VIP brand and focus on a selected niche, or to build a “scale” or organize activities for a wide range of recipients?

ILZ has been focusing on the VIP brand for many years, which is why we have realized contracts for several dozen / several hundred thousand PLN for small and large companies, and therefore my consulting and coaching rates are among the highest on the market. Therefore, the annual cycle of participation in the School of Advisers costs PLN 30,000, as much as a professional MBA. And participation in our Business School costs from 50 to 200 thousand PLN. But we are starting to add, step by step, a “scale strategy”. This is not easy. For example, Amazon sells everything on a massive scale and with a low margin. And at the other extreme, there is an exclusive Ferrari that is completely out of scale like the Ford. It sells only a few dozen – sometimes several hundred – of its amazing cars.

Another strategic aspect is service vs. know-how. For example, in my industry, the trainer earns money for the “man-hour” of the workshops he runs. And that is why it is worth creating your own, unique know-how, which will make customers prefer to choose your offer and even pay more for it, because it is worth it.

We build our unique know-how based on the methodologies developed within the Change Value Process and we focus on “delivering” specific results .. We do not only provide services as trainers. And just the same, you, having unique know-how, unique software written for your company, increase its value, and at the same time you do not just sell, like most of your competitors. This unique know-how also improves your business.

Stay ahead of the market, or implement innovations

Sometimes the beginning of your business has to do with some innovation, when an interesting idea came to your mind. However, it is worth approaching the implementation of innovations as an integrated process in which something new appears in the company every year or every two years. Is it a new offer for customers, or maybe just a new layout of your basic offer, or a new know-how.

It is worth getting to know the eight stages of a company’s maturation according to CVP.

A company created from scratch grows – if such a metaphor can be used – similar to a child. As it grows up, it needs so-called “development stimuli”. In the case of a company, innovations play the role of such incentives.

Therefore, when ILZ works with a company on its development, we encourage its managers to take care of producing innovative products, services or their own innovative know-how. To this end, we organize “creative workshops” for them with the participation of employees of various levels, loyal customers and external specialists, during which we develop new solutions.

Let us now return to the metaphor comparing the birth and development of a new company to the birth and development of a child.

I. At first, his parents feel the need to have children. Maybe they don’t want to be alone anymore, or maybe they’ve just awakened their maternal and paternal instincts and just want to become parents. Then they wait, often subconsciously, until they are ripe for this decision. In business, too, change begins with frustration or the need to change. For example, you can work for a “idiot boss” in a corporation, or you just have a need to do something “yours”, to make some positive change in your life.

II. The second stage is preparation for the appearance of the child in the family. Sometimes it is necessary to undergo medical examinations for this purpose and, additionally, some kind of treatment so that the expectant mother could get pregnant. This is accompanied by reflections and discussions about when it would be best to welcome a new family member to the world and whether we would prefer it to be a baby girl or a baby boy. Or maybe we will try in vitro treatment? And so on.

During preparations at this stage for the establishment of a new business entity, the future owners of the new company also mature to the decision to establish it. They observe the market, write down ideas, and wonder: what kind of company would they like to set up? What product to produce? – etc.

III. Then comes the moment of procreation and the embryo is formed, that is, our businessmen started creating a new business solution, being a response to the changes in the external situation.

IV. The embryo in the mother’s womb develops and the family awaiting his arrival carries out joyful preparations to welcome him. Our business heroes are working intensively on the new solution, started in point III.

At last, a specific idea was born in their heads and the time has come for a joyful, full of expectations creation of a new business entity. They set up a company, implement services, create a product. During this period of “early childhood”, everyone loves them, they enjoy it and they are “carried by” a wonderful energy. Indeed, they made a great website, prepared a great promotional event and so on. People are fascinated by them, because they themselves are fascinated by it all.

V. After an appropriate period of evolution in the mother’s womb, the embryo becomes ready to be born, and then a new human being is born, an infant. Everyone around is happy about it. Similarly, our heroes working out a new business solution boldly enter new, innovative projects and boldly go in the assumed direction.

VI. According to the laws of nature, this tiny creature grows and grows, becomes a teenager – with all the problems of adolescence: hormone storms, etc. Now comes the time for the company to be a teenager as well. It is a period just as difficult for her as it is for a young man. But just like this young man, the founders of the new company see many opportunities, learn quickly and have the courage to dream. For a new company, it is usually the first three years of its existence when it will reach this point in its development.

VII. Until our teenager finally reaches adulthood. In the case of a company, this “adulthood” is a period of “stability and wisdom”, of good “setting in the market”. Then its owner becomes a “mentor” for others, who willingly shares his knowledge and brings up the next generation of businessmen.

VIII. Then comes the time for man to mature and old age. And then he will either become an old-fashioned old man or a family legend admired by everyone. And our “mature” businessman invests in new companies and finds young business talents in the development of which he invests his time and money.

Statistics say that 90% of companies fail within the first five years. And of the remaining 10%, 9/10 will also fall within the next 10 years. So really a very small percentage of companies will survive the magical line of the first 10 years of existence. However, if it survives, it goes to the “full maturity” stage.

But then, when she’s “old”, she might just collapse because her time has already run out – but she can also become a real legend on the market.

It was mentioned earlier about further innovative initiatives as another real stimulus for the development of each company. And it is not about implementing shocking solutions related to artificial intelligence technology. We will also not create a new “mission to Mars”. However, it is important not to stay put. You have to surprise the market by creating new, complementary services, creating a new reality.

It is extremely important that we are accompanied by such a “feeling of freshness” – that we are entering a new venture not only full of enthusiasm and hope, but also having knowledge about our competences that will allow us to succeed.

The first stage of innovation is a kind of sudden enlightenment: “Oh wait, we can do it anyway”

Entering the second stage, we already observe the market, write down ideas and mature for action. Due to the fact that we are keen observers of reality, we notice at some point that “this is not yet on the market”. This market surveillance strategy is a very important part of our path to success.

When we start creating a new solution, we make a decision that we are investing in this, previously chosen idea and we do not split into other ideas. Sometimes it’ll be great, and sometimes we won’t. But you definitely must try it out. Therefore, you need to take risks and calculate them in the right way. When we finish working on a new solution, it’s time to implement it on the market. Let us then have the courage we need to do so.

And if we have problems with creating our own innovative projects, then let’s get involved in others, proposed by our partners. A young child tests every new toy that comes within his sight and we have to do the same.

Now comes the stage of reaching adulthood for our teenager. Then the company – although it is not given to every one – comes to this period of “stability and wisdom” and “well embedded in the market”.

Statistics say that an entrepreneur investing in only four start-ups may not make a profit on any of them. And when he invests in four to ten, he will only earn on one / two at most. On the next two he will not lose and the remaining ones will bring him a loss. And the trick is to get those two good “shots” to compensate for the rest.

As I wrote earlier, the implementation of new products is an extremely important element of the adventure called “the development of your company”. And we don’t have to go crazy here, no matter how. However, it is important for the customer to feel new. It is enough to improve what we already have.

When we have reached the “mature age” stage, it is time to share knowledge, to be a mentor to others who are less advanced than us in business practice. We can then, for example, educate our customers or educate our employees. Very interesting innovations can then emerge from this process.

The last stage is investing in new companies, start-ups of young people. Then we feel a surge of fresh, young energy to our company. The important thing here is to want this freshness and to implement innovations once a quarter, once every six months, finding ways to do it.

How to sell more? Implement your sales and financial strategy

It is also a huge area of ​​issues. Companies that have not studied how costs have changed and increased in recent years are unable to predict market trends and simply “shout” here. Because if, with good sales revenues, the costs of logistics or marketing suddenly and disproportionately increase, or the rates of people employed in this work. And then it will turn out after some time that the profits are now much smaller. And that’s why you need to implement the financial and sales strategy so that it has the proverbial “hands and feet”.

As a leader, I encourage you to ask yourself four simple questions:

1. What are you making money on now
2. What do you have the biggest margins on
3. What customers will buy in crisis
4. What costs to cut

Many more could be asked, but these are the most important. The question of the highest earnings and the highest margins leads to an assessment of which area of ​​my business brings me the best income. Perhaps, after this analysis, you will make an adjustment to your sales and financial strategy, because your favorite, great product will bring the company the least profit because it costs you the most.

The question of what customers will buy in a crisis is crucial for every company in terms of its sales and financial strategy. Because you can have a great product that sells well in a bull market. But what about when a crisis, lockdown and quarantine come – what will your customers buy then? And you have to be prepared for it. If the restaurant did not have an efficient food delivery system, it collapsed in a flash. If it did not have a brand associated with delivery by customers – then you are lying as a restaurant.

What about other industries? For example, in our training and education business, corporations withheld their budgets for over three months, but entrepreneurs who needed emotional support in this difficult time bought online training. And thanks to this, ILZ grew in this crisis, as we had been prepared for such an eventuality for many years.

And the last question about what costs should be cut, ask yourself every month, every quarter and keep these costs under control at all times.

When it comes to the sales strategy, it consists of many other factors that require working with company leaders. That is why we encourage you to contact us. Through the Business School, we teach and prepare the company for growth. Through Business Mentoring, we implement specific sales and marketing programs that guarantee profit growth within 1-2 years.