Busy doing everything, but busy doing the right things?

Busy doing everything, but busy doing the right things?

Running your business asks everything of you. You do whatever’s necessary to be and stay successful. Fighting the competition, finding and keeping the right people. Delivering projects on time, on budget and, more importantly, at the right quality level. Acquiring new projects and increasing the visibility of the business. Every day sees you invest serious time in ensuring progress. However, can you be sure that you’re really doing the right things?

Because while you can be busy with ‘everything’, your efforts do of course need to ultimately deliver the right result. With that in mind, here are my ‘Top 5 things you definitely should be doing’…

1.    Learn from your experiences

Just brought out another sparkling offer for a potentially attractive project? Did you, together with the rest of the organization, put every ounce of effort into ensuring you only offer the best of the best? Top. Well done. But did you also look back at historical results? Because unlike investments on the stock exchange, project results can often be an indicator of future performance. If it needs to be a razor-sharp priced quote, it’s definitely a good idea to have a look at what happened last time you ran a similar job. Where did we get our feet wet? Are there risks that we need to place with the customer this time to stop that happening again? Where were the calculations too tight or too loose?

If you can’t zoom in on these pieces of information, you’ll be seriously risking your ability to realize a healthy margin on the work – regardless of how attractive the project seems. This kind of information can be difficult to manage effectively, but the systems used to manage your business data can already tell you a lot. ‘How did the ultimate realization relate to the original calculations’ is a good example of a useful question for improvement moving forward.

2.    Talk to each other – on and offline

In managing a smoothly running business, it’s important that everyone has their specific duties to fulfil, and that those with similar duties are effectively grouped together. In departments. What’s less useful though, is that the people involved then have the tendency to stay in those groups. And to not talk with other groups. Not sharing knowledge, and not recognizing other knowledge as potentially relevant for them. That creates silos, and if you’re not careful, it’ll evolve to the point where they even end up fighting each other, tension spreading like a virus through the organization until everyone is infected and the business is left flat on the floor.

Lunching together is today’s top tip. But then with the idea that it goes beyond departmental boundaries. Mailing, calling or whatsapp-ing will also help. Use the channels your business software makes available. If your consultant is at the customer, he’ll have lots to tell you about how it’s going there. The devil is in the detail. And he might also enjoy hearing what the rumour mill has been churning out while he’s been on the road.

3.    To measure is to know

Guesswork is a gamble. Not being able to measure the right indicators and initiate action based on them hurts a lot of service providers. Without necessarily being able to put their finger on exactly why that is. Having the right information available is critical.

Big data gets a lot of attention in the media and especially so in the world of professional services. Many businesses would do well to start by identifying exactly what the most important information is for their company. Billability for example. Even if it’s just to ensure that everyone is on the same page. If a specific consultant is doing all the pre-sales work, he shouldn't then be evaluated as underperforming on billability at the end of the year.

The key is insight. Real-time insight that you can get hold of with the renowned ‘one click of a button’. That speeds and simplifies your business.

4.    Use the right tools

Knocking in a nail with a chisel, or a screwing a slotted screw in with a Philips screwdriver – it leads to frustration and a far from ideal result. The right tools are essential if everything is going to run according to plan. That means using Excel for spreadsheets and not for data entry. Of course you can use Excel to manage your timesheets as you feel fit. But however you do actually do that, you’ll always end up with a pile of sheets that are very hard to get to the bottom of. That all need to be checked, corrected and processed.

That’s a pity, because there are enough solutions out there where you can save hours worked in a central location. Preferably coupled to both planning and invoicing. That’s how you hit the nail into the wall, rather than your hand.

5.    Make room for growth

A plant in a too small pot dies. If you’re already busier than you know how to handle, how are you going to facilitate the growth needed to keep moving forward? Where can you create the room necessary to bring your business to the next level?

Ideally, the organization should fall around your shoulders like an oversize jacket. Not one that you’re swamped by, but one that’s comfortable, and fitting enough to allow the occasional dash for the bus when necessary.

Take care that your procedures, processes, and your automation are up to scratch. So that you can go further. The daily things are little more than that. And the future? Well that’s only there if you’re able to grab it and hold on.