Two weeks ago, we talked about the first three of the seven specific areas you need to consider in your franchise prototype process. Here are all seven again:
- Primary Aim
- Strategic Objectives
- Organizational Strategy
- Management Strategy
- People Strategy
- Marketing Strategy
- Systems Strategy
(The first three focus areas were covered in the blog: Business 2.0, please read before continuing)
Creating a focus in these seven areas will get you on the path to creating a business that works for you. Today we are going to cover the last four.
Before we jump into it, think of constructing your business model like planting a tree. At first, it’s so tiny and weak you wonder if it will even make it through the night. But, you keep watering, fertilizing, and nurturing it. Your ideas will grow the trunk, and each of these strategies will extend out like the branches of your now a strong tree. Finding the perfect support staff, employees, vendors/suppliers, and other relationships will make your tree flourish with leaves and flowers to bear fruit.
Grab your pen and paper, roll up your sleeves; it is time to get to work.
Management Strategy
If I told you, having excellent management is not about finding great people with a lot of experience but about creating a system to cultivate, promote, and train talent.
The way you structure your management team development is essential to your growth and your employees’ happiness and, ultimately, your customers/clients. This strategy is results-oriented and doesn’t depend on the people but the actual system that’s in place.
A management strategy, in short, includes goals, rules, company direction (mission/vision), standards (supervisor expectation of behavior and performance), skill development. That tells your employees how to act, grow your business, and meet clients’ expectations.
It is a well-orchestrated procession of actions that allows your staff to exceed your clients’ expectations while fulfilling strategic objectives over and over again. It is your operation manual, your series of checklists, scripts, and action processes.
People strategy:
If your management strategy is what you want your people to do, your people strategy is how you get them to do it.
You need to show your employees how you feel about their job performance and dedication to your business. They also need to understand “why” they are doing specific tasks. This helps your employees personally connect to their job, leading to better production and a happier workplace.
There are several strategies you can use to get the highest performance of your employees (They are in order of effectiveness):
- Constant, regular, and public reminder/thanks of how their work is impacting the community (companies goals)
- Internal education program
- Internal staff dream program
- The innovation game
- A learn this business program:” not just your job.”
- Performance Incentive Programs
- Contests that reward high performance
- An employee of the Month
- Performance/Holiday Bonuses
These are just a few of the ideas you can use. To create a great people strategy is to find the balance between appreciation, education (the why), and directing of staff energy.
One of the best ways to appreciate your employees is by calling a meeting and asking them how they would like to be rewarded. Think about it for a while and put the best strategy into play. Keep it fresh and change up the system you use from time to time to keep your employees guessing. Once they get used to the prize, it’s time for a whole new approach.
You need to build a community within your company. There needs to be support, appreciation, and respect. The more “at home” an employee feels, the better they will perform and the higher their loyalty level.
Marketing Strategy
Marketing is, of course, essential to the success of any business, but it also must work cohesively with the other strategies you’re using. There are two central pillars of successful marketing strategy-the demographic and psychographic profiles of your customers.
The psychographic tells you what your customers are the most likely to buy, and the demographic tells you who they are, which can help you learn why they buy specific items.
With this information, you have answered the pivotal questions of marketing:
- Who are they?
- Where are they at?
- What do they want?
Now all you have to do is speak to them.
Systems Strategy
There are three types of systems in every business:
- Hard Systems
- Soft Systems
- Information Systems
Hard systems refer to those that immutable they’re opening and closing procedures, your standards of office cleanliness. These are the systems that don’t have any wiggle room and are usually all internal.
Information systems include customer data, product information, financial…anything with data and numbers. This the recording of important information to the operation, use, and success of the business.
The most important of all three systems is the soft systems because it is where your employees have the most flexibility in execution and usually require the most creativity.
The most critical soft system is your sales system. In your sales system, the two keys to success are structure and substance. The structure is what you sell, and substance being how you sell it.
All three systems are essential to your business’s success, and while they all have their particular roles, they all must work together to get the job done. This also goes for your entire business development program.
Recap
I want to take a moment to recap on the ideas we went over through these business development lessons. We have covered a lot of the series of blogs.
An entrepreneurial myth, or e-myth, is an assumption that anyone can succeed at business with:
- Desire
- Some capital
- Projected a targeted profit
There are essentially three key roles that need to be filled to set your business up for success:
- The Technician
- The Manager
- The Entrepreneur
The four different stages of a business life cycle are:
- Infancy
- Adolescence
- Growing Pains
- Maturity
There are a few things we are going to talk about:
- Business Format Franchise
- The Franchise Prototype
- Franchise Prototype Standards
There are three main areas of business development:
- Innovation
- Quantification
- Orchestration
Seven specific areas you need to consider in your franchise prototype process. Here are all seven again:
- Primary Aim
- Strategic Objectives
- Organizational Strategy
- Management Strategy
- People Strategy
- Marketing Strategy
- Systems Strategy
Question and Actions
If you have been following along over the past few months, I thank you for those who have not; then you have a lot of work to do. Below are guiding questions and action steps. As always, I am here to help.
- What do I do now? First, identify what role in your business you play. Are you a technician, manager, or entrepreneur?
- Where do I need the most help? Take some time to think about the area you need the most help, then start taking your business’s next step.
- What will it take to get past my ego? As entrepreneurs, we constantly feel we must go it alone, but in reality, once we get past our ego holding us back, we can get the help we need to succeed truly.
I am here to help you work through all of these areas and give your business a jumpstart that puts you ahead of your competition right from the start. Feel free to contact me directly at doogie@ideasactionsuccess.com. I am happy to answer any questions you have and discuss the success of your business.
