I guess you’ve noticed, finding a good people to add to your team isn’t easy right now, especially if you are in Auckland or Christchurch. I hear this complaint regularly from the owners of construction companies I talk to and that they either have low or no response to their ads, or that the calibre of…
I’ve been watching a bit of the Aussie Open tennis from Melbourne over the past week. The biggest talking point is the heat. Air temps of 40 deg C or more, and probably court-side temperatures of 50 plus. I hate the heat, so can only imagine what it’s like playing 5 sets of tennis in…
Need your car serviced? Don’t go to Just Autos in Takanini, aka Auckland Mobile Mechanics 24/7, unless you are feeling brave. The only positive thing to come from my experience with Just Autos was a great blog topic of how NOT to run a company. I recently purchased a second hand Mazda RX8 on the…
Being the owner of a small business is one of the loneliest jobs in the world. As owners, you have no one to complain to, and you are constantly solving problems, often other people’s problems. It’s easy to get discouraged and frustrated with a sale you loose to a low-ball offer, mounting paperwork and escalating…
I never thought I would really get into the America’s Cup competition this time. I had consigned it in my mind to “mega rich egos playing with the rules to suit themselves” type of carry-on. Maybe it’s the fantastic TV coverage or the closer than expected racing at times on these ridiculous boats; but I…
I came away from a client meeting last week with a building company owner really pleased to hear that a new staff performance review system we had introduced had been a great success with the field staff. There is always a risk of these more “corporate-like” processes being resisted strongly by the guys on site…
Having the right culture in your company is vital to its success. The culture that exists in a company can make or break it, so it is important to make sure the right culture is proactively developed. By not taking a proactive approach the culture will simply evolve in a random way by usually drifting…
Chances are you use, pretty much, the same materials as all your competitors and follow similar construction techniques to complete projects. How then can you stand out from your competitors, that doesn’t take a million dollars to achieve? One idea is to develop an MVA for your business and make it part of your daily…
Your business can be viewed as a bucket. In the top your pour revenue, which comes from your sales process, then deduct the direct costs of producing that revenue. Unfortunately everyone’s bucket leaks and so the amount left over (as net profit) is often a lot less than it could be and what is required…
Many business owners I talk to, knowing what I do, ask me how do they go about systemising their business. Often they are stressed out from covering for staff who aren’t doing the job properly, have forgotten to order materials needed for the day’s work, have been let down by subbies not turning up on time, or a combination of all these….and more! (Sound familiar?) They hear and read about how systems are essential in business to help free up their time, but they are not sure where to start.
I have put together a few thoughts about beginning to systemise a business if you are in a similar position to those business owners I mentioned above.