Employees - Your Most Precious Resource

Matrix Key:  Financial Viability - Resource Management - People

"People are definitely a company's greatest asset.  It doesn't make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics.  A company is only as good as the people it keeps." - Mary Kay Ash

A vital component of Financial Viability is Resource Management.  Your company must be a good steward of the people, products, capital, and information it has available if the company seeks to be profitable.  The most valuable resource of all is your people.  In these challenging economic times, it may be easy to think that it is an "employer's market."  Many people are searching for work, and it could be tempting for employers to cut wages, benefits and incentives thinking that their workforce can be easily replaced.

Here's the thing...you wouldn't purposely buy inferior products, because the lack of quality will cost more in the long run.  Excessive employee turnover is another huge cost to an organization.  Better to hire, train and nurture excellent people who share your commitment to making the company great.

To properly care for your employees, you need to be taking the following actions:

1. Create a human resources department that can handle your employee needs and comply with all pertinent rules and regulations.
2. Train your employees well, and cross train them so they have a better understanding of other roles.
3. Provide consistent, visible leadership.  Make sure your employees know where they fit in to the company's goals and why you are asking them to do what they do.
4. Evaluate employees regularly and reward excellent performance.

If you recruit and train great people, you will want them to stay.  The best teams are those that have worked together over time and who feel like valued partners in the company's success.  When you have your A-team on the field, you have a much better chance of winning the game of business.

Are You Ready to Win?

The Best of 2010: Strategies That Worked

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing." - Abraham Lincoln

This is our final blog post for 2010. Before we uncork the champagne and toast the New Year, let’s look back at business strategies that worked in 2010. Our clients had some terrific successes this year. When we sat down and looked at their breakthrough results, there were some common themes that emerged:

Sales and Marketing Plans – The companies that soared in 2010 were the ones that took a serious approach to sales. They invested time and dollars into well thought out sales and marketing plans, working hard to align on target markets and the necessary actions to pursue them. They continually assessed their progress throughout the year and made adjustments for what was and wasn’t working. A persistent, strategic commitment to sales resulted in unprecedented revenues for several clients.

2. Commitment to Time Management - One of the most important things we work on in our coaching is time management. Business people have lots to accomplish, but what they often don’t realize is that it all has to occur in time. Every activity whether it be sales calls, returning phone calls or management meetings need to be scheduled on the calendar. We tend to let things like sales slide by the wayside when we don’t have it scheduled in our workday. In 2010 the winners were the ones who mastered their calendars.

3. Working as High Performance Teams – We had several clients this year experience tremendous breakthroughs in the ways they worked together. When talented individuals focus on common goals and learn how to shift away from past complaints, the door opens for incredible progress. Coaching gives many companies the forum for developing systems and structures that allow teams to flourish.

4. Taking the Coaching – Companies hire us because they want help fixing whatever is broken in their businesses. We are experts at helping companies develop strategies to improve sales, productivity, profits and efficiency. But as the old saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water…” The companies that succeeded this year were the ones who took the coaching, the ones who were open to change and willing to commit to delivering on their intentions for their businesses.

At Possibilities Unlimited, we are privileged to work with an amazing group of clients who believe in the power of people working together on a common goal. We love partnering with businesses to achieve unprecedented results. If you could use a partner who is just as committed to your business succeeding as you are, we would love to work with you. Give us a call for an introductory consultation and see what’s possible for your business in 2011.

Are You Ready to Win?