5 Ways to Grow Your Business (From the Beach)
Sitting on the beach during my recent vacation, the last thing I wanted to think about was business. I suspect I’m not alone in that sentiment. The only questions I wanted to ask were “Did I bring sunscreen?” and “When does Happy Hour start?” But after my third hour roasting in the sun, my mind began to wander, and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if I could show up at the office not depressed by the end of vacation, but energized by some great new business ideas?”
I wasn’t going to run spreadsheets from the beach (too much sand in the computer) but I could begin thinking about the strategies that might position me to take the rest of the year by storm.
Here are the five questions that came to mind:
Do I Understand My Customers?
You offer products and services and your customers buy them. If they bought from you last year, they’ll probably buy from you again this year. But when was the last time you actually talked to a customer about their business, not about yours? “Sure,” you say, “I talk to them all the time.” But do you talk to them about their professional lives and concerns? What if you took them out for coffee and learned about them as people...and how they see their business? What problems do they need solved?
When your solution is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Maybe getting to know your customer’s world will show you problems you didn’t consider -- problems you can help solve. That, in turn, can give you direction on new products and services to offer.
Do I Have the Right Team in the Right Roles?
Generally, the only time business owners think about staffing is when they have to make payroll. If business is good, they think about hiring. If it’s bad, they think about layoffs. But optimizing your staff is more nuanced than that. Sometimes, you have the right people doing the wrong jobs; or you have the right people in the right role, but they’re not 100% sure what their responsibilities are. It’s not a scientific formula, but it’s worth thinking about.
Since we at CoLoadX have been in the startup world, we’ve learned a lot about how small teams work at optimal efficiency. And even though each of us does many different jobs, and we’re all ultimately responsible for certain things, we all have a shared interest in a common outcome. Think about how you can apply this to your business even if you’ve been around and working with the same team for a long time.
Does My Office Space Inspire?
In the past few years it’s become fashionable to allow a degree of telecommuting. After all, you say, if someone does their job well, why should you care where they spend their day? In fact, many studies show that there’s little substitute for the creativity, collaboration, and social interaction that only comes from working in a common office environment. Another trend is to have open work spaces, often with cubicles or hot desks. This works well to foster a communal environment, but it often short-changes the privacy people need to do difficult work.
The solution requires a compromise. Specifically, one that may require thinking about design. Let’s be honest: logistics-company offices can be, let’s say, a little basic. It’s not like you’re working at Google HQ with free snacks and ping-pong tables everywhere. But small, inexpensive design touches like good (non-fluorescent!) lighting and even one comfy couch can help find the right balance of productivity and community.
You might find that coming into the office becomes a pleasure, not an inconvenience, and many of those requests to telecommute will evaporate. We’re all social creatures, after all. Give us the right physical environment and we start to thrive.
Do I Have the Right Technology for My Company and My Team?
We all know that technology is racing ahead, and to stay competitive your business needs to keep up. We embrace this in our personal lives: When a new smartphone comes out, we run to buy it. It would be ridiculous to have a smartphone five years old: it would barely work. But when we come to the office, we’re often hamstrung by older technology. Sure, you’d like to have updated software and updated computers, but the cost and logistics of making that move is prohibitive and, frankly, scary.
But simple upgrades need not be expensive. For example: having your team shift from an old software desktop-based Outlook client to Gmail will give all sorts of added functionality and align their work tech with the tech they probably use at home. Imagine using Google Hangouts instead of that clunky teleconference software. When these nuisance barriers between personal and business technology are removed, people tend to be happier and more productive. Positive association with your business’s tech can mean a better attitude towards your business itself.
Have I Set Clear Goals?
It’s an old cliché that if you don’t know where you’re headed, you’ll never know when you get there. In our business, it’s easy to fall into a repetitive pattern, maybe hoping for a 5% increase in your business each year. But today’s business world moves faster than that, and the global value of trade itself is increasing rapidly. The only way to accelerate your growth is to set targets—maybe even aggressive targets—that you and your team can rally behind. At this time of year, it may seem like the calendar is your enemy (summer is coming to an end, after all). But it can also be your friend. We have four months left until the end of the year, and there’s still time to set performance goals, execute on them, and end the year on a winning note.
And the only thing better than a summer vacation is celebrating the promise of an amazing new year.
Download the free CoLoadX whitepaper, "Logistics as a Service: How it Will Transform Your Ocean Freight Business" and see how LaaS will help your company grow.
By: CoLoadX on Aug. 24, 2017, 10:01 a.m.