The FOUR decisions you need to get right to grow your business MyZA

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed… every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

Jacques Velleman

It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle; when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.

This short illustration communicates the importance of beginning every day with an attitude and plan for growth – or before you know it, the competition (the Lion) will be on your tail ready to inflict damage. So it is with small and mid-market companies: consistent, efficient and profitable growth is important to stay alive, healthy and to outrun the competition and peril in today’s markets.

Decisions equal success – and there are four decisions, in growing your business, that you must get right or risk leaving significant revenues, profits, and time on the table. These four decisions are in the areas of People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash.

People Decisions

In general, you know you have People challenges when you’re not enjoying running your company. You either have a partner issue, a customer with too large a piece of your business, a supplier delaying your success, a key employee or two that’s disrupting the rest of the organization’s effectiveness, or challenges at home. Or you might simply lack enough employees to serve your customers.

Strategy Decisions

Strategy challenges are indicated by a slowing in top line revenue growth. If revenue is not growing as quickly as you like, then it’s time to re-examine your strategy i.e. what you’re selling to whom. It’s important to have a concise articulation of that strategy so you can get everyone aligned and on the same page without wasting sales or operational energies on activities not useful to the business.

Execution Decisions

Execution challenges surface when your increasing revenues are not generating increasing profits. I’ve seen many firms triple their revenue, because they have capitalized on a differential advantage, only to see their profitability drop because of the sloppiness of their execution.

The other indication of poor execution is hours spent delivering your products or services. When execution is haphazard, the organization has to rely on the “heroics” of their people putting in incredible hours to just keep the wheels from falling off the organization. By simply tightening up your execution habits, you can dramatically improve gross margins and profitability while reducing the time it takes for everyone to complete their work.

Cash Decisions

And the last challenge is Cash. The first law of entrepreneurial gravity is “Growth SucksCash.” We encourage companies to calculate their Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) which measures companywide how long it takes between when you spend a Rand (marketing, design, rent, wages, etc.) until you get that Rand back.

South African companies seem to battle with the complexities of trying to promote growth and manage operations under dynamic, diverse and uncertain market conditions. Having a solid grasp of these four decisions, helps growing organisations and entrepreneurs, which account for a large percentage of the South African economy, to be more effective. In times where we can no longer rely on the giants such as mining conglomerates or financial services to support the economy, we need to ensure that growth is going to come from mid-market companies and entrepreneurs.

So what decisions do you need to get right to grow your business in 2014? Join YBSA on 05 November 2013 to learn more.

Young Business for South Africa (YBSA) is aiming to help young businesses work on their decisions to get a good start for 2014. YBSA is presenting, with Jacques Velleman, two events to suit budgets and time constraints, as well as needs to work on the actual business. These two options for entrepreneurs are: (i) The 1 hour Rockefeller Habits Masterclass: Four Habits to grow your business in 2014. (ii) The day long workshop Mastering the Rockefeller Habits Four Decisions Executive Programme.

By Verne Harnis and Jacques Velleman

More Info: http://youngbusinesssa.org.za/become-a-member