Shirlaws More Money More Time Less Stress
Shirlaws More Money More Time Less Stress
More time
Less stress
The business owners’ guide to creating
a profitable, sustainable business that
rewards you richly in time and money
John Rosling
VISIT US AT www.shirlawscoaching.com
“Your motivation is never money, money is
only an end result. Your motivation is more
likely freedom.”
Acknowledgments
www.shirlawscoaching.com
www.shirlawsonline.com
2
In this book
3
“There is more to life than increasing
its speed.”
4
5
STEPPING UP TO
A LEADERSHIP
ROLE
“There is no map. No map to be a leader.”
6
CHAPTER 1:
UNDERSTANDING CONTEXT
7
Learn the trick of the greatest entrepreneurs; manage in context
and leave the content to your team.
8
CHAPTER 2:
9
10
11
CASE STUDY: APS
12
Find the fundamental “why” in your business - and create a
strong sense of belief around it.
13
CHAPTER 3:
14
15
CASE STUDY: YRM
16
Set the context; manage the energy; coach don’t play
17
CHAPTER 4:
18
19
20
21
CASE STUDY: UnLtd
22
A strong culture will drive your success by recruiting the
best people and most loyal customers. Culture comes from a
discussed and agreed intent based on shared values.
Leadership is about creating the dream – the vision thing is
your job.
All successful Leadership Teams get away on a Strategic Retreat
every 6 months.
Get outside help.
23
UNDERSTANDING
YOUR BUSINESS
24
CHAPTER 5:
25
Protected by Copyright © 2007 Shirlaws
26
27
Know where you are in your business lifecycle and plan ahead.
Know where your key Directors or Partners are and understand how
this impacts on your relationships and decision making.
Build in now the skills and capabilities your business will need to
grow in the future.
28
CASE STUDY:
29
CHAPTER 6:
UNDERSTANDING RISK IN A STRATEGIC CONTEXT
30
31
Benchmark the Risk Profile of your key team and openly discuss the
implications of these.
As part of your Strategic Retreat agree a Risk Profile for your
business
Have the Board mandate the Business Risk Profile and Risk
Management processes to ensure that all future decisions are made
by looking at cost, return and business risk.
32
CHAPTER 7:
BECOMING A GREAT COMMUNICATOR
33
Protected by Copyright © 2007 Shirlaws
34
35
CASE STUDY: UK entertainment company
36
Listen to the questions being asked, take a moment before you
respond
Ask yourself what state/style the person speaking to you is in
If the person asks you a “how” question they are in Think, a “what”
question they are in Feel, a ”why” question they are in Know.
Get yourself and your team profiled. It costs less than £25 and is
both fascinating and incredibly valuable information (www.navitasip.
com)
37
CREATING
REVENUE TODAY
38
CHAPTER 8:
39
40
Protected by Copyright © 2007 Shirlaws
41
42
43
CASE STUDY: La Playa Insurance
44
The more products and distribution channels you can build, the
more profitable and valuable in equity terms your business will be.
It’s a strategic choice whether to focus on building products to sell
into a single distribution channel or to develop multiple distribution
channels for a single product.
By getting really clear about what customers are paying you for you
may be able to unbundle your product and charge very profitably
for the bits you currently give away. Or take an opposite approach
and bundle a set of products together to create a competitive
advantage to capture share and increase the volume of sales.
Look carefully at what your competitors are doing – and consider
adopting the opposite approach to create competitive differentiation.
Innovate your product packaging; it is hard work to create
completely new products but relatively easy to repackage your
existing offer.
45
CHAPTER 9:
YOUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY - THE ROCKET-FUEL IN YOUR
BUSINESS
46
47
48
Know your “IP”; it is the fundamental rocket-juice of your business,
what makes your business unique and is the source of profitable
growth through product innovation.
When you’ve articulated your IP, take yourself out of your own
business and ask yourself what a business with this unique set of
attributes might theoretically do (what products would it sell). It’s a
good idea to get external help with this as you are probably too close
to your business.
Understanding and leveraging your IP will create a fundamental
building block to accelerated equity value of your business.
49
CHAPTER 10:
50
Protected by Copyright © 2007 Shirlaws
51
52
Protected by Copyright © 2007 Shirlaws
53
54
CASE STUDY: Craster Woodworking
55
For mid-sized business positioning is about getting customers and
employees focused on what the business is all about – what it is
famous for. Being able to answer this succinctly enables you to fast
track sales opportunities, distribution channels, potential acquisitions,
mergers and joint venture opportunities.
Understand your primary position - If you cannot get the distinction
between Distribution and Product then get some assistance from
outside.
Know whether you are focussed on market, service, product or
price. Come up with words that define your market, your service,
your product, your price. Get it down to one word per area and then
one single word that positions the whole of the business.
Cherchez le creneau….
56
CHAPTER 11:
57
58
Protected by Copyright © 2007 Shirlaws
59
60
Set down the criteria for potentially profitable clients i.e. what type of
business is going to grow your company profitably?
Explore which companies might offer mutually beneficial
relationships. Check that both of you have similar ‘energy’ levels.
Rigorously explore fears and benefits and ultimately formalise
guidelines on working together and monitoring progress.
Review the relationship in terms of profitability. If it isn’t providing
business for both parties it’s not worth wasting resources on it.
The more distribution channels you can build, the more profitable
and valuable in equity terms your business will be.
61
CHAPTER 12:
62
Protected by Copyright © 2007 Shirlaws
63
Protected by Copyright © 2007 Shirlaws
64
65
Develop a customer service strategy that is focused on putting client
relationships in the up position
Aim for four satisfactory ‘touches’ with each customer.
Ensure that your customer really understands when you are giving
him an “extra”. Beware! Once an extra becomes an expectation, it is
perceived as part of your standard service.
Have an extra strategy for your staff as part of your culture.
66
CHAPTER 13:
67
Protected by Copyright © 2007 Shirlaws
68
GETTING YOUR
BUSINESS TO
WORK FOR YOU
And give you back your time...
69
CHAPTER 14:
70
71
Protected by Copyright © 2007 Shirlaws
72
73
CASE STUDY: Elle Events
74
If you’re serious about growing your business structuring and
resourcing must be a strategic function and not one that is dictated
from the bottom up.
Systematically colour-code your typical week in red, blue, and black.
Create an organisational structure and workflow in red, blue
and black.
If you want real productivity you can’t give people responsibility –
they have to take it.
75
CHAPTER 15:
76
77
Protected by Copyright © 2007 Shirlaws
78
Know the capacity of your business and current running rate – these
enable you to plan and develop a profitable growth strategy for your
business.
Understand where the bottlenecks that choke the profitability of
your business are – and release them.
Understand the difference between Platform Strategies and Growth
Strategies and use these to maximise profitability today and plan
your growth tomorrow.
Develop a Capacity Plan and use this as a daily management tool.
79
BUILDING
EQUITY VALUE
AND EXITING
YOUR BUSINESS
80
“When it comes to unlocking the market
value of a privately held company, it is
not limited to the bottom line. Profitability
is hugely important, but the factors of
customer diversity, management depth,
proprietary systems or products and
technology, channels to market and
contractually recurring revenue and
brand and position can result in truly
significant premiums over traditional
valuation approaches.”
81
CHAPTER 16:
82
Protected by Copyright © 2007 Shirlaws
83
84
CASE STUDY: Travel and Conference company
Start planning for your exit from the business 5 years before you
want to make the change. Understand your own priorities; is it
income, equity or control?
If you have developed the business strategically, the valuation
multiple you can achieve increases significantly.
Build a strategy for increasing the valuation of your business and
your own exit strategy simultaneously.
Develop and build a Company Log Book.
85
CHAPTER 17:
86
87
88
Take some time to understand what you want to get out of the
business, and when.
There are four elements to a succession plan: Building Value, Timing,
Establishing Independence in your business and Understanding
your Priorities.
Use a ranking of income, equity and control to understand the
relative priorities of a potential succession candidate or acquirer.
89
MANAGING
YOUR OWN
ENERGY
“Awareness is the greatest agent for change.”
90
CHAPTER 18:
91
Awareness is the greatest agent for change.
Be the change you want to see inside your business.
Find someone to support and nurture your development.
92
ABOUT
SHIRLAWS
“The best business advice I ever received?
Get a business coach.”
93
94
“We became a coaching client in
November. Our revenues are up 31%
in January, 24% in February. I wish we’d
become a client three years ago. What a
business we’d now have!”
95
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
John Rosling
96
APPENDIX
The recession and what to do about it
97
THE FIVE MISTAKES OF A RECESSION
98
99
100
THE FIVE GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES OF A RECESSION
101
102
103
SUMMARY: THE FIVE WAYS TO PREPARE FOR THE RECOVERY
104
105
106
Thank you
VISIT US AT www.shirlawscoaching.com
ISBN: 978-0-9566930-2-0