Mark Mikelat is a success expert for small businesses. From his 15+ years of consulting at Fortune 100 banks and major corporations such as Microsoft, Border Books, and IBM, Mark has discovered that people are people first and business leaders second. By implementing basic principles of respect, sincerity, and professionalism, you can grow you success.
He is business college faculty, and an author of multiple books. You can learn more about him at www.BuildingAspirations.com.
You need checklists. Things in the life of a small business leader are hectic and overwhelming. There is a seemingly endless list of tasks to be accomplished with constantly changing priorities. It can be difficult to stay focused and accomplish those objectives that can truly grow your small business. Checklists help you deal with this challenge. Checklists are a great tool to help you grow your small business.
There were countless times in the earlier days of the development of my motivational speaking practice that I would forget things. Let me walk you through a typical scenario so that you can learn from my mistakes. When I first started planning events for meeting planners I would ask for basic information such as the time of my speech and the address of the hotel.
I often made mistakes about confirming basic information. Where was I to park? If there are 3000 people at a convention that might have keynotes, breakout sessions and other activities at multiple venues, this seemingly simple question sometimes had me literally driving in a circle for an hour. If “Where should I park?” were on my checklist, I could have invested 1 minute of time to potentially save 1 hour later.
I have another example. One client delayed paying an invoice by three months because my staff did not follow their invoicing process. We combined two invoices into 1 sheet of paper. This did not work in their accounting process. In this example, a checklist question of “How would you like to be invoiced?” would have helped us avoid a 3 month delay in payment.
What are the critical steps in your business process? Are they all documented? Does everybody know these steps? When you have a checklist you help to insure that the critical steps are not overlooked. This will create greater efficiency in your business. If you spend less time trying to park and deal with invoice paperwork, you can focus on selling and providing higher value to your clients.
Have checklists for the important steps in your small business. Having checklists is a great way to grow your small business.
Could you use more tips like this to accelerate the growth of your small business? Achievement thinking is a powerful concept that Mark Mikelat, the founder of Building Aspirations, www.BuildingAspirations.com, uses to coach his small business clients to double or even triple the size of their businesses. You can learn more and take advantage of a free strategic analysis at http://www.BuildingAspirations.com/BusinessSuccess.html. Also, you can view his books on Amazon.com.
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