Business – time to sharpen up?

There is an old saying – “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”.

In tough times such as we are all experiencing at present, we are finding that businesses are benefiting from analyzing their approaches, philosophy and the way they go about doing things. some would say that going back to the basics is a good thing and that you endeavour to make every post a winning post. We have observed that there appears to be considerable truth in this.

Sticking to the basics and doing everything scrupulously well and making sure that everything is done to the very best of your ability will clearly pay dividends. Differentiate yourself from your competitors and promote your points of difference and hammer home the advantage at every opportunity. Be seen to have gone the extra mile.

Another useful thing to do is to use the “downtime” to ensure that your house is in order. Review what you do, how you do it, why you do it and the processes you use. Can they be improved upon? should they be changed, tweaked or streamlined in some way? Are there any other efficiencies that you can incorporate into what you do? What about your structures? Staffing levels? Can you incorporate a guarantee of some sort into what you do? Do you have a refund policy (if appropriate)? What procedure do you adopt when there are disputes? What about a full financial and legal audit via your key advisors? Consider checking and reviewing your employment contracts, leases, terms of trade, supplier contracts and the like. These will pay surprising dividends in the long run.

Never let an opportunity go by and never let “downtime” be unproductive.