Health Check Your Business in 4 Steps ????

Hello there discerning reader, and welcome to one of the most vital things you might read for the health of your business, potentially ever.

Depends how much you read really. ??

Nevertheless! This we hope will give you some ideas on how to check on the health of your business really simply.

Why is the Health of my business a concern?

The bigger question here is why isn't it?!

Your own health is more important than anything. Without you being healthy and running your business or doing your job or living your life, things will be affected, people will be sad, your business or function would suffer if not fail to survive.

So why is it any different with your business or function itself? Checking in to see what preventative and proactive things we can do today will make sure that the heart of your business keeps on ticking stronger than ever.

So shall we dive in before we need a business doctor out here? ??

No. 1 - Company Pulse

Do you have your finger on your company's or function's pulse?

Hard to do literally of course, but can you really feel the goings on within your organisation?

Meta conduct a quarterly 'Pulse' where they ask their huge team what they think of goings on in the company, their mood, their happiness, struggles in the role and any improvements.

They use quantitative and qualitative data, have teams analyse it and learn what their teams want, need, love, hate, and act accordingly.

I hope people with teams as big as Meta are reading this, but if not, it'll be MUCH easier for you to do the same thing, as well as survey some clients as well to get that external pulse also.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Put together a survey to be sent out to the team - this can be in Typeform (costs money) or Google Forms (FREE) or any other piece of software, but something that allows you to collate the data. Use more quantitative questions (What do you think of the coffee we serve, out of 10...for example) than qualitative, it gives a real measure, something you can see could increase or decrease over time.
2. Send it out to the team WITH A WHY - I made the 'with a why' in caps because it's important to let your team know why you're doing this. An out of the blue survey asking them to reveal their deepest darkest concerns could be scary, so let them know you want beautifully open and honest feedback, and make it anonymous if you think your team will respond better.
3. Collate the results - Now you have results flying in, wait until you have everything and then collate the results together to analyse them
4. Look at the results with someone else - If you're the boss, maybe you'll see the results differently to someone else, try to look at them with an open mind (if someone hates the way the business is run, it's not personal, it's feedback!). But best to go through the collated results with an advisor, mentor or business partner to discuss rather than assume/jump to conclusions.
5. ACTION REASONABLE CHANGE - Nothing worse than providing feedback and nothing changes, huh? People know when their request or viewpoint is unreasonable so won't expect drastic action, but the wins you can implement, change or give will mean the world. If an employee has asked for Kenyan Jazz to be played in the office once in a while, and you re-name Thursday afternoons 'Kenyan Jazz Thursday', watch how happy they are!
6. Rinse and repeat - Do this at least every 6 months, better every quarter, and continuously improve the pulse of your business.

NOTE: As mentioned, do this with clients, at the end of projects or incrementally, check in with them. A different survey will be needed but use the same approach, more quantitative, anonymous if needed, analyse, action and repeat.

No. 2 - SWOT

No, not the film about Police in NYC, that's SWAT. We're talking about...

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

SWOT.

Let's talk about each:

Strengths: What are you good at? What sets you apart from the rest? What are you most happy about in the business?

Examples: Knowledgeable team of experts, only 1 competitor, great runway of funds.

Weaknesses: Where do we know we're weak? What do we need to improve on?

Examples: No succession plan for leaders in the business, lack of processes in Sales, no Kenyan Jazz.

Opportunities: What can we see as something we can go and tackle? Where can we pivot or adapt to which will be lucrative?

Examples: New product offering from our core service, subscription package for our core service meaning recurring revenues, competitor downsizing so talent leaving.

Threats: What is out there that will potential derail our success?

Examples: COVID type pandemic happening again perhaps, cut in funding from investors, regulation changes.

And so on.

A SWOT Analysis can be a preventative as well as proactive way to sustain the health of your business.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Your leadership team and thought leaders in your business into a room or Zoom
2. Have a whiteboard (physical and virtual) with the above template on it ready to roll
3. Open the floor by saying the WHY again as to what you're hoping to achieve: A check-in of what's good and what's not, what we might want to do and what we might want to guard against.
4. No idea here is a bad idea, so draw it all up.
5. Summarise and share the SWOT around the business so everyone can see and agree (or disagree!)
6. Rinse and repeat, do this at least every six months, or quarterly is better.

No. 3 - Risk Register

'Oh man does this guy go on about risk registers or what?!...' I hear your say to yourself in your head, and I know, but I wouldn't if they weren't SO important.

A risk register is a precautionary thing to do for the health of your business. It's like going to the gym, or taking supplements or vitamins, it's guarding you against any nasties that might come your way.

Identify the risks to your businesses health and then work out a plan for mitigating that risk or eliminating it all together. Makes sense, right?

Here's what you need to do:

1. Make a Risk Register, we have a template here if you need it.
2. Make one for each section of your business if you want to, and have a master one for the business as a whole.
3. Remember to let people know the why, this looks onerous, but it's so vital.
4. Over time (and believe me you won't think of them all in one sitting), you and your team add risks to this register along with it's probability, impact and mitigating action
5. Order them by the highest score.
6. Review this every month...or quarter...but no more than that, and go through the risks periodically to ensure it's scoring hasn't changed.
7. Action the mitigations that need actioning. Again, proactive responses to risk, like getting your a** to the gym.

No. 4 - An Operations Audit

Here comes the shameless plug, but this will be perfect for checking the health of your business in one fell swoop.

The best way to guarantee a healthy business is to make sure all of the moving parts are well oiled, all of the ways things get done are slick and efficient, and the stuff going in is as healthy and beneficial as possible, and that's where we come in.

An Opticks. Operations Audit is a report that tells you from top to toe, how healthy your business is. From doing the SWOT analysis, doing a lightweight Pulse check and drawing out the risks to your business, we can quickly put down on paper where we think you need to optimise.

Effort from you? Minimal, 2 hours of your time and we'll do the rest. Not a bad fix eh, would love to see a doctor guarantee such things ??

Here's what you need to do:

1. Speak to me, David Langley, about getting an Operations Audit arranged
2. Book in a 2 hour time with you and your trusted team to discuss your business, we'll talk through your processes from sales all the way to delivery, HR, Customer experience and more to paint a beautiful picture of your business.
3. Wait 1 week.
4. Receive a report that tells you your Operations health score with a list of things that you can action to make it healthier, and by how much
5. Go away and fix them, or leave them to us.

Amazing, right?

AND that's it wonderful people. Hopefully you'll now go forth and have wonderfully healthy businesses that will thrive and survive for a very long time.

Ciao ???