Running a sustained profitable business might be hard, but it doesn’t need to be complicated.

Traditional advice guides business owners who feel stuck in some way to review – or create – a business plan as a framework for identifying the cause of feeling stuck. The catch is that a business plan can often be unnecessarily complex or lengthy for a business owner that is in need of quick and practical insights. An existing or template business plan may also be more geared towards funding requirements than the relentless grind of running a business past the initial exciting first few years.

Business owners who are feeling stuck or overwhelmed need a simple structure that they can remember and review of the top of their heads. The following structure requires that a business owner reviews the entire business using only three main topics – strategy, sales, systems – and five questions – why, who, what, where, when, and how. For more complex entities, the same three topics and five questions can be used for each distinct business unit.

The trick to keep this structure as simple and useful as possible is to stick to the three main topics, and to adapt the specific questions to the unique needs of the business. This flexibility also makes it much easier for business owners to do this review quickly and regularly.

Strategy
Every business needs a strategy. In the simplest terms, designing a business strategy is deciding where the business is going and how it’s going to get there. Questions to ask during this topic of the business review include:

• Why does the business exist? Is the reason for its existence still the same as when it started – to generate income after a job loss, or to fund a certain lifestyle, or to solve a specific market need – or did its main reason for existence change?
• Whose problem does the business solve? A business can have a fantastic offering, but if it’s something that no one needs or wants, that offering is of no value to the business.
• What value does the business add to its clients? Does the business only sell what it sells, or is it known for a unique feature or experience in addition to what customers expect?
• Where does the business operate? Is it time to move premises, or expand into other areas, or add e-commerce as an option?
• When does the business operate? To grow the business, is it perhaps time to consider moving from part-time to full-time, or to adopt the trending four-day work week?
• How does the business make a profit? A business owner doesn’t need to know all the detailed accounting information to answer this question, but they must at the very least know how the business generated its income and how that income is spent.

Sales
A brilliant business strategy is useless without sales that bring it to profitable life. Questions a business owner can ask themselves when considering the state of sales of the business include:

• Why should they buy from the business? Does the business offer something that is unique to their competitors?
• Who is the business selling to? This might be different to who the users of the business offering are e.g. babies may use nappies, but parents are buying the nappies.
• What is the business selling? Are the salespeople – or business owner – making promises the business can’t keep, or perhaps using terminology not commonly used by potential customers? This question is often the hardest for businesses selling services, but it’s even more important that those businesses be crystal clear on what they offer!
• Where is the business selling? Does the business market and advertise on multiple online and in-person platforms? Are those platforms contributing to the sales success of the business?
• When does the business sell? How often is the business prospecting for new customers? How often is the business telling its existing customers about new product lines?
• How is the offering of the business packaged? Does the way in which the offering is presented make it easy for customers to make an informed buying decision? 

Systems
Under the systems topic of this simplified business review, a business owner has to consider the people, processes and technology that enable the business to consistently implement its strategy.

• Why does or doesn’t the business use systems? Are the reasons for past decisions on this still relevant?
• Who does what? Is everyone in the business doing what they should be doing and in the way they should be doing it?
• What does what? There might be opportunity for collaboration or support within current processes or technologies, even if they were initially intended for a single purpose.
• Where can its systems take the business? It is astonishing how often legacy systems (people, processes and technology alike) prevent a business from achieving its full potential. A business owner must have the courage to make the changes necessary to these systems.
• When does the business do quality checks on its systems? As much as they shouldn’t micro-manage, business leaders can’t leave the ultimate oversight responsibility to someone else. They need to stay on top of regular quality checks to ensure that the business strategy is being implemented in line with the purpose of the business.
• How does the business measure success? Are the metrics specified and shared with everyone, and are performance reports accurate and simple enough to allow the business owner to make well-informed decisions?

After completing this quick review, all that’s left for business owners to do is to create an action plan based on what they discovered during the review, and then do everything they can to make sure that the plan is followed.

Companies spend millions each year on creating a culture of peak employee performance, but many still find their workforce stuck in the mediocre middle – often despite the best efforts of employees.

To move from mediocrity to consistent peak performance, business and team leaders must create a culture that allows employees to successfully implement what they’ve learned during training, mentoring, coaching, and conference sessions.

Even the most well-trained and well-intentioned employees won’t be able to perform at their best in a culture that suffers from one or more of the following:

Lack of clear expectations
Business or team leaders should never assume that everyone is aligned in terms of expectations simply because policies, procedures, and guidelines are available for viewing on the company intranet or have been mentioned in a meeting. Making expectations clear requires communicating them in a way that others can understand, and then checking whether everyone correctly understood what was communicated.

Employees also shouldn’t be expected to read the minds of their leaders or translate hurriedly relayed thoughts into clear instructions that will meet the expectations of leaders. Great leaders understand that they need to provide context and clarity when they assign tasks or request certain behaviours.

If expectations aren’t clearly communicated in a way that resonates with them, employees will perform according to their own priorities and level of experience, which might then be unfairly measured as poor performance.

Lack of planning and/or prioritising
It is unfair to expect high-quality work and employee well-being when leaders are in the habit of piling on ill-timed ideas or demands without understanding the ripple effect it may have on activities already in line for delivery.

Great leaders know how their decisions and actions will affect a team/project/organisation and they take responsibility for managing the impact of those decisions. They are also skilled at managing demands from others to allow the employees they lead to deliver quality work on time and within budget without suffering burnout.

Lack of autonomy
To create an environment conducive to peak performance, business leaders must keep red tape, compliance, and administrative activities to a minimum, so employees have more time and energy for delivering profit-generating work.

Instead of micro-managing every task of employees, great leaders regularly emphasise the purpose, vision, and values of the business, and then trust that employees will get on with what they’re supposed to be doing in the way they’re supposed to be doing it.

Lack of feedback
Different employees will have different views of the expectations communicated by their leaders, so it is crucial that employees receive quick and ongoing feedback on their performance to highlight any misalignment.

To avoid wasting the efforts of capable and well-intentioned employees, leaders must create opportunities for employees to do quick alignment checks without fear of being judged on the in-progress roughness of a task.

Feedback sessions on progress should leave employees feeling focused and motivated, not confused and dejected. Employees can’t be expected to make improvements if their leaders aren’t specific in pointing out misalignments between expectations and current status, and why improvement is necessary. 

Lack of capability
While an employee might have been appointed based on their proven ability to deliver what their role initially expected of them, changes to the business environment might require a change in capability. These changes require genuine two-way conversations about how each person sees their role within the changed context, and whether they are willing to make the necessary adjustments.

If there are gaps between what the employee can do, and what they need to be able to do, it is easier than ever to find training material in a format that will help them to bridge the skills gap.

To create a culture that allows employees to successfully implement what they’ve learned during training, mentoring, coaching, and conference sessions, business and team leaders must figure out what they can change about their own actions that will set employees up to win.

Great leaders provide structure, training, trust and quick feedback to enable an environment of peak performance. This of course only really works when each employee is the right fit for the job, and if leaders are willing to act if an employee continues to not align with reasonable and clearly communicated requirements.

Business leaders across the globe worry about attracting and retaining top talent, especially as remote and hybrid workforces are becoming the norm. In their responses to surveys they often list it as a main inhibitor of profitable growth into the future!

Despite this, most business leaders and managers prioritise other tasks over recruitment and talent selection rather than seeing it as a vital part of their jobs. In addition, many business leaders and managers do not have the skills required to ensure that the right people are found and placed in the right jobs.

Statistically, using traditional recruitment methods has a 60% failure rate, resulting in an enormous waste of time and money. Getting recruiting right is therefore something that can’t be left to an HR department or line manager alone; business leaders have to get personally involved. 

Getting the right people for the right jobs as a four-stage process with each step being of equal importance:

Specify
Before advertising a vacancy, business leaders must be crystal clear about the job specification as well as the attitudes and behaviours of the person needed for the job. This, in turn, needs to align with the purpose, vision and values of the company. The best talent has a choice these days and will simply not work for an organisation whose values they don’t share; another reason why leadership needs to be actively involved in recruitment. 

These specifications should be written down and be clear enough for anyone to understand. This will help to prevent two common recruitment mistakes: deciding what the job specifications are based on the available talent or hiring based on chemistry rather than true fit.

The popular saying “hire for attitude, train for skill” is very noble in its intent, but business owners and leaders adhering strictly to this sentiment might run the risk of not achieving the optimal mix of behavioural competencies needed for peak performance.

Find
Owners and leaders of smaller organisations often fall into the trap of thinking that they won’t be able to attract top talent, so they approach the vacancy listing process with a timid attitude. Top talent isn’t however always the most expensive people or the most qualified. Instead, they are the people who are the absolute best fit for a specific role in a specific organisation.

It is therefore of utmost importance that a vacancy listing is not just a list of required skills and experience; to attract the appropriate talent, the vacancy listing must reflect the true culture and values of the business and what it’s like to be part of the team.

To access the top talent pool, business leaders must involve those who are experts in selling the benefits of the company in creating the vacancy listing. Marketing people are often a better choice for this task than an HR department or even recruitment agencies. 

That is the best for a business to attract top talent – that might be currently employed – rather than limit itself to a talent pool of despondent job seekers.

During the interview process of shortlisted candidate, top talent will most likely ask questions to help them determine whether the values of the business align with their own values. 

If they can’t get a clear idea of what the values are or how the business practically lives those values, or they feel that their values do not align with those of the business, they’ll go look for employment somewhere else.

Assess
It is astonishing that many companies around the world still rely on an impressive CV with one or two interviews as the only activities to recruit talent. Even references can’t be guaranteed as a mark of quality as they can be influence by litigation around labour disputes.

True top talent will be able to prove that they are the best during an assessment that must form part of the recruitment process. The difficulty of the assessment will of course differ depending on the job level recruited for, and businesses must never abuse the assessment process to gain free insights or labour.

Assessments may appear to be time-consuming and costly, but the cost of getting recruitment wrong has been estimated as about four or even five times the employee’s annual salary! It’s therefore much less expensive to use assessments than to recruit and train an employee who was never right for the job or whose aspirations conflicted with those of the business. 

Negotiate
The final stage in the recruitment process should be a discussion and negotiation between the selected candidate and their potential direct manager on the exact details of the role and remuneration package.

People can truly make or break a business – irrespective of its size or shape. With economic pressure rising and an increase in leadership burnout, no business leader can afford to stand back and allow mediocre talent to come on board.

As a business leader, one of your main goals is probably to get the best out of your team – and that means keeping them motivated and engaged. But let's be real, it's not always easy to keep morale high and productivity levels up. So, how can you make sure your employees stay motivated and give their best effort day in and day out? Here are a few tips to try:

• Give them a reason to care.
  Make sure your employees know where their work fits into the big picture of the business, and what the positive impact of their contribution is. This will give them a sense of purpose and help them feel like their work matters.
  
  
• Show them the love.
  A little appreciation goes a long way. Whether it's a simple "thank you" or a more substantial reward, make sure your employees know that their hard work doesn't go unnoticed. And don't just leave it to HR or scheduled ceremonies; make praising and thanking people yourself a regular habit!
  
  
• Help them grow.
  No one wants to feel stuck in a dead-end job. Offer opportunities for growth and development, whether it's through training programs or mentorship. This will help keep your team engaged and motivated to succeed.
  
  
• Keep things fun.
  Work doesn't have to be all business, all the time. Whether it's planned team-building activities or just cracking a few jokes on the Slack channel or WhatsApp group, make sure to mix in some fun to keep spirits high.

Much has been published on living a purpose-driven life, and many business leaders try to apply the same philosophy in business. The concept of purpose is however a bit different when we think about it in terms of business.

MYTH 1: Business purpose can be found
The purpose of a business doesn’t ‘magically’ reveal itself. In business, the owners of the business – whether sole owner, partners or shareholders – must simply decide whether the overarching purpose of the business is to grow it, or to sell it, as running a business to achieve sustained profitable growth is quite different from running a business to secure the highest possible sales price. 

If the owners of a business decide that they want to grow the business, then they have to make sure that every decision in the business allows it to take a step towards that purpose, not away from it.

MYTH 2: Business purpose is only for certain types of companies
Maintaining a business might appear to be a third option, but even a so-called ‘lifestyle business’ needs to achieve sustained profitable growth to prevent its inevitable end caused by rising inflation, rapid changes to market conditions, unforeseen losses and so on.

Organisations operating for a social cause rather than for profit generation are also not exempt from being clear on their purpose. Most of these businesses will never have the overarching purpose of being sold, so they have to then make decisions on the three aspects of a sustainable business: financial, social, and brand impact.

While the social purpose might be obvious in a non-profit organisation, the focus on financial growth – and the effect of brand impact on that growth – needed to achieve that purpose is often lacking.

The question every owner of every business – irrespective of size or sector – should ask themselves is: If I don’t know where this business is going, how will I know if it is veering off course?

MYTH 3: Business purpose is static
As the purpose of a business can only be decided by its owners, a change in ownership often triggers a change in purpose. Whether through merger, acquisition, or handing over the ownership reins to the next generation, a shift in purpose that is not crystal clear to the owners will result in muddled efforts by everyone employed in the business.
If you are a business owner that employs someone to run the business for you, make sure that they understand your purpose for the business and that they are capable and equipped to achieve it.

If you are the one who’s employed by the owners to run the business, are you running based on your assumption of what the purpose should be, or have you checked with the owners what their purpose for the business is?

Until someone creates a way to accurately predict the future, there is no way to prepare your business for every change that will come its way. Whether it is a pandemic that changes the economic outlook, societal trends that change consumption patterns, or machinery or infrastructure that breaks down, change is truly inevitable.

The key to thriving within and beyond disruption is not resistance, it is robustness.

To move beyond a fixation on how disrupting disruption is, everyone running – or involved in running – a business of any size in any sector must be skilled in building robustness into the business so that it can adapt quickly and smoothly to the prevailing conditions of the day. A truly robust business doesn’t just survive the punches dealt by exponential change; it is set up to keep on winning in a new game of business. 

Win by being exceptional
It is simply not good enough to be good enough anymore. What was successful fifty years ago might not be enough to even stay afloat now. These days, a business has to be better than market average in everything it does and everywhere its clients connect with it.

Products and services that exceed client expectations, and a buying process that is frictionless, combined with a unique and memorable customer experience is not aspirational anymore; it is now a necessity. And so is using technology to consistently achieve that standard.

The need to constantly assimilate, adapt, and adopt innovative technology and processes across all departments in a business is greater than ever before. Irrespective of the size or available resources of a business, as many people as possible should constantly be on the hunt for different ways to do things towards achieving better results.

Yes, as many as possible people across the entire operation. If this thought scares you, maybe you should consider whether you have nines and tens – the best of the best – in your teams. Employees who score nine and ten out of ten aren’t always the most experienced or the most expensive; they are simply those best suited to the unique requirements of your business. Employing the best of the best is crucial if you want everything your business does to be exceptional.

Win by being a great place to work and play
For business owners or leaders who do not employ only nines and tens, the thought of giving employees what they want can be frightening. But even average employees could be more willing to give their best all the time if they:

• Know what the impact of their work on the business is
• Know exactly what it is that they’re supposed to be doing, and how it fits into the bigger picture of the business
• Don’t have to comply with rules that are left over from a previous era
• Can trust that discipline will be applied fairly
• Receive praise on a regular basis
• Are provided with bad news about the business not as a scare tactic but because they are trusted to help turn things around
• Are given an appropriate amount of autonomy
• Receive both financial and non-financial reward
• Are impressed by you
• Feel the business is set up to win

Get the right people into your business, and then do everything you can to make them want to stay there.

Win by always prospecting for new clients
Irrespective of how long your business has been around or how much market share it currently enjoys, it’s dangerous to rely solely on existing customers! The rule for whoever is responsible for selling – yes, even if it is the business owner – is that they should spend at least 20% of their time prospecting for NEW clients. And that should never ever stop.

A robust business has a robust pipeline of opportunities and orders to fill. Never let your salespeople – or yourself – tell you that there aren’t any more clients available to sell to. If you’ve knocked on the door of every single potential client in one market, then start selling to the next market! The golden rule of sales is to sell to people who have money, and to remember that money has a tendency to move.

Be bold and explore new locations to target or new clients needs to fulfil.

Win by having everyone focused on the bottom line
Too many business owners or leaders see the growth of the business as their sole responsibility. However, while they will be held accountable for it, they have every right to share the responsibility throughout the business. 

Everyone in the business – yes, everyone – can set a growth target to achieve. From reduction in expenses to increase in number of prospects to better customer service; it’s all possible! Set targets, enable your people to achieve those targets, and you might be pleasantly surprised by what they – and the business – achieve!

These are the most exciting times in which to run a business. There are endless opportunities to overcome challenges, but only if you decide to lead your business with belief, passion and courage.