Do you hate how unproductive team meetings can be? Here’s what you should be doing during the week.
HOLD WEEKLY TEAM MEETINGS
Every Monday morning, have a meeting with your team to figure out the ONE thing you could do to increase revenue. Then determine an exact timeframe it has to be implemented (think of 24 hours as your goal here.) And every Friday have another meeting to discuss and review results.
MONDAYS
- discuss one problem that is causing your revenue or profit not to be as high as it could be
- come up with all the possible solutions that can be implemented in a day or two
- select the most popular solution and one that your team is confident with
- assign team members to implement the solution so it gets up within a day
FRIDAYS
- find out if your solution caused the outcome the team was expecting
- if it did, think about what you want to discuss during the next Monday meeting
- if not, go through why the results weren’t favorable and what everyone learned
The goal of the weekly meetings is to get your team on board to making the business more money in a way that allows everyone to see results.
Don’t be a fan of micromanaging. (Avoid this by hiring people smarter than you are)
MAKE EVERYONE ACCOUNTABLE
Don’t micromanage, but do track progress.
- have team members list out what they are currently working on. This way, everyone is familiar with what others are working on..including the boss.
- if someone isn’t working, the other team members can easily track inefficiencies
One of the best ways to make your customers loyal to your business is to create a bond with them. Whether it’s being transparent, telling your story, or simply caring for your customers, you need to connect with them.
CONNECT WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS
- blog about your life story or why you became an entrepreneur in the first place and respond to every comment
- when it comes to Twitter, respond to almost every question asked of you
- go above and beyond at times – help customers implement your software for free when you typically charge a set up fee
The key to connection is to not just care about your business, but more imporantly care for the people using your products or services.
If you aren’t a fan of cold calling our using other similar tactics to increase sales, try other ways to educate the market.
DON’T CHASE YOUR CUSTOMERS, LET THEM COME TO YOU
- set up your company blog – keep the design simple and focus on making the content easily accessible and readable
- don’t just blog on your company and the product or services you offer – provide information that will benefit your potential customers
- build up your Twitter and Facebook accounts and promote your blog there
- respond to comments – no one likes being ignored. It’s a great way to get people to come back and want to check out what your company has to offer without you telling them to do so.
Every business has a weakness. Instead of worrying about your weaknesses and trying to hide them, focus on turning them into strengths.
TURN YOUR COMPANY’S WEAKNESSES INTO STRENGTHS
- it will take you time to figure our how to turn your weaknesses into strengths, but it’s possible.
- be creative
- every time you find you weren’t able to convince a customer to go with your company, ask them what you could have done to win their business
You have to keep things simple, life is already complicated. Don’t try to make your company look cool by using the geekiest terminology out there.
KISS – KEEP IT SIMPLE, SILLY
- make sure a five year old can understand what you are doing
- the best way to figure out how to make things easier for your customer base is to survey them
- run A/B tests to see which versions of your website or product are working better for your customer
- people don’t need bells and whistles. They need simple products or services that solve problems.
Don’t fret if you’re currently not an experienced entrepreneur. It doesn’t mean you can’t create big business. Try some of the six tactics listed above. Let me know what you think as I, myself, am still learning new things everyday and can still learn more from others like you. If you have any ideas on how to supercharge your business, feel free to share and leave a comment.