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marketing

Why (and how) to develop an effective marketing strategy

Written by Pavlo Phitidis on . Posted in Lead generation and conversion, Positioning.

If you can’t and don’t get potential customers to know that you exist, they don’t care and you die. They don’t care because there is very little special about you. Should you not be there, they will get what you were selling from the next business selling it. This is the mindset of a successful marketer.

A Bit of History

In 1870, Ralph Waldo Emmerson said, “build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door”. In 1870, he was right. There were very few products so simply having one led to success so long as the product held together.

Henry Ford applied this thinking and he made a great success of it in the early 1900’s. His offer was “you can have any colour Model T Ford as long as its black”. Then in the early 1970’s Philip Kotler, referred to as the ‘Father of Marketing’ argued that products aren’t good enough to draw your customers.

Market Segmentation

Kotler proposed that you must divide your customers into groups of customers with similar needs and wants. You must communicate with your segments rather than rely on “spray and pray” marketing. This is where you communicate with anyone and everyone in the hope that you reach someone who becomes your customer. The business world loved it. It held the promise of bringing customers to your door and it beat mousetraps.

Today’s environment is different but not

In 2020, very few business owners that I meet and work with have progressed beyond a hybrid of these two positions. They have identified their segments and impose their products features on them!

What’s missing?

The ability to see and hear messages from a business has become increasingly difficult. There is more advertising, products, options, voices and choices today than ever before. There is greater access to information, more economic pressure and a massive increase in competition. The environment has changed. But the way most business owners understand and see marketing has not. This new environment means that a product-centric and market-segment approach is no longer working. Both these strategies rely on broad messaging as opposed to customised, contextual messaging.

What’s Messaging?

Messaging communicates your offer and value to a prospective client. It includes :

  • Format
  • Message,
  • Design,
  • Distribution
  • and a result.

Think of an email campaign as an example:

Campaign – this is the programme of communication. It includes the various formats and messaging as well as distribution. It has a beginning, an end and should be measured in terms of impact.

Format – this is the mechanism used to communicate. In our example it is an email, it could be a radio advert, an advertorial, an event etc. There are many formats right down to fridge magnets and coasters.

Messaging – In our e-mail this is the copy. The words that communicate what the offer and value of the product is. It should also include a call-to-action.

Design – this is wrapping of the format and messaging. An email might include a picture with the copy. The copy includes colour, fonts, spacing and more. Design should illicit the ideal emotive response to the message. Red means act now, blue means trust, orange means creative and energetic etc.

Distribution – this includes the method of communication. Distribution is managed off a platform. It includes radio, TV, billboards, websites, social media. It’s also that guy, standing on the side of the road pleading with you to open your window and take the flyer.

How do you get your messaging consumed above the noise?

The evidence is there – people don’t buy products. They buy solutions to their problems. Problems are experienced on a personal level, that is, an emotive “lived experience”. Messaging must resonate with your “lived experience” or you blank it out or look past it.

Beyond Segmentation towards Personas

A persona is a personality, character or identity. It changes over time and its change is led by many aspects from the environment to the body and the mind. Excellent writers have the ability to present the physical, emotional and lived experience of their characters. In reading about these characters, you immediately understand them, and think of people in your friends and family circles. You further knew exactly, based on their description, how to delight and annoy them. Personas are just that.

Persona Messaging

Understanding your customers as personas enables your messaging to emotively connect with them. It makes a person feel heard and understood and that builds familiarity and trust. What you have is a potential customer who feels safe with you. They warm towards your communication and hold the promise of high conversion.

Effective marketing builds messaging that is based on a deep and sound understanding of what problems you solve and for who. It is this understanding that lets you build consistent marketing campaigns that can be measured and improved.

 

HOW TO GET THE RIGHT EMPLOYEES TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS INTO AN ASSET OF VALUE

Written by pippa@aurik.com on . Posted in Aurik Business, Leadership, Team.

Tough economic times mean that unemployment is rife. But, as a growing business owner, you’ve noticed that it seems near impossible to find the right kind of people for your company. Unfortunately, the most skilled and best people often cling to the safety net of their current jobs. As the owner of a developing business, finding the right people, at the right time, to join your company and help it grow towards being an asset of value, is critical.

On The Money Show with Bruce Whitfield, Pavlo talked about the right way to hire the right people for your business:

IT’S NOT JUST THE ECONOMY THAT’S THE PROBLEM

Even though unemployment may be rife right now, that’s not the only concern. Inflexible labour laws mean that it’s difficult to hire and, if things go badly, fire someone if they don’t work well for your business. It’s absolutely vital that the first twenty to thirty people you hire to join your growing business are the right fit, because the wrong hire could bring your company to its knees. Moreover, the urgency behind needing good people for your company could lead you towards hiring the wrong people, by accident.

IT’S DECISION TIME

Choosing to grow your team, or not to grow your team, both bear a cost. If you opt not to hire anyone, you’re not building a business: you’re merely creating a job for yourself. If you choose to hire, you must hire well, and commit to the path of growing your business, because people are an essential element of that journey.

WHAT NOT TO DO

You may be feeling the pressure to hire, but the biggest mistake you can make is to hire someone quickly. Quick hires seldom turn out to be good hires, and a bad hire can derail your business before its even begun to operate properly. Notably too, you shouldn’t hire someone to do a job – you should hire someone who brings skills, a good attitude, and true value, to the systems of your business, while operating within them.

WHAT TO DO

Building your business into an Asset of Value begins by creating the systems that enable its growth. Building that System of Delivery begins with:

  • Knowing why you do what you do: A business that is being built into an asset of value, focuses on securing customers and delivering a service to them, through its systems. A true asset of value knows what business it is in, and exactly who it serves.
  • Knowing your customers’ problems: Your business is defined by your customers’ problems, and its services are built to solve those problems. Knowing, understanding, and responding to, those problems is critical.
  • Creating a system that effectively solves those problems.
  • Employ people to operate systems, rather than doing a job

Once your system of delivery is set up, you can look towards employing people to operate those systems. Creating effective systems, and giving your team well-defined job descriptions, enables them to operate in a manner that’s measurable and motivating. That then goes on to build a positive company culture.

LEARNING FROM MISTAKES

Success teaches us very little, but learning from mistakes is invaluable. Enabling your team to make mistakes, to fail and to learn, is essential. By safeguarding your business and empowering your team to take small steps first, and make small mistakes as they learn, is an imperative. Managing the risk of mistakes will ultimately make your employee, and your growing business, stronger, and better equipped to face future challenges.

 

succession

Negotiating the family business deal

Written by pippa@aurik.com on . Posted in Aurik Business, Exits, Leadership, Team.

We received a long email from a listener who is considering going into his parent’s business. He has a career in a different industry but has worked in the family business before. His folks have an option to get external professional management into it, but they are reluctant because it’s part of the family heritage.

Many businesses are considering succession as a strategy to hold onto an asset that makes money and will grow its capital value. Getting this right begins with an understanding of what the deal and the process would be between the founders or parents and successors or kids. These engagements can become extremely emotional and very complicated. The debates often get dragged into the history of the relationship and personalities involved rather than what right is for the business.

Here are two negotiating positions worth considering from either side of the fence. The logic holds for family succession, management succession and new partner formation in existing businesses.

Founders

Founders typically hold some of the following emotional mindsets regarding their businesses.

  • History and story about how they started, the difficulties overcome, sacrifices made and unrealised potential.
  • The social fabric of their lives is stitched from the business and this history. As leaders, which all private business owners are, their status comes from the business and the industry.
  • That they existed and left a mark or legacy becomes a key feature for many founders even though they don’t, won’t or can’t admit it.
  • At the later stages of their business life, the sense of defeat or resignation resulting from fatigue after “years in the engine room” can switch to a new lease on life when they see new energy appear in the business, through a trusted family member or younger colleague.

This makes negotiating with founders tiresome. They sway from resignation to regeneration and from withdrawal to “all-in”. Messages about the intent and the relationship between them the successors can be confusing and conflicting. Navigate them slowly and with empathy. Clarity comes from engagement and time and the process needs patience.

Strategically, the founders need and want the following, even though many struggle to express it:

  • Certainty that their years of sacrifice and hard work will yield a pension
  • Confidence that, in the case of a family succession, the kids won’t reverse the gains and collapse the value of the business, since they have no runaway left to step back in and “fix it” again
  • The relationships they have built and the promises they have made will be honoured by the successors. This is often seen from the context of the strange, usually unprofitable deals done between them and their first customers. It’s also seen through the relationships with suppliers and staff.
  • The successors must, need and should struggle to earn the fruits of the business
  • Control over the money since it’s the source of their retirement

Successors

Successors come into this environment opportunistically or reluctantly.

Reluctant successors either have no other options or are driven by family duty and responsibility. In many cases, the business is simply not saleable, and the founders face a dire economic outcome without the intervention.

Opportunity is often motivated by a respect and admiration of what the founders have built and excitement to be part of the future journey.

If reluctant, the emotional mindset will be governed by impatience and possibly resentment.

If opportunity drives the successor, an enthusiastic mindset and positive approach to learning, engagement and the business sets it for a smoother ride into the future.

Strategically, the successors need and want the following, but may struggle to express it because they are not yet aware of what matters and what doesn’t.

If reluctant:

  • Impatience in getting to the ground and making the changes that they believe will have the quickest impact
  • A view that this is short-term and their objective is to build it and sell it
  • A salary and position that will compensate for the sacrifices made to support the family business
  • Low empathy for staff that have been in the business for a long time and may be part of the problem
  • Disregard for the history whilst focusing on the future alone
  • Getting the job done and minimising sacrifice

If opportunistic:

  • Recognition that you start by sweeping the floors
  • Active engagement with suppliers, staff, customers with a view to learn, earn and attain knowledge and through that, respect
  • Patience with the founders and active engagement to understand the history of the business
  • Immersion in the product and service to deeply and quickly understand it.

Both the above scenarios give insights into the backdrop for negotiations between the founders and successors. Understanding this will ease and de-personalise the negotiation between the parties and open the opportunity to get the relationship built right in service of the business. Either way, the following approach has yielded the most sustainable and successful outcomes irrespective of the nature of the successor – reluctant or opportunistic.

  1. Agree to reset the vision of the business after a 3 to 6-month period of the successors entering the business. Until then, status quo must be maintained.
  2. Agree how the successors will accelerate their understanding of the business to support their contribution to the new vision of the business.

This will provide enough time for the successors to understand the dynamics of the business and environment.

  1. Embark on a facilitated strategy session with a view to include the experience and history of the founders with the new energy, perspective and desires of the successors. It must be facilitated since this will allow all ideas to be ventilated and the parties will feel heard.
  2. Concretise the strategy and vision through a few measurable objectives and actions.
  3. Agree on where to start – it should always be in the market first – and where to end in the collaborative rebuild of the business to meet that vision.
  4. Be very clear on the basis with which control will migrate from founder to successor.

This process will not necessarily defy the fact that 72% of family succession efforts fail. But it improves the chances of success dramatically. Family businesses are clouded by assumption more so than management succession and new partner succession. Families tend to hold fixed views on each other, carry resentment because of history and, if conflict avoiding, rely on assumption in the decisions made in succession.

We work with family businesses across all sectors of the economy. With personal history in this space, we have developed and deepened our interest in how to manage the dynamic and more importantly, establish a structured process of engagement that will serve the businesses first and the family as a result. Should your succession efforts stall, reach out to us and we facilitate the engagement to ensure your business becomes an Asset of Value.

SME matters

EVENT: Market your business to generate revenues

Written by pippa@aurik.com on . Posted in Innovation, Lead generation and conversion, Pavlo Phitidis, Positioning, Trends.

You’ve structured and finally launched your e-commerce website – so what’s next?

Marketing your business to generate revenues needs to become a key element of your strategy today.

If you want to become part of the rising tide of e-commerce success stories, you need to find ways to stand out.

Join business growth expert, Pavlo Phitidis as he chats to a panel of experts on smart marketing strategies that will set your business apart and help you attract customers in the e-commerce space.

Speakers include:

  • Kathryn Sharfman, chief platform officer and chief marketing officer at The Sun Exchange
  • Musa Kalenga, Executive at Bridge Labs, The Brave Group of Companies and African Tech Roundup
  • Aidan Baigrie, CEO at Expert Opinion Md

22 September 2020 from 13h00 to 14h00

Register at: https://bit.ly/3hCrwiV

This is part 3 in a 4 part series on Digitising your Business brought to you by Business Day SME Matters and Payfast.

business empathy

No More Mr Covid Nice Guy!

Written by pippa@aurik.com on . Posted in Leadership, Mindset.

As this reality of the long-term nature of the lockdown became apparent, there was shock. And  there was also a deep sense of sympathy as every single person around the globe was affected.

As business owners, we naturally felt sympathy for those suppliers, customers and staff who were battling, and needed a bit of leeway.

Now the question is: Is it time to toughen up?

Pavlo’s view is that now is the time to move on from Mr Nice Guy to Mr Smart Guy. This is our new reality, and it’s going to be with us for a year, to two years. We need to normalise this in our approach to business, to the risks we take and to implementing actions in our business.

Sympathy can’t be driving all our actions. Now is the time to be empathetic. Listen to the podcast of his discussion on702 & CapeTalk about the difference:


We are seeing this across the global landscape. Take a look at the protests in Belarus, or the British government’s approach to breaching the Brexit deal. Around the world, the crises that are occurring see governments asking people to back off instead of asking the hard questions, blaming the apprehensions of Covid.

If we assume the new normal is going to last for two years, we need to get back to business. If a customer/supplier/employee comes to you asking for some relief, you need to consider it carefully.

What to consider when making empathetic decisions

If someone asks for a concession, you have to ask: Is it worth making that concession? It might be a staff member who needs to keep working from home, or a supplier who wants to be paid upfront. Is it worth the effort or sacrifice, or not?

Pavlo went back to his Onion Peeler method to ask what is core and critical to the survival of your business and what isn’t.Tthis will help guide you to whether it is worth it or not.

Ask 2 questions:

  1. What is the downside risk in making that concession? What if your accommodation is not returned? And what is the extent of the concession you can make? Maybe it is one extra month of working from home, or this is the last time you agree to pay upfront.
  2. What is the upside gain? Are you holding on to a customer whose growing business will grow yours, or is this a staff member who is committed, and important to the business in the future?

Sympathy is a kneejerk reaction, empathy requires that you educate the person as to why they need to agree to a concession.

It is not charitable, it’s a business transaction, where each party gains.

As part of the Corona Business Battle Plan, Pavlo hosted two webinars on negotiating with Landlords and SARS respectively https://www.aurik.com/corona He wrote template letters that went to pains to show empathy for the landlords and for the taxman. Both parties would have to concede something to the business owner, and the business owner needed to show that they understood their challenges, as well as how their short-term support will secure a long term gain for each.

Limit your risk

Most people in business have a fairly good sense of whether someone is being genuine and authentic or not. If you are feeling uncertain, look at the information being presented to you and ask questions. You will see if the thread of an argument holds or doesn’t hold.

Put conditions to the concessions. For example, allow the staff member to work from home but then set up daily check ins.

Persistence

When working on negotiations which Pavlo has done extensively he always pushes and pushes for more information from each party. How the business functions, how the levers of growth and value work, why this concession will have a positive effect if granted. He insists on going into lots of detail. And often the person granting the concession will be so worn down he will grant it!

burnout

IDENTIFYING AND PREVENTING BURNOUT WHEN YOU’RE A BUSINESS OWNER

Written by pippa@aurik.com on . Posted in Aurik Business, Leadership, Mindset, Operational systems, Team.

Burnout creeps up on you like the Dementors of Harry Potter fame. You may not see it at first, but it slowly takes over and, when it hits, it can devastate your body, mind, life, and business. Burnout can destroy even the strongest businesses and the best business owners. On The Money Show with Bruce Whitfield, Pavlo Phitidis discusses ways you can identify, prevent, and manage burnout as a business owner:

IDENTIFYING BURNOUT AS A BUSINESS OWNER

If you’ve read any of the Harry Potter books, or watched any of the movies, you’ll be familiar with the Dementors. The Dementors suck the hope out of characters in the series, leaving them feeling listless, tired, and despondent. Unable to identify exactly what’s making you feel this way, you end up disillusioned, unable to focus, and – seemingly suddenly – you’re completely adrift. Burnout works much like the Dementors and business owners are at high risk for burnout. As a business owner, you’ve invested passion, energy, time, and money, into your business, often forsaking financial safety nets, and putting your personal life on the line, to build your business.

HOW BURNOUT MANIFESTS

Burnout begins to manifest through negative thinking and forecasting. As a business owner, you’re an optimist – if you weren’t, you would not have started your business. Burnout manifests slowly, and then speeds up, to the point where you may feel you can’t even get out of bed in the morning. When negative thinking starts to creep in, you may find your creative abilities falter, and you pay less attention to the tasks in front of you. You care less than before, and standards start to slip within your business. You may find yourself apportioning blame to people or circumstances when things go wrong, rather than trying to own and solve problems. You may find yourself battling to lead your team, and your willingness to fight for your business diminishes. Physically, your body starts to react, with interrupted sleeping patterns, sudden weight loss or gain, and your energy levels plummet.

HOW TO PREVENT BURNOUT AS A BUSINESS OWNER

Staving off the onset of burnout is important for you as a business owner. You may have numerous personal strategies for managing your energy levels, to ensure that you’re able to keep going, no matter what. But, safeguarding your business from burnout is vital, so that you can keep growing and building, no matter what. Build your business to be burnout-proof by:

  • Building differently – Don’t try to be all things to everyone. Burnout typically takes hold during the start-up phase (the first 3 to 5 years of a business journey), because it’s during this time that a business owner focuses on attracting customers and getting significant cashflow rolling. Because they’re so focused on trying to solve multiple problems, and be all things to everyone, they’re not able to build a solid system of delivery, and every functioning part of the business needs their direction.
  • Simplifying – The simpler your business is, the easier it is to manage and grow. Simplifying your business at all levels, reduces the noise you need to contend with daily, and helps you to focus.
  • Creating a system of delivery – A reliable, measurable system of delivery that ensures you deliver what your customers need, when they need it, will help to buffer your business against burnout. With the right, well-capacitated, people in place, your business can continue to deliver even when a business owner is battling burnout.
  • Getting some help – There’s no shame in asking for help. Culturally and societally, we’re somewhat conditioned to believe that asking for, and receiving, help, is a sign of weakness. In truth, however, asking for help is a sign of strength. Your family may be a source of additional pressure, but your spouse should be able to support you in some way. If you have a business partner, it’s time to ask for their help – they probably saw the signs of burnout in you, long before you did. Map out a plan of growth for your business, and for yourself. Exercise, eat, and sleep well, and try your best to get some perspective, so you can stop burnout from burning you, and your business.

 

pivot

Pivot: what does it mean and how to do it

Written by pippa@aurik.com on . Posted in Leadership, Trends.

It has become one of the worst pieces of jargon through the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, and one that Pavlo has steered clear of. But at its simplest, the word pivot means you need to find revenue from a different place and space.

The word was popularised 15 years ago on the West Coast of the USA where the startup industry was booming. Investors into that market were engaging in what is called portfolio investing, but which Pavlo calls ‘roulette investing’ – throwing money at a host of business plans and ideas. When these failed, the investor would ask: ‘What Now?’ and the startup would say: “We have to pivot”. And this is possible in the startup environment because they have nothing to lose as they haven’t built up a legacy business.

It is very different when you have an established business with the baggage of your business, in these instances, you need to pivot very differently.

Listen to Pavlo discuss how establish businesses did, and should pivot on The Money Show on 702 & CapeTalk:


To make his point about how different businesses pivoted, Pavlo reminded us of a massive phenomenon at the very beginning of lockdown: everyone was stockpiling toilet paper. Why? His view is that in a crisis, the fist thing we do is to ACT to avert the crisis, we do something, even if it is misguided to make us feel as if we have some form of control over the crisis.

Pavlo witnessed similar behavior among business owners. He saw established businesses making pivots based on their own biases. Their history and legacy were affecting their decisions and actions as they tried to find ways to bring in revenues.

The first grouping were those businesses that had invested plant and equipment that the business owned. Consider a fleet of trucks, or workshops or fridges. The tendency was to look at the equipment lying idle, and figure out what they could use that for to make something new or store something different.

Very often those types of businesses are run by people with an engineering background, and these are people who are good at working with their hands… making something or doing something. So making or doing something new was their place of safety – their toilet paper stockpile.

The 2nd pivot grouping was with those who had created their own product or service. Whether it was baked goods or a scientific invention, or a service innovation. These business owners went back to their product or service and figured out how to make the product or service better. Whatever their strength was, they focused their energy there, that was their safe space.

Finally there were pivots where business owners moved towards their customers and suppliers. They sought to understand what those suppliers were doing differently, and how they needed to pivot to be relevant to them.

Pavlo believes that going to your customers is always a good idea as that is where the revenue is going to come from first. And he shares a technique you can apply to get it right.

The Onion Peeler:

Pavlo has developed an incredibly simple but effective technique called The Onion Peeler to understand where your strengths lie in your business.

Every business has a core and strategic competence. It might be in your services, skills, or with your customers. Without it you don’t exist at all as a business.

The middle layer is not core but absolutely strategic. For example – technology, accounting, inventory management or whatever it is that enables your business but is not what your business does.

The outer layer is what you can shed, it is not core nor strategic. You can buy it as and when you need it.

If you apply this to your approach to pivoting – take what is essential to your business and take that to your customers and ask them what has changed about their needs that mean they no longer need your core offering, in the same way.

The customer that guides your pivot will be the first one to pay for the pivoted offering.

 

5 post covid syndromes

5 post-Covid business syndromes that could hurt your business

Written by pippa@aurik.com on . Posted in Leadership, Mindset, Trends.

Through thousands of discussions with business owners, Pavlo has identified certain patterns among different kinds of business owners. Most are severely on the back foot.

His concern is that if you have a prolonged view on the current environment, the psychology you hold today can change your attitude and patterns of behavior, which affect the habits you make in the next 18 months or so, which could mean in the next 18 months to 2 years you could end up being a significantly different person to who you are today.

Listen to the podcast of Pavlo’s discussion about the 5 syndromes affecting business owners, from The Money Show on 702 & CapeTalk:

It’s important to understand that psychology, and work through it or work with it, to get through the next 2 years.

The 5 mindsets that he is seeing over and over again are:

Loss aversion

This is a view that assumes that losses loom larger than gains. You see losses running out of the business, but you simply cannot see the gain that will outweigh the losses you are experiencing now. The problem here is that you have to change to remain relevant, post-Covid. The extent to which you test and invest in new technology, for new engagements with clients and suppliers, scares a lot of businesses that are experiencing this. They can’t face the enormity of the task and freeze, unable to act. Sadly, your competitors are, and when you emerge from your frozen state, your customers, clients and suppliers will all have changed and you will be left behind.

Panic

When you panic you move into a Freeze, Flight or Fight response – this switches on an automatic response which narrows your perspectives and point of view. It is an impulsive state. An example is a business owner who decides that Covid is here to stay, and so the business needs to cut costs to staunch the bleed of money. Where do they cut? Sales and marketing, which stops the flow of leads into the business, which cuts revenue, and exacerbates their panic because now they actually are losing money.

Imposter syndrome

This is the voice inside your head that makes you feel like a fraud, who will be found out soon enough. Pavlo’s rule of thumb to identify the frauds is to look at what they say vs what they do. Pavlo suggests persisting with a question to get a deeper and deeper view – if someone brushes you off… they may be an imposter.
But right now, not a single one of us knows the answers! Simply saying”;I don’t know, what do you think” helps us move past that place where we feel we need to know all the answers all the time, because people see right through it when we pretend we do.

Denial

This is often expressed as a dependency on one area where you feel strong and capable and you won’t move from it. You obsess about that. But doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result was Einstein’s definition of insanity. Technical experts are doing this a lot. Brilliant scientists and engineers and specialists will act where they can physically do something – they dabble and fiddle with the product or the service, without engaging the market to see what is actually needed. Making a product ‘better’ without knowing what your customers’ needs are is insane.

Exhaustion

Private business owners work 35% more hours in a week than employees, so already they were tired. But Covid has forced them to learn, adapt, cut, find new revenue streams which has compounded that.

Burnout in yourself or your business can be devastating so if you are truly exhausted or find yourself manic, which often leads to burnout, Pavlo’s advice is to go for a run, or a ride, or a stroll with the dogs. Take a break to manage yourself, before you get back into it.

 

If your business is suffering due to these psychologies, contact us for a fresh perspective and a trusted partner to reignite your business.

ship

Building a business is like sailing a ship

Written by Pavlo Phitidis on . Posted in Leadership, Operational systems, Positioning, Team.

Analogies are very useful to simplify thinking and action. As a business owner, building a business in a challenging environment creates noise and chaos. Gaining clarity, certainty and confidence helps manage the noise and emotion to provide right action and timing in your journey of building your business. A good analogy helps you get this right.

Building a business is like sailing a ship. Here’s how and why.

  1. A ship sets sail with a clear destination in mind

Like a business, you start and end. The end takes one of two forms: A sale or closure. For most, its closure. In fact, 94.6% of all businesses started close at great cost to the business owner, their family, their staff, suppliers and customers and the economy in which they operate. To succeed in your journey, you need to set a clear destination. You then need to ‘chart your course’ to arrive there safely and efficiently.

For example, you set sail from Durban to get to Mumbai. It’s a 12-day journey at sea. Being smart, you take 15 days of food, fuel and water in case things go wrong. A business too, should have a resource plan to get from where it is to where its going. This means a clear destination and a plan to get there supported by a budget.

  1. A ship has a crew with specific skills and roles

A ship has a crew made up of people with varying skills and responsibilities. There’s the Captain, first and second mate, navigators, engineers, cooks and deckhands and so on. Each has a specific role to perform and is trained to perform it.

A business is made up of people too. If well organised, the team includes people best suited and skilled in marketing and sales, operations and procurement, human resources and finance. At sea, every crew member knows what to do and when to do it. The safe passage of the ship depends on it. In a business, the same applies. Failure in any one area of activities stalls your business growth and lets all your team members down.

  1. A ship is organised in three distinct areas: a bow, midships and stern

The bow of the ship is like the ‘front-end’ of your business. It breaks new water and directs the ship along its course. The stern is like the “back-end” of your business. It propels the ship forward. The midships is the control centre of the ship located between the bow and the stern. It’s like the “middle” of your business and controls the finance and human resource administration and management activities. Each area must perform its role for the ship to function well and sail successfully to its destination.

The same applies to your business. The front-end of your business: sales and marketing, leads the business direction. The back-end of your business delivers in response to sales made. The midships holds and coordinates everything together with hopefully, good metrics and data to be sure that there are sufficient resources to get to the destination.

  1. A ship has a bridge and engine room

The engine room of a ship is below deck and houses the diesel engines that drive the propeller and move the ship forward. Its mostly a dark and dingy place. The loud noises of the engines smell of diesel, it’s poorly lit and the constant issues that a sea faring ship experiences make it a tough place to be. The bridge of the ship is located above the deck at a high point on the ship. It has windows wrapped around it giving you a 300-degree view. It has a dashboard with instruments and navigation equipment. It controls the direction of the ship, it deals with speed and communications and has a Nespresso machine. It’s a great place to be.

As a business owner, where do you spend most of your time? In the engine room putting out fires or on the bridge guiding the direction and growth of your business?

Most business owners I meet are spending most of their time in the engine room. They are driven by the business and everything that makes up their business. Staff, customers, suppliers, landlords, government and more. They spend little time on the bridge because their businesses are chaotic and poorly built, requiring them to be constantly fixing and rejigging the engine room. Yet, they are the most expensive resources in their own businesses. They should be spending up to 70% of their time on the bridge. There, they can direct the ship, set the course, ensure that they get to the destination to off-load their cargo and get paid. There, they drive the business and are not driven by it.

  1. A ship sails alone in the open sea to get from A to B

The open sea is full of surprises. The waves, wind, currents and storms bash the ship and threaten its safe passage. The business environment is no different. Every day we face political regulation that hurt business, volatile currency, uncertain energy supply, bad behaviour and hectic competition. It’s a rough sea indeed.

  1. A ship is regularly maintained

A ship is an asset that if well maintained, earns income for many, many years. Regular maintenance from scrubbing the hull free of the barnacles that create drag on the ship’s momentum to removing rust and replacing the lifeboats and distress flares all improve the performance and sustainability of the ship.

In any business, the systems you build will have to be partly broken and rebuilt as you grow. The software and computing you have will need to be upgraded. It’s a process of continually ensuring that your business, as it grows, is shaped and tweaked to deliver continual performance.

  1. Build your business like a Captain sails a ship

Using this analogy, be sure that you have a clear, well-defined destination to sail to. In my view, the only port you should be sailing to is an #AssetofValue. That is a business that’s well-positioned, driven by business systems operated by a well-organised team. Importantly, an #AssetofValue can be successfully sold at any point. Importantly, it releases time for you, the Captain of your business, to be on the bridge.

The shape of your business from the front, middle and end should be well designed to ensure that your ship sails successfully and efficiently. That design coordinates the activities in the business for your crew to play their role. That crew should be well-selected and trained, only possible if the destination is clear and ship is well built.

The sea you sail through will have surprises and your being on the bridge of your business lets you look ahead and keep a clear mind to cope with them as they batter and bash your business.

Finally, you, the #businessowner, should be on the bridge. Its only there that you can grow your business beyond yourself, organise your team, coordinate the building and functioning of your business to ensure that, when you reach your destination port, you have an #AssetofValue. It’s at that destination port you can unload your cargo, or in the case of your business, you can exit with a successful, clean sale.

Working with Aurik we have a structured approach to help any established business owner build their business like a ship. We work with you from the bridge to set a clear destination, build the ship of your business to get there and with the right crew. With us you will get to the bridge and remain in it to take control of your destination and secure your eventual, successful exit.

mindsets

Winning mindsets turn thought into action and action into results

Written by pippa@aurik.com on . Posted in Mindset.

The world changed virtually overnight when COVID-19 entered our lexicon. The distinguishing feature between business owners who crack it and those who drift along, and fail… is mindset.

There are 17 mindsets that I have observed, working with more than 2 500 business owners as well as on 43 businesses that we have invested in. In this blog, we will talk about 7.

 

#1 Attitude to outcome

Mindset, or attitude, is the only thing that you have 100% control over. It governs your behaviour which manifests your lived experience in the world. If your business is failing, it’s not your brain, nor your position holding you back, it’s the wrong mindset. And changing it is 100% in your control.

 

#2 Truth in Action

We live in a world of great uncertainty. Truth in what works and what doesn’t only comes from deliberate action. If you don’t act, you will never know. If you follow someone else’s advice in big moves, you will most likely fail. If you don’t, you will never understand how and why you succeeded. That builds an uncertainty trap that becomes very hard to escape. I have seen many people make big money on opportunistic deals. Their efforts to repeat the process failed consistently. This happened because the construction of the deal, the timing, the circumstances and the many, many failed deals leading up to the successful deal that they were invited into – was lost on them. Opportunistic deals are just that, once off. I have also seen how these deals affect people’s confidence. In an opportunistic deal, you believe that the money you make is the only money you will ever make, and that luck was on your side. Contrast this to the the grind of building a business, the multiple failures and hard lessons that eventually lead to success. These are your lessons and can never be taken away.

 

Lastly, there are so many variables in the world today. its impossible to find a sustainable formula for success. for this reason, many small, consistent steps make for a better, more sustainable outcome. In Kung Fu, I was taught to jump from a 3-meter height. It began in year one learning how to jump and land from a 50cm box. In year five, I landed perfectly from 3m having practiced it over 5,000 times a year. without that practice, the first jump would’ve broken bones and spirit.

 

#3 Earn your Rights

 

Two years ago, I addressed an audience in Detroit, Michigan. This is in the American rustbelt heart land. There was an audience of about 200 people. One audience member got very agitated with me. I stated the fact that we are never victims if we hold the right mindset. Blame is an excuse and it’s avoidable if you act, since action empowers you to take control and create a new reality for yourself. He angrily objected to this. His grandfather had worked for Ford Motors and so did his dad who followed in his steps. He too, then followed and worked for Ford until he was let go. That was 5 years back and he and his family were struggling. I debated delicately with him. Being unemployed is a terrible circumstance. I argued that he was in control to the extent that he had the ability to re-skill himself. And that he could do this largely for free through the internet. Re-skilling would keep his skills and capabilities relevant to the digitising industrial space that he lived in and wanted to work in. A tough approach but, the only approach.

 

#4 Excellence in your Domain

 

In early March 2018, I went to watch the Cleveland Cavaliers play the LA Lakers in Cleveland, Ohio. Le Bron James played for the Cavaliers then. He was incredible to watch. He is also one of the oldest players in the game and the sixth highest paid athlete in the world. He invests deeply in himself to maintain his status as the best basketball player in the US. He spends $1.5m on maintaining his performance levels. He has coaches for everything from gameplay to joints, nutrition to recovery. He eats, lives, thinks and dreams basketball and never, ever, veers away from it. He has his 50, 000 hours and 5,000 mistakes behind him because of that. He also has a natural talent and affinity. Find something you love, and you’ll excel too.

 

#5 Play the Percentages

 

Kevin van Dam is a happy person. He fishes freshwater bass for a living. He makes $10m a year. he has the fastest boat on the competition circuit, the most rods, reels and lures when fishing on the water and he has mapped the freshwater lakes of America to keep ahead. The 39m registered bass fishermen in the USA love this man because he always, but always keeps on winning. He wins because of his obsessive, compulsive, perfection disorder. It means he takes no chances in a very competitive sport. He seeks, finds and works hard to shave an additional percentage point here and there to favour his performance. Those many small constant improvements stack up and give him a constant 4% to 7% advantage per competition. He does this because without it he would lose $10m a year.

 

#6 Trained Brain

 

Training your brain is becoming increasingly necessary. Like a muscle, if you don’t use it you will lose it. The gig economy already means that here, in SA, we can access some of the biggest talent in the world and if you can’t compete, you won’t eat. The winning attributes for the future include creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication. Process work, technical work and any other work that can be delivered by software and computers on phones and robots will make you irrelevant. You simply won’t be able to compete.

These attributes place you far out of reach of the software and robots that are your future competitors.

 

#7Paniym

 

Recently, I had a feisty debate with a Rabbi. The whiskey was being poured, the conversation was accelerating and we debated for some time the idea of Paniym. This is a Hebrew word for two faces. He argued that you have a public face which is public property and a private face which is yours to keep. Because you live and work in the world and because opportunity comes through people, your face is public property. It should create the best experience for whomever you meet and engage with to create the best outcome for yourself. It’s about being conscious and in control. You generally only have one shot at creating a likeable, engaging impression, one that would favour your being invited into opportunities or finding favour for your proposals. We are human and we work with people we like.

 

I consistently see these mindsets live and in play with the successful business owners that I work with. These mindsets are available to us all, choose them, use them and improve your chances of success.

 

You will experience these mindsets live, everyday you work with us at Aurik. Our work with you will see you working with many talented facilitators. Their behaviour and their actions will reflect these mindsets. Mindsets that will become part of how you think, act and build your business.