Garage Owners Network (UK): Recent Episodes
Andrew Crook
My mission is to help garage owners become more successful in business. Every week I host a 15-minute training topic inside one of the 5 pillars of running a successful independent garage business. Planning, Finance, Performance, Systems & Marketing
This week's Training Topic is a 'spin-off' of the right person, right seat' concept. (see what I did there)
Discover how the "Right Driver, Right Car, Right Race" method can transform your garage from the pits to staff perfection.
Learn to fit talent to the roles that exist or will exist, and create a winning culture that'll leave your competition in the dust.
Atomic Action
Think of your Staff as a Talent pool.
This Training Topic dives into a powerful concept that's revolutionised British cycling and can transform your garage:
CORE Principles.
A philosophy powered by marginal gains, and championed by their Performance Director, Dave Brailsford.
Who explained it like this: "If you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together."
You might be thinking, "That's great for Olympic athletes, but how does this apply to my garage?"
Join me to see if you can build a culture of continuous improvement.
Atomic Action
Examine YOUR Core Principles.
This Training Topic delves into a critical issue affecting UK garages: late payments and cash flow problems.
A 2023 government report and data from accounting software firm Xero have shed light on how much this impacts small businesses like ours.
Included are some practical, easy-to-implement steps –
or 'atomic actions' that you can use today to improve your garage's cash flow.
Join me for some practical tips on dealing with late payments and improving cash flow
Atomic Action
Start treating late payments as unapproved debt.
In this Training Topic, we'll explore how visualisation and affirmations can be powerful tools for personal and professional growth.
We'll discuss these techniques, and how they work, and provide some practical tips for incorporating them into your daily life.
In this Training Topic, we'll explore how social media platforms can be powerful tools and potential graveyards for your Marketing efforts.
We'll dive into three key themes that every garage business owner should consider when approaching their social media strategy
The G.R.O.W. framework is a versatile and effective tool for guiding individuals and teams through a structured process of goal setting, problem-solving, and action planning.
This training topic will explain the G.R.O.W. Coaching Framework and provide an example of how it can be used in your business.
As business owners, we're often inundated with data.
Sales figures, profit margins, customer acquisition costs—the list goes on.
But how do we determine which metrics truly matter amidst this sea of numbers?
Enter the concept of the Most Important Number.
The decision to focus on increasing turnover (revenue) or profits depends on the specific goals and stage of the business. Both are important metrics, but the emphasis may shift based on various factors.
This Training Topic examines these factors and allows you to draw your own conclusions.
Understanding the difference between turnover and profit, the roles they have in shaping your business decisions is an important first step.
Atomic Action
At what stage is your business currently operating?
What should you be focusing on?
What are you willing to give up?
In life and in business change means making sacrifices, relinquishing the old ways to make room for the new.
In our journey to better our lives, businesses, and relationships, we must exchange comfort for growth, control for collaboration, and stability for innovation.
Remember, every meaningful change starts with a courageous decision to give up something we once held dear.
This training Topic considers some pivotal exchanges and the extraordinary transformations they bring.
When you release your marketing into the world, most of your potential customers are not ready to buy.
In this training topic, garage owners will be guided through the process of their customers' journeys using the Messy Hexagon model.
You will learn to identify key touchpoints and understand how potential customers interact with your business.
The session explains how to create detailed journey maps, helping you visualise and optimise your marketing strategies.
The MoSCoW Method is a prioritisation technique used to reach a common understanding of the importance placed on key aspects of personal and business decisions.
During this training Topic you will learn:
What the acronym stands for
How to use it to prioritise tasks
How you could use it business to:
1. prioritise workflows
2. make key decisions
3. stay congruent with your values
The difference between struggling to keep the lights on and thriving despite the odds often lies not in the hands of fate, but in our own perspectives.
One of the most transformative concepts that can redefine success in any business is shifting from a scarcity mindset to one of abundance.
Many business owners operate under the assumption that the market is a pie with limited slices, viewing every competitor as a threat to their slice of success.
This scarcity mindset can lead to defensive strategies that stifle growth and innovation.
However, there’s a better way.
An abundance mindset flips the script—it’s about seeing the market as an expandable pie, growing bigger with every innovative idea and collaborative effort.
This episode explores how adopting an abundance mentality can open up a world of possibilities. Get ready to change how you view your work and the opportunities around you—it’s time to think abundantly!
This is the garage owners' version of 'begin with the end in mind'.
Habit No. 2 of Stephen R Covey's The 7 habits of highly effective people.
The idea is you work backwards from the end not forwards from the beginning.
But how do you imagine the end?
Is it simply the best version you can imagine, or do you need to dive a bit deeper?
Join me to find out more.
Atomic Action
Remember you are the star of your own movie, and that's why you must build a business that serves you
Differentiating your business can be challenging, especially online.
Yet, one of the most powerful but often overlooked tools is the quality of your customer service.
This episode explores why exceptional customer service is not just a support function but a core element of effective marketing.
We’ll dive into the top three reasons why prioritising customer service can transform your business by creating loyalty, setting you apart from the competition, and building your reputation
Atomic Action
Make sure you Stand Out and are not just Shouting Out
Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast is often attributed to Peter Drucker, it captures the idea that a strong organisational culture can significantly impact a company's success more than its specific strategies.
Peter Drucker is a renowned management consultant, educator, and author. However, there's some debate about the exact origin of the phrase.
While it's commonly associated with Drucker, there's no definitive evidence that he said or wrote it. It's possible that the phrase emerged from the business world and became attributed to Drucker over time.
So let's amend it to ‘Culture eats Process’ and examine the power of culture as a driving force behind the behaviour, & performance of a business in this training Topic
Atomic Action
Live your values, don't laminate them
People First, Profits follow, that's employees not customers.
While it’s unlikely any of us will make The Sunday Times' Best Companies to Work For list, we can all make our businesses a better place to work.
Prioritising the workforce's well-being, development, and satisfaction is not just a moral imperative but also a strategic one.
This can lead to significant benefits for businesses, impacting everything from retention & productivity to brand reputation.
Atomic Action
Improve one thing this week that improves your staff's wellbeing, development or satisfaction.
Determining how much you need to retire involves a combination of factors, including your expected lifestyle, expenses, inflation, life expectancy, assets and investments.
This 9-step guide will help you come up with the answers, but always get professional advice, the sooner the better.
The quote by Tony Robbins, "People overestimate what can be achieved in a year and underestimate what can be achieved in a week," highlights a common cognitive bias in goal-setting and time management.
This training topic delves into the intricacies of effective planning, goal-setting, and the psychology of achievement.
Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment, they arise from the way our brains process information.
Understanding how these biases affect us, can help in planning more effectively and achieving better outcomes.
Discover how to combat biases & avoid procrastination by:
By diving deeper into why, we find it difficult to estimate how long something will take.
Introduce proven methods to improve goal-setting and time management.
Including, how weekly meetings can improve the chances of achieving your goals.
Atomic Action
Understanding and adjusting our perception of what can be achieved in different time frames can lead to more significant accomplishments.
Experiment with your goal-setting strategies and appreciate the power of incremental progress.
According to a recent study, Instagram is the #1 social media platform for building relationships with brands.
If you’re not using Instagram for business purposes, these potential new customers may never find your business.
Does Instagram even feature in your Marketing strategy?
Should Instagram feature in your Marketing strategy?
What works best on Insta?
Or can you just post the same content across all your social media channels?
Join me to discover how to get more Impact with Instagram.
This training Topic explains why garage owners should build business systems.
While systemization is widely recognised for its benefits in terms of scalability, efficiency, and consistency, it can also face several objections, especially in the context of garages.
I think that understanding these objections is crucial for addressing them effectively.
Join me to find out why YOU should be building Systems
Unlocking Profit Potential:
Transforming Your Business with Upselling Ideas
Remember the iconic line, 'Do you want fries with that?' That simple upsell not only turned a side order into a complete meal but also paved the way for the game-changing concept of 'Do you want to go large?'
Imagine if your garage could achieve similar upselling success! Bolstering your total income by a remarkable 15-40%, strategic bolt-on sales that add genuine value can be a game-changer for your business.
I invite you to join me, where we'll delve into the world of upselling tailored specifically for garages.
Discover how the Goldilocks Effect can influence buying decisions, how too much choice is worse than no choice, and how a traffic cop can improve customer satisfaction.
Atomic Action
Offer your customers more value!
Select one area that you can upsell and monitor the results.
The 3rd in the Know Your Numbers Know Your Business series, Cashflow forecasts are a method of predicting how much money will move in and out of your business over a set period.
Learning how to craft robust cash flow forecasts enhances your financial intelligence.
Intelligence, in its broadest sense, refers to the ability to learn, understand, and apply knowledge and skills, make reasoned judgments, and adapt to new situations.
Intelligence is also the collection, analysis, and use of information to understand and predict the capabilities, intentions, and activities of businesses and the business environment.
Join me o to improve your financial intelligence.
Atomic Action
Build a basic model of your business
This Training Topic asks you to prioritise the Next Step for your business.
It is all too easy to work on the wrong thing, or the next thing when you would be better working on the NEXT logical thing.
But how do you know what that is?
Every business has a hierarchy of needs and fixing the lowest level needs of your business must always be the priority.
Atomic Action
Identify the lowest Level Need of your business.
Come up with a Plan to address those needs, and measure the results.
Repeat Every 90 Days.
This Training Topic explains the What, Why and most importantly How of LinkedIn for Business.
With over 774 million users, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network.
However, it is often overlooked when it comes to social media marketing.
It's different to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and you need to tailor your content accordingly.
Join me to find out more about LinkedIn Marketing
Atomic Action
Set up your LinkedIn Business Page
If you already have a LinkedIn Business page, come up with a 12-month content plan.
This Training Topic asks about your business's Training Plan.
My two favourite quotes when discussing training with garages are as follows:
Richard Branson “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough, so they don't want to"
and
Henry Ford "The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay"
Great sound bites, but what are the implications for a garage business?
Listen to this podcast to find out more about training plans, self-development, team development and retention.
Atomic Action
Set out a Training Plan for 2024 that addresses the most urgent needs of the business.
If you already have a Business Training Plan consider the development of the individual members of your staff.
The 2nd in the Know Your Numbers Know Your Business series.
The balance sheet is a crucial document, but not one that is commonly understood by garage owners.
This training Topic teaches you how to read a balance sheet.
Describes the Balance Sheet equation and the common terms used.
Explains what it is used for, and what it does and doesn't indicate.
The balance sheet can be used by investors, creditors and analysts as it provides insights into a company's financial health, liquidity and overall stability.
Every business owner takes on three distinct personalities when they think about or work within their business.
It's common for business owners to bounce between each of these roles.
But do you know what proportion of your time is spent in each role?
Or how much time you should be spending in each role?
Join me to gain a bit more insight into your business split personalities
Atomic Action
Discover which of the three business personalities dominates your time.
Measure the time you spend on Income, Impact and Investing activities.
Facebook Marketing offers a powerful and cost-effective platform for garages to connect with their target audience.
It's a versatile tool that can be adapted to various marketing strategies and objectives.
But are you making the most out of your Facebook marketing?
Join me to find out what demographics use Facebook, what it is the #1 social media marketing platform for, and finally how to use Facebook insights to measure the effectiveness of your efforts.
Atomic Action
Is Facebook worth all the time and effort?
What is your current FB performance?
ROI, reach, interaction, clicks, visits & follows
What improvements can be made - is your profile up to date?
Do you have an outcome in mind-what is the purpose of your next post?
This podcast explains the What, Why and most importantly How of LinkedIn for Business.
With over 774 million users, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network.
However, it is often overlooked when it comes to social media marketing.
It is different to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and you need to tailor your content accordingly.
Join me to find out more about LinkedIn Marketing
Atomic Action
Set up your LinkedIn business Page
If you already have a LinkedIn Business page, come up with a 12-month content plan.
What can Garages learn from a global fast-food giant?
The McDonald's success story offers some compelling lessons for garage owners, a commitment to consistency, customer-centricity, employee training, branding, innovation, and technology adoption to name but a few.
Join me today to find out more.
Atomic Action
What 1 lesson can you learn from McDonald's and implement in your garage?
Labour Mix
Labour mix is the ratio of a garage's income thats divided between two components: parts and hours of labour sold.
This training topic asks what is the ideal parts labour ratio, investigates other ratios that a garage business may want to measure, and highlights hidden labour charges that might not otherwise be accounted for
Atomic Action
Calculate your Labour Mix, then consider if this is the ideal ratio for your business.
The Know Your Numbers Series
The first in a series of financial statements covered in this series
The Profit and Loss Statement
The P&L statement is a financial tool that summarises a business's income and expenses, allowing owners to gauge its financial health and make smart financial decisions.
Garage businesses should regularly analyse their P&L statement to monitor short-term trends, identify cost control issues, set pricing strategies, and make informed financial decisions.
Even those with limited financial knowledge garage should know their numbers.
Atomic Action
Find out how many ‘cash flow crunches’ you have had in the past 12 months, and use this as a starting point to discuss how to make Improvements with your accountant /bookkeeper.
This Training Topic looks at how you can use video content in your marketing.
The average person watches 17 hours of online video every week
Video allows you to engage, connect and resonate with your target audience in ways other forms of content do not.
Despite this many small business owners are not engaging with online video.
We will explain why you MUST use video
and the good, better and best methods of video creation
Atomic Action
Create a video that tells the story of your brand/business/garage
Freedom is the motivation for most people to start their own business.
Be it time, financial freedom or both.
What most people end up with is a JOB.
A JOB they can't quit, with long hours and low wages.
Most would be better off employed, in fact more than half will cease trading within 5 years.
To avoid getting stuck in a JOB you must build systems.
This training topic explains how systems can set you free
Attracting more customers is a common business goal.
Attracting more of the right local customers is a better goal.
This Training Topic explains the benefits of the FREE Google Business Profile App (it's much more than just local SEO)
This Training Topic aims to uncover the Margin vs. Markup Mystery.
It will explain the difference between Margin and Mark Up.
Then the training will ask business owners why certain self-limiting beliefs are preventing garages from making more money.
Finally, it asks what value is being added, to justify any margin or MarkUp in the first place.
All objectives should be aligned with your business vision.
It is important to prioritise, review and adjust as circumstances or market conditions change.
This training topic outlines a 3-step method that ensures a balance between addressing essential needs, and ambitious goals, and tracking performance through the use of meaningful metrics.
This training Topic focuses on Managing short, medium and long-term goals
Be an Agent for Change
This training Topic examines how to make your marketing more effective based on the Six Principles of Influence by Dr. Robert Cialdini that guide human behaviour.
People are not that easily Influenced, are they?
I will use examples that illustrate how people can be influenced by marketing your activities.
All the examples are commonly used in effective marketing by businesses large and small.
This training Topic focuses on
The most effective marketing strategies based on the Six Principles of Influence.
The ethical use of the Six Principles of Influence.
This training Topic explains how Primary Data Capture can set your business apart.
Don't believe me?
How did the world's best car salesman do it?
How did he sell more cars? It was simple, he was unique and he was memorable.
This training Topic focuses on
How Primary Data Capture systems can be used to improve your businesses.
How to capture primary data for customers, vehicles and repairs.
What you need in order to use primary data to maximum effect.
This training Topic explains how incremental gains can transform your business.
Don't believe me?
Sir Dave Brailsford used 'marginal gains' to take British Cycling from a laughing stock to Olympic track domination.
Then with a few tweaks did the same with Team Sky in professional road cycling.
This training Topic focuses on
How Incremental gains are Manageable and Sustainable for small businesses.
Why it is a low-risk high reward strategy
What you need in order to implement incremental gains for maximum effect.
This training Topic helps business owners better understand Variable Costs.
As well as explaining the difference between Fixed and Variable Costs, it will explain how variable costs can be predicted and therefore, managed.
Poor management of variable costs is a common contributor to cash flow problems in small businesses.
This training Topic helps individuals and businesses set and achieve impactful goals within a 90-day timeframe.
Whatever you are striving for this training topic will provide you with a roadmap to maximise your productivity, focus, and results.
In this digital age, where attention spans are short and competition is fierce, the power of impactful content cannot be overstated.
This training topic will provide practical tips for creating captivating website content that engages, inspires, and converts.
How to use your blog pages, newsletters and case studies to increase trust, and authority and attract the right customers.
Whether you're seeking inspiration or looking to refine your own content, we've got you covered.
In this training Topic, we will explore the concept of improvement loops, and their significance, and provide a simple 3 step framework for implementing them effectively in a garage business.
Understanding and using the power of improvement loops is one of the key elements towards long-term success.
Succession Planning is the process of identifying, the Critical Roles within your business and having a plan to replace the staff who carry out those roles. (Including the owners)
It is a continuous process and one that too many business owners leave until it is too late.
Do you have a system for identifying internal talent?
Are you reactive or proactive with recruitment?
Consistency is a key component of your marketing message.
It is easy to be tempted to 'change things up' when you are about to design your next social media post, paid advert or live video.
This is a mistake and I will explain why in this live training
Your website is the digital gateway that connects you to your customers. Therefore, your website should reflect your business and the customer experience.
Of course, we'll discuss the essential pages that should be on a garage website, and delve into the key elements that make them effective for your marketing message.
We will uncover how a well-designed website can boost your garage's reputation and build customer trust.
How informative content through blogs or news feeds positions you as an industry leader and keeps customers coming back for more
Business adolescence describes the stage when a business transitions from infancy.
It is often when a company is most vulnerable.
This training will help you prepare for the growing pains associated with Business Adolescence.
Key Take Aways
- 50% of automotive repairs businesses cease trading within 5 years
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You Need systems to manage growth
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To attract and develop talent
- To attract more customers
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To enable autonomy
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Ideally growth is planned not accidental
The OKR (Objectives and Key Results) method is a goal-setting framework that helps businesses define and track their objectives and outcomes.
It provides a systematic approach for setting ambitious goals, measuring progress, and aligning teams towards achieving desired results.
Have you noticed that most if not all business books encourage businesses to grow and scale?
Is this the only way to measure business success?
What about the smaller perfectly formed businesses that are thriving without the desire to grow and scale?
Valuing a garage business typically involves a combination of methods that take into account the business's financial performance, assets, market conditions, and other relevant factors.
This training topic:
- Provides a general overview of the valuation process
- Reasons for a valuation of your Business other than selling
- Suggests why some valuations are unreliable
The Training Topic is all about Paid Ads
Here are some of the topics we will be covering:
What are Paid Ads
The different types and the costs associated with them
Finally When to Use Paid Ads
www.atomicsuccess.co.uk
Linked to the previous training topic Average Invoice Value
Sales per customer is a performance indicator that can be used to calculate the lifetime value of a customer.
It is also a measure of customer satisfaction.
Winning a new customer costs much more than keeping or selling to an existing customer.
So it is important to monitor the number of sales per customer
Return on investment (ROI) is a financial metric used to evaluate the profitability of an investment.
It is calculated by dividing the net income from an investment by the cost of the investment.
This training topic examines how garages can:
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Predict Future Income
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Calculate the ROI of Training
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Use ROI to make informed decisions
Long Term planning can be a bit daunting, and feel a bit too abstract.
This training tries to overcome the reasons why you do not have a long-term plan, by asking you to write just 2 sentences and 3-5 core values.
This is the basis of your BIG Vision
Try it for yourself, it is much harder than you think. Explain
-
what your business does and who for, in one sentence (Goldmine Statement)
-
the long-term aim of the business (Vision Statement)
List the 3-5 Core values of your business.
Not just, trust, integrity, & diligence. They are givens in business.
But what the business stands for, the non-negotiables, the points of difference, that reflect the owners.
Culture is a crucial aspect of any Business's success.
Here are the three most important things about business culture:
- Defines the values and beliefs of an organisation
- Impacts on employee engagement and motivation
- Shapes the organisation's reputation and brand
It is essential for leaders to create and maintain a positive and engaging culture that supports their employees and aligns with their goals and values.
The value-action gap is a phenomenon in which an organisation's stated values and beliefs do not align with the actual behaviours and actions of its members.
Should the culture or values define an organisation?
Culture and values play a critical role in defining an organisation.
Values set the foundation for what an organisation stands for and what it aspires to achieve, while culture represents how those values are put into practice.
To be successful, an organisation must align its values and culture, creating a cohesive and positive identity that supports its mission and goals.
More Money and time freedom are the big motivators for starting a business.
However, what are you doing with the time and financial freedom that your business is providing?
Are you enjoying really nice holidays?
It's not just garage owners, data from many small business forums suggests that most small business owners or self-employed people actually don't take the statutory holiday requirement.
Small Business owners simply don't go on holiday.
There are many reasons for it, some of which we'll cover in this training.
But the main reason is they actually have a JOB.
And JOB stands for Just Over Broke, which is what most people are when they run a small business.
But it's also a JOB that nobody wants because it's a JOB that you couldn't pay someone to do.
If you actually wrote down the job description of a small business owner and everything that the typical small business owner does, you couldn't pay someone enough money to do that job.
Working basically 24, 7, 365 as if it's a badge of honour. (Look at me and how hard I’m working)
That's the ethos and the culture around small businesses or being self-employed.
If I don't do it, no one will do it and I've got to work 24/7/365
However, this is not and should not be what running a business is all about.
Why do we need holidays?
They are essential for your health and well-being.
Holidays should be part of your business plan from the outset.
Sometimes confused, they are different metrics although they are derived from similar data.
Utilisation refers to the extent to which a resource (such as a machine, labour, or time) is being used to produce a product or provide a service. It's a measure of how much of the available resource is being utilised.
Efficiency, on the other hand, is a measure of the extent to which resources are being used to achieve the best possible results with the least amount of waste.
In business, high utilisation and efficiency are important goals because they help to increase productivity, reduce costs, and improve the bottom line.
How are they Calculated
Utilisation can be calculated as a ratio of the actual resource usage against the maximum possible resource usage over a given time period.
For example, if a garage has 4 ramps/bays but only has 3 technicians (who are productive 85.5 hours per week) however there are 160 hours available, then the utilisation would be 85.5/160 = 53.4%.
Efficiency can be calculated as a ratio of the output produced to the input used.
For example, if a garage sells 60 hours of labour but the 3 technicians attended for 120 hours, the efficiency would be 60/120 = 50%.
It's important to note that utilisation and efficiency are not always directly proportional, as high utilisation does not necessarily mean high efficiency.
The concepts of utilisation and efficiency can also be applied to individual workers, but I prefer the term productivity to utilisation.
The example used can be found here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OVyjhk4e7_JUdhoTjtr9XmehC0C3H_3JaVMLVz1AviY/edit?usp=sharing
Long-term planning for your business and your personal life.
How you can use your big vision, your 10-year plan, and your long-term goals, as long-term planning tools.
Using examples of business and personal goals based on some very quick research.
That took about 20 minutes for the personal example, and not much longer for the business example.
How to work back from instead of working to your goals.
The two most common objections to long-term planning and two quotes that I like that deal with those objections and maybe change your perception of long-term planning.
What is the marketing paradox?
There are many marketing paradoxes, but the two I'm going to focus on are
- it's never been easier to be able to reach your customers, but the paradox of that is, so can everybody else.
- differentiation versus amplification
This is the more common paradox spoken about.
Using fancy marketing terms
Differentiation is generally considered to be the longevity of your brand or your product.
Amplification is the speed at which you can get people to recognize or to know, like, and trust you.
There is a constant challenge in marketing between that differentiation and the amplification of whatever it is you're trying to market.
You need to strike a balance, that is a paradox because you can't continuously be using amplification marketing methods or differentiation methods because that would be ineffective.
Today marketing is a bit more complicated than it used to be for garages, the independent garage sector, as a rule, is not great at marketing.
I want to ask you, and these are the three questions
- does your marketing differentiate your business?
- Does your marketing do enough to stop people scrolling past when they're on social media and
- does your marketing produce repeatable results?
If you've answered no to any of those things, then you probably need to listen to this podcast.
A sales funnel is a visual representation of the journey your customers take from prospect to sale.
The idea is to visualize that journey in the form of a funnel that starts wide at the top, where you have lots of hopefully prospective clients and narrows down to the bottom where you get fewer and fewer until you get to the sale.
The sales funnel has taken your clients from cold to warm to hot?
What does that really mean?
From unaware that you exist to knowing you, liking you, and trusting you enough to buy from you.
It's a useful tool that allows you to study your funnel to discover where you need to improve along the sales process, where sales are being won, and where sales are being lost.
This training considers the top, the middle and the bottom of the sale funnel.
A recent survey asked Garage Owners, ‘If they had a business plan?’
Only 2 out of 10 businesses had a business plan, which is startling.
Some of the respondents who did have a business plan said they only had a business plan to attain some sort of finance, the bank required it, or when they went to get a grant they were required to put a business plan together.
In most cases, they did not have a business plan because they wanted one.
But because they were forced to write one.
However, what I would ask is how does any business without a plan measure success?
Are they merely looking at if they made it to the end of the year?
We've made it through another year. Is that your definition of success?
Well, if it is, how are you ever going to improve?
How will you achieve your final Vision?
What is the real reason for not having a plan?Lots of people, when I talk about business planning, say, ‘nothing ever goes to plan so what is the point?’
I agree, Nothing Ever Does.
However, if you do not have a framework for improvement then you'll just carry on doing what you always did.
‘If You Always Do What You've Always Done, You'll Always Get What You've Always Got.’ ~ Henry Ford.
If you want to make improvements, however small, you must set goals and measure progress.
This training topic outlines the Atomic Success method of setting out your 10-year Vision, 3-3-year Goals, and 1-year Plan.
Fix This Next.
Download the worksheet so you can see the questions that I've put together to assess your business with regard to finding out what to fix next.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13_DRbDdk5oCdfeQike-wctiCBlPppryF/view?usp=share_link
It's about finding the lowest level need in your business, and then putting together a plan to fix it.
The Atomic Success Program is about finding your vision and your values, and then putting in place a step-by-step plan, to achieve what you need to do to make your vision come true.
Fix this next is a method of identifying what you need to fix in your business in the correct order.
It's based on the excellent book by Mike Michalowicz, titled 'Fix this Next'
In the book, Mike identified a business hierarchy of needs, based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which was published in the 1943 paper titled ‘A Theory of Human Motivation’.
Maslow’s hierarchy of physiological needs suggests there are five core needs that form the basis of human behaviour and decision-making.
The lowest level of need in the human hierarchy is air, food, water, shelter, sex, and sleep. These are called physiological needs.
The next level was safety. We needed a secure and safe environment, both physical and financial security.
The next level of belongingness, friendships, love, community, and family, the human need to belong to a tribe.
Then esteem, which is confidence, self-esteem, self-worth achievement and respect.
Finally, self-actualization, morality, creativity, self-expression and helping others to achieve self-actualization.
Humans automatically satisfy the lowest level need, for example, it's very difficult to self-actualize if someone is choking you because your lowest level need becomes air to breathe and you revert to the lowest level need.
Mike Michalowicz argues that businesses have needs, they have lower-level needs and higher-level needs, what he calls to get and give needs.
He discovered that most business owners try and master all things at once.
They try to do everything at the same time, they find themselves continuously firefighting, the next priority is the next drama, the next crisis that they need to fix.
The problem with that is prioritizing everything, which means that nothing becomes the priority.
So just like the human hierarchy, all the elements of the business hierarchy are always in play at all times. However, you should only concentrate your energy on solving one issue at one level at any one time.
The golden rule is that you always satisfy the most essential need, the lowest level before addressing any need above it.
The business hierarchy of needs levels are
the creation of cash - Sales
the creation of stability- Profit
the creation of efficiency - Order
the creation of transformation - Impact
and the creation of permanence - Legacy.
The workbook asks you to consider the GET needs of sales, profit and order.
Because once you nail these, you can work on the rest of it yourself. You won’t need any help.
Turnover for vanity profit for sanity, but cash for reality.
Also known as where did all the money go.
This topic is all about the different types of profit, and where does the money go in your business and how do you account for it?
One of the questions I ask people is why they measure the size of their business or the success of their business based on the turnover.
It is a useful measure in fact, it's used by the government to determine which category your business falls into.
Are you a micro-business, a small business, or a medium size enterprise is determined partly by your turnover. It's one of the measures that they use.
So you can see why everyone uses it, and I often ask someone, the size of their business and, they're only too pleased to tell me what their turnover is.
It is a useful yardstick, but it's not, it's not accurate in terms of measuring how successful the business is, which is the point of this episode.
Cash flow is the absolute foundation piece of all business, without positive cash flow businesses quickly start to struggle. Cash Flow can be thought of as the oil in your machine that is your business.
Cash Flow can be negative as well as positive.
So what do we mean by negative cash flow?
Negative cash flow is when there's more cash flowing out of the business than in this is where businesses begin to struggle.
Positive cash flow is the opposite when there's more cash coming into the business.
When a business is in the infancy stage, cash flow is an absolute priority. In fact, it is the single most important thing that a business in infancy needs to tackle. Typically to increase cash flow in a business, you need to increase the number of sales or the average sales value.
When a business moves into adolescence, cash flow is still important. However, the secret here is to create a predictable cash flow. Your marketing needs to produce a consistent number of leads, which you then need to convert into sales in a consistent and regular manner.
For a business in maturity, cash flow is the security for the business, it enables the business to invest, to have an impact, and it can make the business more attractive if you want to sell.
The Cash Flow Cycle.
The cash flow cycle is basically how cash is used in the business.
The amount of cash at the beginning and end of a reporting period is the cash flow cycle.
Improve your cashflow
All the research I undertook at how to improve the situation in my business, pointed at increasing positive cash flow.
More sales, and higher average sales value.
But don’t underestimate the significance of cutting costs, trimming even more fat off an already lean business. There is always some fat you can remove from your business that doesn't affect the value you offer. Not suggesting a penny-pinching exercise, but cut all the things that don't really add value, or that you're paying for and don't use.
This training topic examines the importance of WHY in your marketing message.
You must use stories and how to build those stories, to have the maximum effect.
I have reviewed what Garages normally do in their marketing messages, and this is no criticism, I'm not picking on anyone, but when I look at what garages (including my own), tend to do, we list our services.
Imagine paying for adverts that simply tell potential customers you're a garage and you do garage stuff.
The next stage or improvement over just having a list of your services, or the tools and equipment or the facilities you have.
What I call features
Is moving on to benefits.
You have probably heard about features and benefits.
How you must tell them the features, but explain the benefits.
You can save them time because you are local, and your customers don't have to travel to the bigger town to use an alternative, because you have the same facilities. You may have a courtesy car, the benefit here is your customers will not be without a vehicle.
These are all good things to explain, as opposed to a list of services and tools.
If the customers don't understand the features, they will understand the benefits.
But only if you explain it, taking your marketing message one step further.
Explaining the benefit to the customer.
So we take the feature and add the benefit.
Simple enough, but so few garages do it.
You must explain the meaning of the benefit.
To do that you need to tell a story.
Based on the excellent book by Mike Michalowicz.
In this training topic, we cover the 3 most important aspects of Profit First.
This is something I have used in both my business and personal life.
- Bank Balance Accounting
- Parkinsons law
- Target Allocation Percentages
BANK BALANCE ACCOUNTING
Most entrepreneurs don’t have the time or gumption to read the different accounting statements necessary to manage the financial aspect of their business.
Theoretically, you should review and correlate your Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement monthly (or more frequently), but few entrepreneurs do.
Most resort to “bank balance accounting,” where we check our bank balance every day and make financial decisions based on what we see.
Per Parkinson’s Law, we consume what we see in our bank accounts.
Profit First encourages the entrepreneur to continue “bank balance accounting” by first allocating money to profit (and other accounts) so that the entrepreneur sees the actual portion of deposits that are available for expenses and they automatically adjust their spending accordingly.
Profit First Method
THE PROFIT FIRST FORMULA
The GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) formula for determining a business’s profit is Sales – Expenses = Profit. It is simple, logical and clear. Unfortunately, it’s a lie.
The formula, while logically accurate, does not account for human behaviour.
In the GAAP formula profit is a leftover, a final consideration, something that is hopefully a nice surprise at the end of the year. Alas, the profit is rarely there and the business continues on its check-to-check survival.
Sales – Expenses = Profit
Sales – Profit = Expenses
With Profit First, you flip the formula to Sales – Profit = Expenses.
Logically the math is the same, but from the standpoint of the entrepreneur’s behaviour, it is radically different.
With Profit First, you take a predetermined percentage of profit from every sale first, and only the remainder is available for expenses.
Target Allocation Percentages (TAP's)
These are simply the % of the income we allocate to the different accounts.
I used a 5% TAP to start with, to which has taken care of the VAT bill without us noticing.
I suggest the TAP's from the book, however, you may want to use your own TAP's.
www.atomicsuccess.co.uk
Before you can fix your business, you must ensure you are fit and well, both physically and mentally. If you don't make a bit of time for your health now, be prepared to give it a lot of time later. It's the age-old principle of putting your own mask on, before helping others.
In this training topic, I look at the 5 F's of Fixing yourself First.
Fitness - both mental and physical, health and wellbeing.
Family & Friends - I have combined these into your network. Surround yourself with the people you choose.
Faith- Your belief system. Value Action Gap, the discrepancy between your values and your behaviours, and why it can be a problem.
Fortune- take of the above and this will be the consequence.
Finally, I ask if you can compound the benefit of taking action? By acknowledging that to make time for yourself, you have to be willing to give something up. make it something that has a negative impact, and replace it with a positive one.
Please reach out to someone if you are struggling, 116 123 or https://www.samaritans.org
The marketing Brief.
The interesting thing about marketing briefs is very few people I speak to have one or use one when they go about their marketing, and for that reason then becomes a bit woolly or ad hock.
Why do we need a marketing brief?
Basically, it provides the focus for your marketing activities. The marketing brief sets out the aims and objectives of your marketing campaign.
How do we do it?
you need a document, some sort of template to lay out what it is you're trying to achieve with this particular piece of marketing.
What do you need to put in your marketing brief?
We're gonna go through it, but not in any real great detail.
I might try and give you some examples of the marketing brief that I use for the Atomic Success Program.
www.atomicsuccess.co.uk
NLP
This is not voodoo or witchcraft, but choosing your words wisely, but I have called it neuro-linguistic programming because I can't really think of anything better to describe the subject.
If you've done any research into NLP, you'll realize that there is no clinical or scientific evidence to suggest that NLP works.
This subject is more about what not to say when communicating with customers.
Neuro-linguistic programming first came to light in the seventies and it was widely used in the eighties. Especially in sales environments.
However, it has been largely discredited. Clinical trials have scientifically proven that it has no basis, but we don't operate in a clinical or scientific environment. We operate in the real world, in a garage, speaking to customers, and this is where I believe implementing some form of language or communication protocol does work.
So we will call it NLP, and accept it for what it is.
A pseudoscience, on the fringes of actual science. Saying that it has been used by quite a few famous people. If anyone's heard of Paul McKenna, he's an NLP practitioner.
That doesn't mean I'm going to ask you to start tapping your head when speaking to your customers or anything like that, it is simply about;
Words that we should or shouldn't use when we're communicating with our customers.
What is your labour rate based on? This training topic suggests a method of setting your labour rate to ensure your garage remains profitable. In this episode we will also look at: How to deal with inflation What the government thinks an hour of your time is worth Self limiting beliefs
When is data a metric? When is data a KPI? What you should use as a comparator? Why are metrics an important part of your data suite?
What is data? Data is anything that we measure within our business, data is the raw numbers.
It is simply anything we measure within our business.
What gets measured gets managed, and what gets managed gets mastered.
Collecting data within your business is vital, however, this training topic considers, what makes data a metric. How does data become a metric? To make data a metric, you need to add a comparator. Therefore, data plus a comparator equals a metric.
What is the difference between data and a metric? Very little initially, because all metrics contain data. But not all data are metrics. Data is just the numbers, to turn those numbers into a metric. The data needs to be quantitative. This requires a comparator, a measure to compare against, which turns your data into information, which can be turned into reports that can then be used to make business decisions. That's the key difference.
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