My friend Jim Adams is an expert at helping business owners get from where they are now to where they want to be. He is the owner of a multimillion-dollar consulting business where he does so every day.
I recently got the chance to talk with him. He shared some of the practices he goes through with his clients to help them grow their businesses.
If you apply his advice, you can solve some of your biggest problems and scale your business like never before. Jim has the numbers you need to know and the steps you need to take to go from startup to scale up.
1. Discover Your Focal Point
To do so, use the acronym GAP.
First, gather information. There is a lot of it in business. You need information on your sales, operations, and financials. Go through each of those areas one at a time. Ask the management in those areas what problem they’re having, what they’ve done to try to solve those problems, and what the result of their efforts was. After talking to the management, talk to employees at all levels and gather information on what is really going on in the company.
The second step is to analyze. To put it simply, this just means asking which of the problems you’ve found has the potential to make or cost you the most money?
Once you identify that area, prioritize. Go after it like a maniac.
2. Know Your Numbers
70% of businesses fail within their first 10 years. If you want to be part of the 30% that survive and thrive, you need to start focusing on your numbers from day one.
You would never take your family on a road trip in a car with four cylinders. In the same way, you cannot start a business without knowing your numbers.
However, what numbers you need to know depends on what kind of business you own.
Regardless, there is a similar process for every kind of business to get their numbers. There is a funnel you have to think through: the market is at the top, then there are the people you’re talking to, then customers, then quotes, then jobs you’ve closed, then costs, and finally at the bottom are your profits. The specifics of this process will again depend on your business so think through it for your specific situation.
Think of all of these numbers as metrics and watch them like a hawk. Figure out what is happening in regards to your product that’s being put out, the money that’s coming in, and the money in the bank.
If you want to learn more about how to get from where you are to where you want to be, check out Episode 056: Know Your Numbers with Jim Adams.
