Optimize Before You Grow or Sell

You may think you know what you wan to do NEXT but if you don't optimize first you won't be successful or certainly not as successful as you could be.

There's a blueprint for success in every business. Your business certainly has uniqueness that sets you apart - your own special sauce. But there are key elements that you must have mastered in order to seamlessly grow into new markets, acquire a company in another market or go to market yourself for a partial or full sale. First you must be willing to hear the truth and face the music of where you stand today, and ready to do what it takes to get to where you want to be. Every company needs to look at each department and assess if the structure is optimal, if the right people are in the right seats, if the standard operating procedures are developed and more importantly being used consistently, if it's as productive across other departments as it can be. How do the handoffs between departments look? Where are the weaknesses and do you know how to fix it? While each area should be examined, the most critical areas are financial and sales. If you don't know how and if you are making money down to the penny and job, then you are not ready for growth or a sale. If you are not doing GAAP accounting then you have work to do. On the Sales side, you need to look yourself hard in the mirror and ask if your Sales Manager is best of industry level or did he get you this far but probably needs to be replaced? Your estimating and sales process should be just that, a systematic process, not a random, individualized style of quoting and closing. Can you pick up your sales team and process and plop them in a new market successfully with no doubt? Beyond financial and sales, you can then analyze production, procurement, marketing, customer service, post-install service. With each department consider the leader first, then how process-driven the department is running. Growth should not be implemented until you have mastered all areas of the business - not perfected it, but mastered it to a point of having great leadership and process. And to sell a company, consider if you want to sell low so the buyer gets the pickup after coming in to improve everything, or if you want to do the work first and reap the benefits.