2013 End of the Year Reflections 

Every year I struggle for a moment or two about how to address the end of the year or the beginning of a new year. Frankly, 2013 will end and 2014 will start without my help but like most of you, the end of a year causes me to reflect on what has worked and where the next year will lead me.

There's an implied obligation of bloggers and pundits to somehow mark milestones. I'm a very fortunate (or, perhaps lucky) to have found my way into this consulting career. I enjoy meeting new folks and learning about a new company energizes me. Many of my articles, videos, and seminars are the direct result of an "aha" moment with a colleague or client. So it seems appropriate to revisit some of these blogs and share a little of the backstories.

If I could sum up what I have learned in my career in one sentence, it's that the same wise business practices matter in good times and bad. One of my more pithy sayings is that "good business is just good business." For instance, many companies have skipped over creating an exit strategy (or succession plan) because "we're not there yet." However, the things you do to ensure a profitable exit are the same things that build a good business. It doesn't matter why you start the journey as long as you are paying attention as you go.

In Dec 2009 we were staring the Recession right in the face and denying its existence as best we could. The advice I was doling out seemed timely, but looking back most of it was timeless. I wrote the following piece for Rental & Staging Systems magazine and I think it still applies today.

Five Skills That Are Key in Any Economy 

A few months later in 2010 I wrote about shrinking margins and how to deal with them. Again, the concepts are as relevant today as they are now, but at the time so many companies were flailing about for revenue that they seemed to have forgotten how to run a business. I likened it to driving down a long highway, realizing you are running out of gas, then driving faster in hopes of finding a gas station. Business owners were blaming lost revenue and low margins on their sales teams and all but ignoring the gross profit that was bleeding out of their processes. As margins shrank, so did our spirits.

Is AV in A Race to the Bottom? 

The following was one of my favorite pieces because old cars is a passion of mine. It was March 2011. I used the idea of tinkering on classic cars as a metaphor for business owners using analog tools to work on their digital businesses. What was happening at the time? I was working with some pretty stodgy business owners that were holding on to their 1980s (or in some cases 1970s) business models. At one point I felt like a car mechanic again as I had to explain to an owner that the best his business model could ever do was break even. He needed a new engine to keep apace with the industry, not a rebuild of the old one.

Tinkering With A Classic 

My frustrations continued  in October 2011. By then I could clearly see that the problem most business owners were having was the misconception that revenue would solve their problems. In fact, many of my clients were hurting their businesses by chasing top line, when too often there was no bottom line in that business. Looking back I have found that clients that looked objectively at their book of business tended to do better if they reduced revenue by 10-20% by firing the bad clients. The net result was that the profit from the remaining projects could shine and the sales team had more bandwidth to find new business. In phase one of the change, revenue would drop and profits would rise. In phase two, both revenue and profit go up.

Low Margins? Let's Go Over This One More Time 

By February 2012, the AV segment seemed to be turning the corner. The Recession was long over and most companies had stopped their downward slide and were growing again. Much progress was made in controlling costs and focusing on sales margins. Now it was time to pay attention to planning. Marketing seemed to be the most neglected area in most of my clients, and getting folks to understand why it wasn't optional was not working. I needed a call to action and fortunately, every company has one. It's their website.

Marketing 201: Website Intervention 

A side note: I have noticed that many websites have been refreshed or revamped in the past two years. Some of them well. But I still guesstimate that 70-80% of all our industry's websites make us look like amateurish copycats.  

Fall of 2012 was finally the time to reintroduce folks to the concept of a business plan. This is a potentially huge undertaking that most companies shy away from. I did write a couple of blogs about it, but one of the better tools was this video. Can you really do a business plan in 90 minutes? No of course not. But can you touch on the key issues and create the motivation to dive a little deeper? You bet!

The 90 Minute Business Plan 

In 2014, I think the consulting cycle will include retraining sales teams to sell on value proposition, win clients instead of customers, and focus on long term profit instead of projects and transactions. This kind of takes me full circle back to 2007 when sales training first became a large part of my business. Here's the best concept I have ever shared when it comes to understanding customers:

Customer Buying Styles 

The Journey continues...yours and mine. I will continue to identify what I feel are best practices if you will continue to consider them and apply the ones you think you can be successful with. Together we can raise the bar for everyone and some of us will go even higher in the process. Have A Great 2014!

Yours Truly,

Tom

The post 2013 End of the Year Reflections appeared first on The Stimson Group.