VaultLife will launch worldwide before the end of 2014. We have re-developed the software three times – on each occasion taking the experience to the next level. At all times we have been governed by Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle and have asked ourselves the question “Why are we doing what we are doing?” This simple yet powerful question sets the direction and tone for everything we do.  Check out Simon Sinek’s 2009 TED Video

People dont buy what you do – They buy WHY you do it.
 

 

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Face-to-face meetings take a huge amount of time, require a massive amount of effort and build a relationship that in theory can still be undone because whoever gives the best product with the best services will still win the deal.

Relationships do not play the role that they used to in business 20 years ago. It is far more about professionalism, service, who can meet your needs the quickest  – that is the new business relationship i.e. speed of implementation. As a result, face-to-face meetings have been replaced by the ability to act in a professional manner, deliver professional service and do it in the fastest amount of time.

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One of the culture and values that 

that we only give small budgets to each department

which they have to use creatively and strategically. 

This means that apply independent thinking to each situation and it ensures that they leverage other parts of the company and leverage other departments. It creates a great vibe, it allows everyone to learn and facilitate business within the company.

Most importantly it gets us colossal results with very small spend. Once this has been successful with the small budget, we then throw a bigger budget at the successful project and leverage it to its fullest degree.

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In July, you should be sitting on 40% of your yearly turnover if your objectives were correct because of April having such a low turnover.

It is good to remind the company of these objectives. This will hopefully inspire them at this half way mark of the year, looking at where the company is at and where it is going. This will remind them of the goals that were set at the beginning of the year and remind them that they are held accountable for achieving these goals. There should be a sense of excitement when they see how much has been accomplished and what needs to be achieved moving forward.

Topics that should be covered in the general address are;

• Objectives.
• Culture.
• Values.

Never underestimate the role that culture and values play in a general address as well as the value of reminding the company on the type of ethos that they stand for.

The general address also includes;

• What is expected of them as people.
• What is expected of them in their workplace.
• What the company represents and stands for.

Our culture and values are an inspirational and passionate document that will be proudly read out as we plot and correlate it towards our next six months strategy.

The general address should outline how the strategy for the next six months has changed.

Objectives and yearly benchmarks may be the same, but it should fundamentally look at the strategy at that of the Head of Department level. The HOD levels should deal with the next six months and what every department should be instituting. This should include when the department will have their September and November campaign completed for implementation, as well as when will it be pre-approved, how much are you relying on it at that point in time and what figures have to be achieved by then.

At a HOD level, the general address should tackle what the next six month’s bigger strategy is going to be. At a junior as well as a day to day executive level, it should address what they should be looking at month to month, week to week and day to day. Breaking those objectives down into bite-sized pieces to ensure they are easily understood.

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Firstly, you need to take your plans out and take note of what you have achieved.
Questions that should be asked are:

• did you hit your six month milestone
• did you manage to pull off what you needed to do in Q1 and Q2.
  You need to take into account that Q1 and Q2 are normally slow, strategy and budgets are off, it is also slow consumerism and unproductiveness because of April. However, we are now in the throngs of it.

Moving forward-

• what is July looking like,
• what are your goals for Q3 and
• how are you monetising to give yourself the biggest buffer as possible to ensure that you smash your Q4 target.

You need to start planning on how you are going to leverage media and your profile within the industry as well as upcoming events that you can capitalise on. More specifically, there are major events that are being set up from July onwards in terms of conferences, expos and concerts that are coming to South Africa. All of these represent opportunities and represent massive brand exposure for short periods of time. Therefore, you need to know how you are going to be tackling these in terms of a very detailed plan. This plan needs to be broken right down, to ensure that there are deliverables on each item.

At LIVEOUTLOUD and VAULTLife we sat down to create our 6 month strategy, this is how we break it down.

1. A month by month strategy of department goals, figures and the critical objectives.
2. A review of our culture and values, to remind the team who we are, what we stand for and how we achieve success the VAULTlife.com way.
3. A flow chart of business coming in and moving through the company, to highlight departments that naturally bottle neck and to ensure they are as efficient as possible.
4. A detailed cash flow, budget and income projection plan- startups burn through funds. Knowing what and when we can spend forces innovative behaviour without over extending.
5. Critical thinking- the whole company had to read the first 100 pages of a book which is relevant to what we are experiencing in our company right now, and were given tasks to present back to us. The team then presented back to the company in different roles, eg. Donovan Black became the CEO and he had to re-present the 6 month strategy with changes he would make to the plan. They were amazing and over half have been implemented. Developing critical thinking in a startup is crucial to success and takes away the natural inclination of employees to lean on the entrepreneurs.

Having non tech people in key tech positions ensures usability and simplicity in areas that intend to become over complex.

Simplicity is the greatest form of genius.

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Why is productivety so disappointing? Why are people so disengaged? The traditional pillars of management are obsolete. You do not fight your competitors, you fight yourself. Solution – smart simplicity.

I loved this TED talk by Yves Morieux . . .

Original off TED site is to be found on this link . .

http://www.ted.com/talks/yves_morieux_as_work_gets_more_complex_6_rules_to_simplify.html

Visit his website for more . .

https://sites.google.com/site/yvesmorieux/

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Don’t Believe Your Accountant!

This is an indictment against business owners who blindly believe what their accountants say – an accounting for business owners guide.

Business owners, it is your responsibility to check your businesses finances even if your accounting knowledge is poor. This week I came across two tragic stories of owners who blindly believed their accountants – unfortunately SARS (IRS) did not agree, and neither did their unpaid suppliers.

I am not talking about complex accounting practices – I am talking about the absolute basics of simple money management. Here is a guideline of what you – as the business owner – need to physically check every month.

1. You need to log into every bank account and determine that the money is actually there! This includes the following accounts – current, investment, trust, holding, credit cards and savings.
2. Physically check that your invoices are going out every month. Physically check that the number of payments received corresponds with the number of invoices that go out.
3. Your suppliers’ invoices and statements – keep on top of supplier debt before it gets out of hand.
4. Know who your tardy payers are and manage them yourself. Know when to shut down their line of credit – this is your responsibility.
5. Debit orders – know your monthly debit orders and the dates that the amounts are due.
6. Rent – tell your landlord that if the payment is not made by the 7th of the month you must be phoned (not the accountant).
7. Electricity and telephones – make sure that your number is the one that is notified if payments are not made.
8. VAT and PAYE – log in to SARS (IRS) monthly and make sure that your tax payments are being made. Even if the amount is not correct it is 80 percent better than no payment at all. Compare the current payments to previous months and previous years. Query any deviation.
9. Bank statements – physically run your eye down the bank statements. You will be amazed at how easy it is to pick up transactions that don’t make sense. Don’t be fobbed off by complex explanations, pursue your query until it makes sense; if not, seek external help.
10. Every month download your bank statements into a continuous spreadsheet. Many banks do not provide electronic data for more than three months (the archive PDF versions are useless for management purposes).
11. A set of company financials must be generated every year. This is not negotiable. Pay the cost off monthly if you have to.
12. Audits – regardless of the size of your company an external audit must happen every year, even if it is not a legal requirement. If your company is small, give your company records to an external experienced bookkeeper. Ask them for a two-hour general check; this is not expensive.
13. Commissions, bonuses, incentives, allowances and increases – this is the scene for horrendous mistakes. Physically check the figures yourself. Ask your accountant to explain the calculations; the discipline of explaining can be the very thing that brings the errors to light.
14. Filing – your suppliers’ invoices should be filed alphabetically according to the company name. Look at the files and make sure that they are up to date. There must be a separate file for contracts and agreements (cars, phones, machines etc.).
15. Assets – there must be an assets register. Check that it is up to date.
16. Is your company legal? Is it registered? Physically check the certificates. Are these registrations up to date (these are annual payments)?
17. You need to know the name and phone number of your business banker; if you have a business account you automatically have one. Introduce yourself and take two minutes to tell him/her what you do.

Here is the awesome thing about this. Once you have done this for six months you will develop a feel for how the money moves around in your business. You will know something is wrong without knowing what it is and this is the most important part.

If you are tempted to ignore this posting remember this. Your accountant will sail off into the setting sun and you will sit with the problem. If you don’t have the financial expertise to manage your cash flow on a monthly basis you will not be able to explain any discrepancies to SARS (IRS) either.

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There are only two possible answers i.e.”Yes” and “No”. If “Yes” we talk RECOGNITION. If “No” we talk CHANGE.

Change is simple and is made of three elements i.e.

• the target,
• time management and
• rethinking

It is unlikely that the target is the problem. How can an acceptable target suddenly become flawed?

Time management is a solvable problem.

The most likely candidate is old thinking. Old thinking is a lot like cholesterol – it affects performance. Rethinking is the solution as it demands that we “profoundly reconsiders” our strategies. Re-thinking brings profound changes that allows us to reach our targets.

By setting targets for staff and making them accountable one week later your business is set for expansion especially if it is coupled with the powerful antidote of rethinking. By incorporating targets and rethinking as a basion of company-culture you can only expand.

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Here is mine and it’s just four words . .  “YOU ARE THE PROBLEM”.

Your business is a direct reflection on you. Problems in the business are problems in you. Staff imitate you.

What excites you excites them. What disinterest you disinterest them. Your interpretation of balance is their interpretation of balance.

Here is the longer version of this strategy . . .  “What is the problem within you that is causing the problem in the business?” Address the problem in your own life and the problem will disappear in the business. Once you have it mastered your own problem, the business problem will disappear permanently (which is unlike with any other externally imposed solution).

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In the south its a month that falls between the cracks – people get sick, the weather is unpredictable, sales slow down, people slow down as they wait in anticipation of the beginning of the southern summer  – 1 September.

Dont let this month slip by. Now is the time to re-focus. Get out those target figures you set at the beginning of the year and re-appraise them. Remind your team of the dreams and visions that you had when the year started. Re-energize and re-focus.

Remember that your team takes its cues from you. If you dont make August important it will not be important to them and it can easy slide by without anybody noticing.

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