22 Things You Should Learn from Successful Companies
Entrepreneurs, you don’t want to miss any of these…
There are particular elements that help companies become successful. I have studied what works, especially from the companies I have worked for. Great businesses have all these elements plus more. I feel like if you Googled this, you would not find all of these things so I created this list.
I write about entrepreneurship because I believe it is a true path to freedom through hard work and I’m not sure if your job will ever truly have your best interest in heart no matter how well they mean. You need to have control over your own entity... eventually. I’m not saying your job thinks of you as disposable, but they may. Leaving control over your income to your employer is risky.
If you are thinking about starting a BUSINESS, not a new hobby or passion, then ponder these things. If you know entrepreneurs, they need to learn these lessons and make full use of them.
If you want to become an entrepreneur, you need to be obsessed with your job first. Really dissecting your function, how you play into the greater system, and then begin your business education which will be partly books and mostly experience from doing.
1. Track your Time
Why does this matter?
Time is your most valuable asset. The person who earns a bunch has the same time as you do. It is what you do what your time and eventually how you leverage other people’s time to get things done.
I use a tool called Clockify now to track time and I did use Excel. My job still uses Excel for giving more details on process timing. tracking and time-based productivity metrics
what happens if you don't do it? you lose out on a very valuable resource and the ability to improve existing processes.
2. Invest in people
You will work with people to run your operations. It's best to get along with them or you will have a hard time.
Jim Collins “Good to Great” is a book to look into as well as any book on dealing with people and believing in them and supporting them.
Invest in your own knowledge and EQ and invest in food relationships and nurture them.
I have spent much time contemplating business models without humans and with just computers. It's worth contemplating. But most literally all businesses will require interaction with customers who are people.
3. Create a diverse workplace
Different backgrounds bring new viewpoints. Fresh ideas help to liven up existing processes. There is some benefit to doing business with people who have similar backgrounds as you but there is much to learn and experience beyond your level of comfort.
Diversity and inclusion are ways to expand your business to experience other cultures and ways of doing business.
To add, encouraging collaboration and “no stupid questions” is a way to keep the conversation more open in your business.
4. Invest in SYSTEMS
Systems something (that) saves you some time energy and money. I think that’s how it goes.
Creating a system in your business will allow for a certain result to be created consistently because the inputs and the outputs are typically the same or similar.
5. Set clear expectations throughout, roles and goals always defined
Roles and responsibilities clearly defined
Everyone knows what they should be doing. And questions are always welcome.
Also involves frequent check ins from your manager (or you) to make sure you know what you are supposed to be doing. If your business is guesswork you have a problem, at least on the technician level.
Employee handbook created and enforced. When you start your business, your black binder will be small but as you develop your business, it will become a resource. Your black business binder (can be any color) contains all the know how for how to run your business and how each part of your business interacts with the other parts.
Design your business with clear goals and make it a little challenging for those who play the game. Great companies get the best out of you because their systems are designed to do so. This does not happen by chance but rather by design. Things were planned out this way.
6. Create a clear organizational structure
Hierarchy, and who you report to / ask questions to
Have this diagrammed
At first, you will be working all the roles but eventually, the goal would be to hire for each role created in your org chart. You can do this before expanding your company, like thinking way ahead on how your company would evolve.
Helps you become clear on what you are responsible for plus which roles and responsibilities are still unclaimed. It also gives any employees or partners you bring on a clear picture of what the organization should look like once it is developed a little more.
7. Communicate like a Professional
Communication and communication channel (internal) like Slack or Teams.
Central software for communication and the exchange of information is one important metric for how fast your company is able to grow
Professional communication — which doesn’t always translate when you are doing business outside of corporate America.
History of chats for learning and reference has always been helpful for me. I also believe that professionals are great note takers.
8. Create your UBS
UBS is your expert business system which is usually a portal that you can access digitally and is secured
It's like a notepad for the business and history of processes, a central knowledge base, and an instruction guide. Check out Scale by David Hoffman and David Finkel for more,
9. Obsess over Documentation
Tell the story over documents, photos, videos, and more. Everything your business stands for, how your business started, why your business is here, and everything related to how the business runs should be documented.
Inbound and outbound documentation, because without it you just have ideas and talk.
It would be much easier if you could present how your business operates or your company's mission in a visual format so become familiar with software like Google Drawings, Lucid Chart, or Microsoft Visio.
10. Present company Information in different formats
Visual for sure. For the longest I was just typing up all the documents for my business but once I started making things visual it became a lot easier for me to understand what my business purpose was and it became a lot easier to explain to other people what's going on under the hood. When I send people business-related diagrams, its easier for them to say “Oh I get it.”
Maybe audio recordings too
Presented in different visuals styles and media especially training material
powerpoints
videos
documented step by step
process flow diagrams
and a verification process/quizzing to see if you understand the stages the company goes through to fulfill its core business processes. and then eventually all the others related to your role. If you are being “the entrepreneur”, you need to define this.
11. Manage like a leader, not like a boss
Manager style, and good people as managers but not “too cool”
One minute manager by Ken Blanchard practical and quick way to manage your employees and possibly even manage yourself better.
Goldilocks is not too cold not too hot, it's all about being a leader and not an ******* of a boss.
Not micro-managing but almost near lol. There's a fine line between being an annoying manager and being a motivating and encouraging manager.
12. Test, test, test
the idea of continuous improvement
trying new things, successful organizations are able to adapt to changing market demands and test new initiatives
getting new feedback from the market and implementing it with “the quickness” if it makes sense
Willingness to outsource, test, automate, and reduce overhead, not just depending on the American workforce
Dedicated to maximizing revenue for the business because that keeps the lights on
To each, its own but everyone company I have worked for has a plan to outsource or automate at least a portion of the work overtime to keep costs low and use technology. If it didn't work the way you wanted to this time then try something different and keep testing.
13. Spend more on marketing
Marketing budget, advertising budget — they spend! dam I'm tired of seeing them
They spend more than your average Joe.
Top of mind is taken very seriously at this level. They don’t show up on “some days” Their system helps them stay top of mind every day.
Marketing teams of very bright individuals who PRODUCE on daily basis and are compensated as such in fact incentivized to produce more as marketing is the engine for interest and eventually orders if the marketing persists.
14. Learn something new every day
Education and mandatory education, CE, internal training portal with all videos of business processes plus additional learning to support the professional development of your employees
Take all the free courses you can and even buy some courses as well as workshops and seminars. The more you learn the more you can earn but as jim rohn:
“You don't get paid for the time you get paid for the value you bring to the marketplace so you must educate yourself to learn how you can become more valuable.”
15. Create your business like a well-crafted game
prizes
additional bonuses
recognizing top performers
everyone can see where they are in the competition plus their peers numbers
the game feels great to win
jobs that don’t have any game-like features are harder to “get into” and lead to more unfulfilled employees
16. Participate in regular time-blocked meetings
Huddles on Slack, 1-on-1s, and group meetings. The art of not having excessive meetings but you cannot avoid meetings. You must learn to make them as productive as possible though. Timing them well and having agendas.
Even if its just you at first. You need to meet regularly and take notes of the topics thought about /discussed and keep them in a meeting notes folder. Good practice.
17. Create recurring revenue streams
Most companies look into a subscription-based business model to do this.
long-term revenue model rather than one fix
imagine keeping that customer for longer
one time sales are going to be long term difficult so you must figure out how to keep your clients longer and extract more value
18. Standardize operating procedures and create an employee handbook
To be placed in UBS, always accessible to those who need it to do their jobs
great companies have documents that tell each employee exactly which processes they are responsible for and the steps they need to take to get the result so that there is no need to guess.
you will place your standard operating procedures documents in the UBS.
19. Improve your work ethic
Give the best you can give
Find out how to get the max performance out of yourself and know that entrepreneurship will be 10x harder than your typical 9–5 but the rewards for being successful make those hardships worth it. Or so at least we believe because that is the entrepreneurial dream.
Especially as you rise up the ladder, you will find brighter people and people with more skills. I’ve found that the top producers (at every company I have worked for) have amazing work ethics. One more layer deep would reveal that they are also a master of their work habits and routines.
Since “the younger folk” don't always have the best work ethic maybe you should look at your older colleagues or family members because their work ethic is honestly a lot better than ours usually. It was harder for them to survive (less opportunity then, more opportunity now with the internet) and jobs meant more stability from a career perspective. Things are changing.
20. Live by your Calendar and Become a Pro with Email
Your calendar is the North Star and your email box is your compass.
Live by the calendar
Respond by the history of the email. But that calendar though. If you could really understand how valuable your time is and how you should time block and understand which times of the day your engine really gets going.
21. Learn about how Technology and Automation can improve your business efficiency
first you should identify the core processes that allow your business to function
then a simple google or reddit search can lead you in the direction of automating some of your smaller tasks such as posting to social media, sending out e-mail updates, and automated invoicing.
22. Become more Disruptive (if you aren’t already)
Creating something that doesn’t exist in the market
Be an entrepreneur and study the market and figure out which gaps are still remaining to be unsolved
Great organizations have a knack for hiring great talent. And they keep that talent as best as they can because professionals who get the work done are expensive.
Honorable mention: Lifetime value of a customer and solving problems with a system that leverages other people’s time and resources to get the job done.
questionnaires and permission-based marketing
My working experience spans 8 years: Northwestern Mutual, Quest Trust Company, AT&T, Hilton, Amazon, and LegalZoom.
I hope you got something from this. An entrepreneur who is able to go through each of these points and say “Yes, we implement this at my company” is off to a great start. If some of these aspects are missing from your business, it may be a good idea to pick a few to address or address them all over time.
Let me know what you think with a comment.
