Ever wondered ‘Where’s the money gone”?

‘Where’s the Money Gone?’ traces the learning of a typical business person named Mike. Mike believed that to be successful he just needed to make a profit.

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Discover the new reinvented One Sherpa on our new website!

By on December 6, 2011 in General

One Sherpa has gone through another reinvention and restructure to set the business on a new footing for 2012.

One Sherpa continues to focus its services on business owners and their management teams in growing business in excess of $1 million of turnover

We are delighted to release a new website which more clearly lays out the two key products of the business and the markets we serve with them

Lindsay has left the business and Dean has come in which positions the business for growth and succession to a new generation.

Please have a good look around the new site as there are likely to be new areas which you may not have realised were available at One Sherpa

Finally let me wish you all a very Merry Christmas and prosperous 2012

 

How business behaviour affects business performance

By on July 28, 2011 in Business Behaviour

Are you aware that 80% of business and personal success is about understanding “people dynamics”?

Hugh Massie the worldwide CEO of DNA Behavior says that “Most organizations do not solve their problems… not because they cannot solve them, but because they cannot see them. Most problems start with the behaviour of the people.”

So although it is obvious that behaviour does affect the performance of people, most business environments are so focussed on getting things done that they fail to have any focus on the people who are doing it.

When it comes to running a business with people, “The hard things are easy but the soft things are hard!”

So what do I mean by this?

The hard things are the logical parts of your business. Doing the business and performing tasks such as strategy, production, sales, distribution, and servicing customers.

The soft things are about the emotional and feeling part of your business. This relates to HOW the tasks are performed rather than GETTING THEM DONE.

In the short term many people only focus on getting things done and forget about how people are affected in the process.

But the long haul effect on a business is more determined by the energy that the people in it give towards the goals of the company.

Often people feel offended when they’re not respected and encouraged which can happen when getting tasks completed is more highly valued that the way in which they are completed.

So many business owners feel short of energy because they have to provide most of the energy to their business personally.

If you think about it for a moment you will realise that if you could harness energy from your employees then you’d be able to use that to help you get to your business goals.

Bad business behaviour is like a cancer in your organisation and it has the effect of sapping energy from it. Most bad business behaviour comes when employees are struggling in some way and are not ‘cut some slack’ by the people around them.

The incessant need to get the current job done can completely get a person off side and then the long haul contribution from them is significantly affected.

How is the behaviour in your business?

Discover why you should be positive around budgeting worksheets

By on July 26, 2011 in Budgeting Worksheets

When you hear the word BUDGET, what’s the first thing that jumps into your head?

If you’re like most people, the first thing that comes to you is “What am I going to have to cut out that I would really like to do BUT there’s no room in the budget for it!”

When this type of feeling is injected into the budgeting process, everyone can become negative towards this really important part of running a business.

So how can you make sure that the overall process is not lost in a sea of negativity?

Make sure that the overall context for budgeting is within the context of the vision for your company. This means that when people are constructing their budgeting worksheets they don’t have an over emphasis on expenses.

In all budgeting processes there are always more expenses that you could spend on and so you must be really careful that this is not the overriding context of doing the budget. (i.e. cutting of expenses)

Language is really important and if you as the business owner allow yourself to be drawn into this negative type of conversation it will quickly spread throughout your organisation.

Remember that the words that come out of your mouth have a multiplying effect through your business.

Your employees often repeat what you say, use your name as the source of the comment and before you know it, there is an amplification of your every word throughout your business.

So if you have lots of budgeting worksheets then perhaps they need to carry a positive slogan with them that repeat the positive side of your business.

May be you have a really positive image that is really easy to add to all the spread sheets to keep people in the right frame of mind as they go through the process.

This may sound a little far fetched but I have noticed that when a business gets negative on something it takes real intentionality to change the atmosphere and bring it positive again.

Do you have any experience if this you would like to share?

Why you should use an expense template?

By on July 21, 2011 in Expense Template

As a business owner it is important that you understand the expenses in your business and the easiest way to do this is with a well thought out expense template.

So what is the first number that you think of in your business?

For most business owners it is sales. Somehow if we are to succeed we gravitate to income and customers which is entirely correct.

The most difficult thing for a growing business is to find enough customers and income to make the business successful.

However, often business owners with a focus on bringing income into their business find it disappearing just as fast in expenses so that they have little for themselves at the end of the day.

So to combat this I believe it is mandatory for a business owner to understand and monitor their key expenses and how to keep them to a minimum.

It is often incredibly easy to let expenses get away on you particularly those that are necessary to service and keep your customers satisfied.

The context of the business owner is often different to the employees who work for you. The person who does your book keeping will not normally be thinking like a business owner.

Their focus is on getting the bills paid and stopping suppliers ringing up for their money rather than making a profit and developing a sustainable and successful business.

This means that even if you get them to prepare the expense template for you, it must be at your direction.

They may be far better skilled than you at using Microsoft Excel and be able to prepare figures much faster than you but they will never have the business perspective that you have.

This means that the format, order and style of the expense template that really works for the business owner must be determined by you.

Many business owners that I know wait for the book keeper or administrative person to come to them rather than going on the front foot and determining and instructing on how the figures should be presented.

Never assume that your administrative people know all about your business.

They normally get their perspective from seeing the figures come through the creditors invoices and never have the overall context and perspective that you have of your business.

So my encouragement to you is to get involved on go on the front foot designing the expense templates in your business.

What’s your experience on this?

Discover how you may be jeopardizing becoming a most profitable business

By on July 19, 2011 in Most Profitable Business

Did you start your business to be successful?

Of course you did because no one starts something with the intention of failing.

So when you started your business did you think that you would become a most profitable business?

Of course you did because that is one of the primary measures for being successful.

So what happens when you get into the business?

Suddenly TAX becomes a major consideration in running your business. As business owners we have a dislike of paying TAX and this can become such an obsession that it jeopardizes you becoming a most profitable business.

So how does this happen?

It’s simple really. You instruct your accountant to prepare your books so you pay as little TAX as possible. While this makes sense from a cash flow perspective, it can lead to some really strange behaviour around tax time.

Have you ever made purchases because it made sense from a TAX point of view?

Have you ever pushed through expenses so that your profit was decreased and you got a tax advantage from doing so?

Each time you do this you jeopardize becoming a most profitable business.

So why do it?

Well it makes no sense to me at all. Most business owners want to grow their business and if they make no profit and pay no TAX the only way to fund that growth is through DEBT.

Many small business owners have far too much debt because they never think about what they building in the financial part of their business and continually fall into the trap of trying to minimise their profit for tax purposes.

So can I encourage you to make up your mind NOW that you really want to have a most profitable business.

This will mean paying some tax but at the end of the day your profit will provide the fuel to grow your business and you won’t need to keep taking on more and more debt.

What’s your experience on this?