June 16, 2009
In the famous stories of Doctor Dolittle there was a strange animal called a PUSHMI-PULLYU. They had no tail but a head at each end and were very difficult to catch or sneak up on.
Made me think about how profit and cash flow push and pull against each other in a business.
- One month the profit seems to be great but there is no cash.
- Next month the profit falls away but there is cash in the bank.
- The struggle is getting both profit and cash flow working together and heading in the same direction.
If you relate to this challenge in your business you will understand how the ‘pushmi-pullyu’ must have felt all the time!!
June 9, 2009
Today we’re talking about a GREEN day.
I personally love GREEN days because they often set the direction for great future SKY BLUE days. If you never step back from your business and look in from the outside then you can find yourself caught in a vortex of day to day running which can overwhelm you over time.
GREEN days are the days when we do strategy and forward thinking. They’re when we work ‘on the business’ and have a day off from working ‘in the business.’ Sound great?
Having a day off?
They are great but you simply can’t have one every day because the business can’t run itself while you’re having a day off!
GREEN days need to be planned wisely and preferably in advance. Get your business ready for you to have a GREEN day. Make sure you have plenty of good solid SKY BLUE and ORANGE days before you have a GREEN day. Otherwise your great GREEN day will quickly turn into a black day.
Our GREEN day happens once a quarter when Lindsay (my business partner) and I go to the top of Mount Dandenong and spend a day working on the next quarter’s goals and objectives. There is a restaurant there and we can reserve a table looking out over the whole of Melbourne and its surrounds for the day. We only have to pay for drink and food for the day so we get great surroundings to do this at an affordable cost.
This sets the tone for a great GREEN day each quarter and one that we both look forward to. It is a day of accountability to each other, accountability to the goals and objective’s of the last quarter and the pleasure of planning what we’re going to achieve in the next quarter. A great GREEN day for One Sherpa.
June 3, 2009
Today we’re talking about an ORANGE day. Every one has to work on administration in their business. It’s a part that many people don’t enjoy and often leave it up to others.
They don’t really delegate it. They simply give it to someone else and hope that it goes away. More often than not this does not lead to a good result. If you are delegating administration to others then you’ll still need to check that it is done correctly and you should also review the results and reports produced to make sure you know what is actually going on in your business.
My suggestion is that you do this on a particular day of the week. Set aside a day, or half day when you say to yourself ‘I’m having an ORANGE day today.’ This will help you focus on a job many business owners don’t like doing. So what happens when we have no ORANGE days?
A black one is just around the corner because your business will get into a mess administratively and then something major will go wrong because you forgot to do something.
May be the phone or power gets cut off
or you get a letter from the tax department
or you get an eviction notice from your landlord because you forgot to pay the rent.
May 29, 2009
Today we’re talking about the SKY BLUE day. Have you heard of the term ‘the sky is the limit’ Well that’s how you’re meant to feel on a sky blue day.
This is the day when you’re working on bringing income into your business. It should be one of the most exciting things that you do. Lead generation, lead conversion and then sales fulfilment.
This should also be a really positive day and the most common way I see of this turning into a black day is when you have to deal with the customer from hell. Now be honest, we all have them and when they dominate our day it will turn black fairly quickly. A SKY BLUE day is about going forward not backward. Working out how to interact with our GOOD customers.
They are the ones who love what we do, are positive about our business and always value us by honouring their commitments with us. A SKY BLUE day is not about reacting to customers and feeling pushed around.
Get on the front foot. Think about your uniqueness. Think about why you are so much better than your competition. Be courageous. It will make you feel a lot better and that’s how you’re supposed to feel on a SKY BLUE day
