Welcome to this third installment in our series on Building Blocks for Business Success. In the first two blogs we looked at nine different foundational principles that I have built my business on. Those nine principles are:
- Strategic Planning
- Be an expert at a few things not just good at a lot
- Marketing
- Survey Your Customers
- Invest in Good Accounting
- Cost Accounting to Confirm Margins and Specific Profitability
- Have Sound Accounting and Management Reports
- Taking on Investors or Lenders
- Avoid When Possible Personally Signing on Any Debt
I will now continue with the final three.
RETREATS
I’ve found retreats to be very effective for me and my team. The concept of removing yourself from your normal environment for an extended period of time for deep thinking and brainstorming always bears fruit.
In the early days of the company, I would retreat alone, but as the strategic team grew, every year we would take a three-day work retreat to review our goals, as well as plan and strategize for the future. Quarterly, we would take a day away and check in on progress for each specific aspect and make any necessary adjustments. Our meetings were long and intense, but they kept us focused and steered us towards success. We would go away to somewhere nice and work throughout the day and over dinner as well. These meetings allowed us to think creatively, strategically, were highly productive and served us very well.
Goal setting has always been very valuable to me in business. I found it useful to start with the question “Where do we want to be in the long run?” The long-run could be ten years or five years. Based on that answer, you then determine what steps you need to take to get there. We set long-term, interim, and short-term goals that we wrote out and reviewed regularly.
As we made many decisions throughout the year, the work we did at the retreats provided clarity and focus that cast the vision for where we were moving.
TAKE TIME TO CELEBRATE
I consider myself to be a big celebrator. Because of that at Banker’s Mutual, we enjoyed celebrating too. When we attained significant success as a company and achieved certain milestones, we celebrated. I believe accomplishments are worth celebrating as they maintain momentum, focus, and motivation. When you have high standards, work hard, and achieve success together, celebrating helps fuel the company forward. It’s part reward and part fuel for the next goal.
These celebrations were outside of the annual Christmas party and were based on goals, such as loan volume, servicing volume, or reaching a targeted size of our loan portfolio. We celebrated it all.
Many times, we invited key business relationships to our festivities. Firstly, we did this to thank and appreciate them for their support and to share in the success and the celebration of what we had achieved together. This helped us continue to build our relationships, and it helped improve their view of us as a winning organization.
Start by writing down all key decisions, important projects, responsible parties, and tentative completion dates. Review this on a regular basis. Identify goals and milestones that are worth celebrating, and then match the accomplishment with how you plan to celebrate.
Consider employees or independent contractors who you are looking to motivate and empower to help the company grow to even greater success. By identifying the opportunities and clearly stating the goals, your team is then aligned to work together all moving in the same direction. Therefore, whatever goal you’ve set to accomplish, recognize it when you get there, pause, and celebrate.
The celebrations don’t all have to be lavish or expensive. Sometimes, it may be companywide. Other times, it can be just for the group who accomplished the goal. Make each celebration fun and unique to your team too.
I remember on one occasion we had a large goal for one of our teams to hit by the end of the month. Although, it was audacious, it was a realistic goal. If they hit it, we promised them a champagne party where they could shower our company president and myself with champagne. This proved to be a huge motivator for them. They not only hit the goal but talked about that night for a long time after. Be intentional and be creative.
Remember to involve your wife and children in your celebrations too. Every time we had a meaningful event, Kathy (and sometimes the children) were there. This not only brings them into the business, but you share the accomplishments with them too as they have also supported you through the harder seasons.
Celebrating makes the hard daily work a little easier and is a great motivator for people. It refuels the tanks, builds relationship, and is enjoyable.
LAWSUITS
Throughout my entire business career, I have worked hard to avoid lawsuits at all costs. Unfortunately, society encourages fighting. If one has been wronged and their pride gets hurt, they often pursue a lawsuit.
My view, however, is that at the end of the day, there is really no winner. Lawsuits waste time and money and require extensive emotional and physical output. All of those are valuable resources that would be better put towards growing your company.
There are times, however, you might need to litigate, and it’s appropriate to protect yourself. Fortunately, I have made it through my entire career without having to litigate, other than foreclosing on a loan. Besides that, I have never had to sue anybody, and I have never been sued. I have never had an issue I let escalate to that level. Since I have always known I wanted to avoid lawsuits, I used that as a motivator to negotiate through settlements and conclusions of difficult transactions. I believe this thinking has served me very well.
ACTION STEPS
These are my twelve top building blocks that have brought me success in business. I encourage you to take the relevant points you need and apply them to your business. As you continue to grow your business you will identify your own fundamental blocks.
Please share with me any questions or additional pointers you consider to be critical for business success in the comments section. Other readers and I would love to hear from you.
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