There are many great sources of help for your business out there to help in areas that aren’t your core skill but make sure those offering you something are able to demonstrate it clearly in their own areas too.

Communication is now instant and non-stop (if you let it be), we get messages / updates via email, voice mail, fax, instant messages, pager, Blackberry, mobile phone, Facebook, Skype, Twitter and the list goes on.

You receive even more communication during meetings, teleconference, webinars, web conference, and even my favourite being face to face. 

Even before we get to the office in the morning and, for many of us, well into the evening, we are inundated with incoming communications from these sources and more.  It seems as though during every moment someone is trying to inform, teach, solicit to, solicit from, question, update, delegate to, warn, disagree with and sometimes even entertain us.

This tidal wave of incoming communication can be overwhelming, leaving us feeling fatigued, irritable and/or distracted.  It can negatively impact everything from our work performance to how we interact with our families and friends.  It can result in something as minor as forgetting to buy milk on the way home to as major as being involved in an accident. In other words, communication overload can be harmful to our health.

While for the most part we are unable to control or lessen the amount of incoming messages we receive each day, we can develop strategies for dealing with them more effectively rather than letting them engulf us.

Incorporating the following tips can enable you to nip communications overload in the bud:

• Schedule your time better in advance.

 Are you checking your email between every other task you perform? Break that habit by trying to limit your trips to the inbox to specific time periods during the day, such as an hour at the beginning and end of the day, or 10 minutes at the top or bottom of each hour. You’ll be amazed by how much more time you’ll have to accomplish things that matter more to you.  

• Cloak your instant messaging / Skype screen name.

If that’s not possible, put up the "Do Not Disturb" sign on your instant messenger once in a while to carve out some uninterrupted time. During this span, also let your phone calls go to voice mail and text messages go temporarily unanswered.  These actions are particularly important during times when you’re interacting with people face to face; except in rare circumstances, live interaction should always take precedence over technological devices.  Watch how your interpersonal relationships both at work and home soar when you begin to give people more undivided attention.

This morning I managed a personal best on a route I do most mornings and this has a few parallels I’d like to share.

1. I only know it’s a PB because I have been measuring and recording each ride.  Business parallel – we only know if we are doing better than before by recording what we do and then comparing. 
2. Along the route I know where there are areas (or sections of the route) I might improve on because I am able to see where I am not giving my best effort (via a heart rate monitor).  Business parallel – with KPI’s you can check the areas for improvement by reviewing these regularly (monthly) against what you know your business is capable of.
3. On some sections, although I was going really quickly my HRM showed that I was only at 70% of max.  Business parallel – sometimes we know we are cruising and accept it.
4. On some sections I had gone over 100% of max heart rate, these sections are also where I got the best performance, however it’s not sustainable for the whole ride.  Business parallel – pace yourself, sometimes you may have to really stretch resources for short periods but long term it’s more efficient and sustainable to work between an acceptable bands.  Know what these bands are for your business.
5. Finally all this training is for a clear goal, which is to attain a certain time for an event in the near future.  Business parallel – clear goals are required so that you know what you are doing it all for and what you hope to achieve which is critical before you can work out the how.

I have been slowly improving my ride times and average speeds as I train for events I do on an annual basis and by my standards I was very happy with progress – I had a plan and it was all coming together nicely.  Then a client invited me on a training ride with him and I believed I would more than hold my own, after all I was so happy with my progress??

About 10 min into the ride I was thinking wow we’re really piling on some pace, until I heard “ok we’re warm now let’s go”.   The ride was harder and faster than I thought I had in me, every time I started to slack or lag I got a bark of “encouragement” and I lifted and this carried on for over an hour but I came through.  The result a massive improvement on my average speeds I had been so happy with.  Even more than this my solo rides now are significantly higher average speeds as well because once you achieve what you didn’t know you could, it’s much easier the next time.

As I said, it’s no secret that we perform much better when in the company of people that challenge us, my question is who is challenging you?  Are you cruising along happy with progress but have more potential like I was?  Get someone in your camp that can challenge you and help you find what you really have to work with.  If you’re stuck for who – I can recommend a few good people that will help you find your best and grow.

Q: So what is meant by a process?

Processes can be defined in many ways, such as the following:

• Directives to communicate established methods for performing and administering work
• Mode of Conducting Business
• A specific way to perform an activity
• The flow of work that links people together to produce a defined output
• Implementation of Policies
• A document describing a specified sequence of actions within a process (WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, HOW & WHY)

Q: So, how does a process differ from a procedure or a work instruction?

A process involves more than 1 person and can be understood at different levels of complexity, so a "High Level" process might be "Operate the business", one of its sub-processes might be the "Procurement process" and a sub-sub­ process (often called a procedure) might be "Purchase Stationery".

Work instructions are essentially procedures that:

• Are specific in nature.
• Detail a task (HOW to).
• Are directed to one job function.
• Support one part of a procedure.
• Reference standards.
• Invariably have a specific output.
• Are necessary where the method is critical to the result.
• May be combined into Manuals (e.g. for an operational activity).

Q: Why will documenting your processes help your company?

If process are not documented, there is a lack of clarity about "WHO does WHAT, WHERE, WHY, WHEN and HOW".

Q: So what are the benefits of documenting your processes?

The following are some of the key benefits:

• You define WHO does WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, HOW and WHY.
• You can identify where processes are breaking down.
• You can assess the value of each activity in the process.
• Accountability, Authority and Responsibilities are defined for the people involved.
• The boundaries between processes are defined.
• Critical process flows are defined.
• The process can be measured.
• Dependencies between processes are identified.
• Processes can be changed in a controlled way.
• Process costs are known.
• Quality of the deliverables improves.
• Resource requirements can be identified.
• Processes can be replicated.
• It becomes easier to establish whether processes are capable of doing what they were designed for.
• Cycle times are reduced.

Q: So how should you go about documenting your processes?

The best way to go document your processes is to use the following 6 step process:

Step 1: Define the high level Business Process map

Step 2: Decompose each Process into Sub-Processes (NB: Some sub-processes will be based on Life-Cycles, such as Development, Maintenance etc and will need further breakdown to lower level sub-sub­ processes)

Step 3: Select a Sub-Process to document

Step 4: Map the Sub-process (Capture the information needed to draft the initial Process Definition).

Step 5: Review the draft and update as required until approved

Step 6: Implement the process, train the users and support while in the early stages

 When you feel stressed, your body produces hormones to prepare you for ‘fight or flight’. These raise your blood pressure, heart rate, and perspiration. They also reduce blood flow to the skin and reduce stomach activity. The efficiency of your immune system is reduced. All of these make it easier for you to fight or run away – great for our ancestors – but less useful when running a business – you can’t fight, and you can’t easily run away!

Because of this, the chemicals your body has produced are not used up in the way that nature intended. Over time these chemicals and the changes they produce can seriously damage your health.

All of us have suffered stress and can probably recognise some of these symptoms of stress:

• Feeling of being overloaded, confused, and not coping
• Feeling that your staff don’t care
• Continually being ‘on the back foot’ rather than moving the business forward
• Difficulty in winding down at night – despite being tired
• Poor sleep and perhaps waking early with palpitations or a panic attack as you recall your latest crisis
• Difficulty in concentrating or thinking rationally
• Indecisiveness and poor judgement
• Irritability, loss of sense of humour and perspective, arguments, or depression
• Avoiding difficult situations
• Other physical symptoms may include headaches, chest pains, high blood pressure, stomach disorders, tiredness

These symptoms can make you feel so unwell that you may start to worry that you have a serious illness, which is likely to make you feel more stressed. If the stress continues long term you may be putting yourself at risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Do not ignore physical warning signs and seek medical help where appropriate.

You may feel under pressure to work through periods of stress to ensure the continuity of the business. Although employees expect the managing director to know what to do in a given situation, there will be times when you don’t have the answer and would benefit from help yourself.

Often it’s not the things you do that are stressful – it’s that long list of tasks that you know you should be doing!

Maybe you feel your situation is beyond solving – and you’re just going through the motions until the inevitable strikes.

It’s all too easy for things to get out of proportion when you don’t have someone you feel that you can talk honestly with.  As entrepreneurs, there can be pressure on us to present a face to the world that can be a real effort to keep up when things aren’t going well.  Where does this pressure come from, and who is supposed to benefit?  There’s a fine line between acting positively and living in a state of delusion.  Wouldn’t it be good if you could drop this ‘mask’ for an hour to talk through your problems or concerns with a trusted adviser and sense-check your ideas for overcoming the difficulties?

The spectre of the business failing is bound to be stressful, particularly if you face losing your home too.  The strain of managing a business is demanding enough when you’re fortunate to have a supportive partner – but when the comfort, security, and status of your family is threatened and your relationship is tested – it can feel that your whole life is falling apart.

People react differently to stress. A situation that is intolerable to one person can be stimulating to another. Some people are more relaxed and easy going and seem to cope better with pressure.

How stressed you feel is not purely determined by the events you face, but how you perceive these and the response that you choose to make.

There are a number of techniques that you can try to ‘inoculate’ yourself against stress:

• No matter how tough your day – find some positive that you can hold on to
• Remember, victory is usually built from lots of small victories
• Collect quotations that have a positive effect on you and read them when you need extra strength
• Listen to music that you find uplifting
• Write positive affirmations and read them daily Keep physically active, ideally exercise daily
• When feeling stressed breathe into the abdomen (not the chest), and breathe out slowly
• Consider expressing your feelings privately in writing – this can help you to reconcile the situation in your mind
• Make the effort to eat healthily and cut down on caffeine
• Resist becoming dependent on cigarettes, alcohol, or tranquillisers as an automatic response to stress
• In preparing to sleep think about something that you can look forward to and plan – such as a holiday or a hobby that you enjoy
• Where possible, avoid associating with negative people or people who drain your energy

Seek help from a trusted friend or person that you can talk in confidence with, explore your options, and gain renewed clarity for your priorities

When they start out, the founder of many a new business enterprise will decide on their business offering based on two factors:

1. What they are good at and enjoy doing, and

2. What they assume customers will want to buy.

The good news is that the founder’s assumptions are often correct. But as time goes by, the founder may wonder why more people are not buying his/her great product or service. It’s a common mistake to assume that prospects will understand why they should buy your offering – just because they’ve been told about it.

Many businesses fail to market effectively by communicating only the features of their product or service to their prospects. Features are distinctive characteristics of a product or service that sets it apart from similar items.

There are circumstances where describing only the features may be effective – but these tend to be in the fields of medicine, certain cutting edge technology, and where the prospect has knowledge about what they want.

In most cases, when all you do is sell the features of your offering – you are making your prospect do all the work in figuring out why they want it.

The commonly held view is that you should sell benefits rather than features. Benefits appeal at a deeper, emotional level. Benefits are desirable attributes of a product or service, which a customer perceives he or she will get from purchasing.

But there is a problem with this. If you only offer benefits, without reference to the features, then your prospects are likely to be suspicious about how this is achieved, and they may feel that they are being manipulated. It’s like being offered a ‘big juicy worm’ - but with the suspicion that there’s a hook attached to it!

Instead, my advice is to slow down and preface a benefit with the feature so your prospect can see the logical link.

To gain a prospect’s perspective, approach your own offering as if you had never seen it before (easier said than done). Have you ever tried to assemble something where the instructions were lacking clarity such that the only person who could be reasonably expected to understand the instructions is the person who designed it? Use a sample of people who are completely unfamiliar with your offering and get their thoughts – you could be in for a number of surprises which could challenge your assumptions!

You need to answer the questions asked by your prospect “What’s in it for me?”; “Why would I consider buying or changing?” “What results would that bring for me?” Focus on results. So, then you can bring this together to present the features, outline the benefits, & highlight the results:

1. List everything your product or service does or it’s ‘features’.

2. For each feature, list the ‘benefit’ that the prospect is likely to perceive.

3. For every ‘feature + benefit’ – list what ‘result’ is satisfied.

Here’s one example for a toy car:

Feature: Batteries included.

Benefit: The product is ready to use out of the box.

Result: I never have to see the disappointment on my child’s face when his toy won’t work because I forgot to buy the batteries.

Buying decisions are often made at an emotional and sub­ conscious level. If logic plays a part, it’s often used to justify buying decisions later on. So how does a prospect respond to your marketing message – perhaps something they’ve seen in an advert or brochure?

In the first 4 seconds – This is your chance to get the interest of your prospect. If what you say is not sufficiently intriguing, entertaining, and informative in under 4 seconds – then you will be filtered out. People don’t have time to pay attention to things that don’t interest them. Even if they would love your offering or benefit greatly from it, if you can’t communicate something to catch their attention quickly they won’t listen.

The first 4 seconds cannot include details. If you try to provide too much information in your initial attempt to get attention, your prospect is likely to reject it. You haven’t earned the right to subject them to detail.

You only have time to present one idea, which should relate to the main ‘feature + benefit + result’. To be memorable the idea has to be emotionally engaging. To be effective it has to be informative. To be both memorable and informative is your goal.

If you do catch their attention in those first few critical seconds, they will stop and pay attention to see if you continue to interest them. This means that you have their permission to tell them more.

In the next 10-20 seconds – At this point your prospect is evaluating whether they want to dedicate a few minutes or more to your message (a significant amount of time to the average busy person). Your message still has to speak to them in terms of entertainment, interest, or intrigue.

During this time, you can include another ‘feature + benefit + result’ or two. You are not trying to make the sale at this point. You are giving them reasons to investigate your offer.

If it sounds good to them, you now have the opportunity to give them details. The prospect is now prepared to allocate significant time to your message. They are interested and want to learn more.

You now have a few minutes to present the features, outline the benefits, and highlight the results….

…..and allow them to buy from you.

The last few days have seen me have a fair bit contact of with mentors and metorees on the two programs I mentor on and it’s been really interesting to hear some of the discussions that went on.

Some of the main points I thought were relevant to share include;

1. Most business owners believe what they are facing or going through is unique to them only and as such only they may be able to figure them out.
2. Many business owners believe only they can do many of the tasks that need to be done in their businesses and sometimes feel trapped or unable to share the workload with staff.
3. Many business owners (some in business for over 10 years) didn’t know where to go for help in areas that are not their core strength.
4. Most thought that assistance was too expensive without even considering the return in ease, peace of mind and business growth.
5. In addition most thought that it showed some form of weakness in looking for external assistance.
6. Most did not have any form of planning as part of their business process and just did things according to what was most pressing at the time.  Cash flow also fell into this category.
7. Most were unsure of how to measure their progress or what is really important to measure success as a business.
8. Many business owners were unaware that they are falling foul of legislation in regards to what’s expected of them as business owners.
9. All agreed that having someone to talk to about some of the tough things faced as a business owner had made a huge difference in their lives and most wished they had done it sooner.

Sometimes without even knowing it we are limiting our progress by limiting what we are open to and we get so caught up in our day to day workings of our businesses that we don’t consider much more than survival at times.  Take a step back and look at your business through objective eyes from time to time and if you struggle to do that maybe it’s time to ask someone to do it with you.

Newsletter October 2010