Iliana Rocha - Level Up!: Low Hanging Fruit to Instantly Improve Your Small Business

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Iliana Rocha is a senior business leader with extensive consulting and coaching experience in all things business. Iliana has been working hand-in-hand with businesses in optimizing their strategy and operations and is now President & Lead Coach at Clubnet Solutions Inc. and an Executive Contributor for Brainz Magazine.

Iliana holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Ryerson University, a post-graduate certificate in Strategic Relationship Management from George Brown College, and a Bachelor of Commerce and Finance, with a Major in Economics from the University of Toronto. She is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), a certified Agile Coach (ICP-ACC), and is in the process of receiving an International Coaching Federation (ICF) certification as a Professional Certified Coach (PCC).

Special thanks to Dilani Rabindran and Rebecca Rowat who are amazing editors, and even better friends!

I have been working in small and large organizations for the better part of two decades in functions such as project, program and portfolio management, operations, strategic and business planning, financial management, and more! When I worked for small organizations, I remember thinking to myself that the folks in the big leagues must have all the answers and never fail Well, thats not really the case.

Regardless of industry, certain things hold constant. Any organization that Ive been a part of has been deeply dependent on its employees for its success. And let me tell you those folks are just like you and me. They go through their work lives trying to make the best decisions they possibly can with the information that they have. They arent exceptional business gurus they have backgrounds in specific areas and have to find out how to contribute to the inner workings of the big operational machine.

Small business owners struggle because they dont have a large talent pool to draw on for information. They often cannot hire a strategist, an operations expert, a performance management professional, and a project manager extraordinaire. And so, a lot of business decisions are made from a single point of view and through only one lens.

That is how small business owners come to find themselves feeling stuck or overwhelmed even though they are running a business with high potential. They put tremendous efforts into their business but lack results. The issues pile up, they get caught up in minutia and at the end of the day they feel wiped, and like they didnt achieve much. Other business owners and leaders are caught up in solving the hard issues, a do-it-yourself vortex, with an inability to let go of control. Which of these categories do you fall in? Do you feel stuck and overwhelmed?

We tend to get cozy and comfortable with where we are and accept firefighting as a way of life. However, by getting stuck, you miss the opportunities of how to unlock change and capitalize on your companys growth potential. No one has ever grown by keeping things status quo. It is difficult for the status quo and exponential growth to coexist in an ever-changing world. When you experience new, more difficult problems, that is a sign of progress! But first you have to get over your everyday challenges.

Every company was once a start-up, and the most well-known ones (Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook) openly highlight the struggles of their early days. You are likely experiencing similar challenges to them; even though your business problems appear to be unique, they are likely quite universal. Thats good news! It means that you can easily gain access to the knowledge and resources required to knock these out of the park. Focusing on one problem at a time and addressing them is important your solutions will become the foundation of your long-term business.

You know that something isnt working, but what? Are you just giving yourself a job instead of building a business? A lot of organizations get stuck before exponential growth because their leaders dont know how to plan ahead. Whether you are looking to grow the scale of your business in a manner which allows you to retain control, get access to capital, or get acquired, it is important to optimize your strategy and operations to set yourself up for success. For your company to truly take off, you need to lay the groundwork to scale profitably by carefully designing the next stages of your business. Otherwise, all decisions that you are making are going to be ad hoc and not work together as a system. Plus, you will continue to employ yourself without truly building a thriving business.

And that is where this book comes in. Planning for your business growth cohesively allows you to make sure that each and every decision and change supports and re-enforces the rest. I have observed the successes and, more often, failures, of large and small organizations alike and have developed a system of best practices for ensuring that all parts of a business work well together. Once your business management is taking care of itself, you can go back to being the leader that you want to be, focusing on the problems and challenges only you are uniquely equipped to handle.

Oh, and I dont shy away from clichs, as you may have already noticed. But read on! I promise, itll be worth it.

Through years of coaching and consulting in large organizations, I have developed a system of best practices, built on the 6 pillars of business excellence success.

In this book, we will explore the building blocks of these pillars and discuss practical applications that you can tailor to your unique business context. You can jump to the sections that most interest you or read the book as it is outlined. I strongly recommend the latter. You will still get useful information by leveraging each section on its own, but the greatest benefit will lie in understanding the interrelations of these pillars and how each contributes to your business excellence.

The topics covered here are relatively straightforward and Ive included practical information wherever possible of how you can apply these practices in your own business. If you still feel like you need help with all or parts of this system, go to the end for some additional resources, as well as a bonus chapter on how to build a support group for your business.

Lets get started with some of the low hanging fruit!

Youve heard of start with the why , right? Its important because employees and customers tend to remain loyal to brands who espouse similar values to their own. Not to mention that when you know who you are and what you are trying to achieve, it gives you and your employees a blueprint for making future decisions about the organization.

Now, it is likely that you have already started your business and you are thinking that this ship has sailed. Not so fast! It is never too late to rethink your mission and values and identify auxiliary customer benefits outside of your core value proposition. And if you dont or cant, thats ok too! This is your business and you have to manage it in a way which holds true to your own self.

Like me, you likely opened up your business because you want the flexibility to work for yourself while maintaining a certain lifestyle. Of course, your personal happiness is important but its (mostly) about making enough to be able to live off. But what is your business purpose beyond making money? That is, what is the balance between economic, social and environmental benefits you want to strike?