Sheridan - The Perfect Business

The Perfect Business

MASTER THE 9 SYSTEMS TO GET CONTROL, WORK LESS, AND DOUBLE YOUR PROFIT

John Sheridan

Copyright 2017 John Sheridan

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without prior written consent of the authors, except as provided by the United States of America copyright law.

Published by Best Seller Publishing, Pasadena, CA

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ISBN: 978-1-946978-39-4

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To the owners of small businesses everywhere
who make the sacrifices, take the risks,
and put in the hard work to create value for
everyone who counts on them to succeed.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION:

The Challenge and the Opportunity

H ave you ever thought, I just cant seem to find good people. Nobody wants to work anymore. Im putting in 80-hour weeks, but no one else around here acts like an owner or We keep on getting bigger, but when all is said and done, were not making any more money than we used to make when we were just three people. The only thing getting bigger is my aggravation? Or perhaps youve felt that We have lots of ideas, but we never seem to be able to stick to anything for more than a week. Then its back to the usual craziness or Its always feast or famine; it never gets steady for a long time. If this sounds like you, youre not alone. Dysfunction in small businesses can be seen in the numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statisticsthat 50% of all new businesses dont make it past their fifth birthday.

The good news is that it doesnt have to be that way if you are willing to make some changes to yourself and your business.

Consider the following questions, and see if you can answer them now. What are the biggest challenges in your business right now? Are you happy with the results your business yields? How many hours do you work in a week? How do you feel about that? How does your family feel about that? What is the one thing that keeps you up at night? How did you get where you are today? What happens if it stays this way forever? How will it end? Is this what you expected when you got into the business? Put yourself three years into your future. If you and I were talking three years from right now, what must have happened in your business and your life for you to be completely satisfied with the outcome?

Even when youre in a state of overwhelm or if youre stuck in a rut, what you want is pretty clear. You want a machine-like operation that produces consistent, predictable results so you dont have to run around putting out fires caused by stupid mistakes. You want a team that is self-managing so you can have confidence that the business wont fall apart when you go away for a two-week vacation (never had a two-week vacation?). You want steady cash flow and profits that reward you for your hard work and the risks you take every day just being in business. You want The Perfect Business, one that provides you with the things you wanted when you beganfreedom to do what you want when you want and wealth that builds up over time.

Having been both an operator and an advisor, Ive learned that when you look carefully at successful businesses, you realize that they do a lot of different things very well. They might have complex systems, but there are fundamental themes that are common to all of them, and mastering them can transform your business and your life. The challenge is that youre busy, and you think you dont have time to work on the things you know you should be doing, so it can feel overwhelming. Its like standing at the bottom of a mountain before you have to climb it. Fortunately, its really only your beliefs that stand in the way.

When I set out to create The Perfect Business Framework, I undertook the task of uncovering the fewest possible levers you could pull to get the results you want. This approach is based on the application of the Pareto Principle. Also known as the 80/20 Principle, its derived from the observation that in any system of inputs and outputs, 80% of the outputs or results are attributable to only 20% of the inputs. Nowhere is this truer than in business. Probably 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers, 80% of your sales come from 20% of your salespeople, and so on. Along the same lines, its likely that you produce 80% of your results from 20% of your activity as an owner. I committed myself to discover what those activities were and try to condense them into systems that would be actionable and manageable for someone who is busy running the business day to day. What I created is a framework that will allow you to get the maximum transformation possible by doing only the most important activities. Its designed to provide the minimum effective dose of work to make the change you want in your business and your life.

So what is possible for you? Consider the story of Bill, who was a co-owner and CEO of VCI Mobility. VCI Mobility converted vans to become accessible both for the commercial and consumer markets. Bill had been with the company for some years. While it was growing pretty well in terms of sales, it was starting to spiral out of control. Bill would leave his house at 4 or 5 in the morning, be at the office by 6:30, and work into the early evening. Sometimes, he would even stay overnight just to avoid the commute and a sleepless night before heading back to the office, and he was becoming unglued. The morale of the team was going up and down like a roller coaster. They were having some success, but they werent able to produce quickly enough to keep up, and they were getting farther and farther behind their orders. It was becoming more and more chaotic, and relationships were becoming strained with a lot of us-versus-them attitudes infecting the culture.

Bill and his partner believed that they would solve their problems just by increasing sales, but that turned out to be like pouring gasoline onto a fire. As they grew sales, their headaches just multiplied, and because of their lack of control, they didnt have any sense of whether or not they were making any money.

Many of their issues were the direct results of the fact that they didnt have any systems in place. They lost control as the volume and complexity of the work started to overwhelm the teams capacity to produce and Bills capacity as a leader. It began to take a toll on Bill. He wasnt being much of a father or husband, and he was beginning to feel the physical effects of the stress as well. The way the business was going wasnt sustainable, and he knew something had to change.

We gave Bill our framework of nine systems through which he could stop, think, and understand what was going on in his business, and he began to apply these systems in the business. They brought him back to the basics. He began to get clear on where he was going and why he was going there, and he had to communicate that to his team. We installed systems to measure and monitor lead generation and systems to improve the conversion rate by working on the sales process. We also installed a retention system to keep the customers coming back more often and buying more and other financial control systems and operating measurements. All these started to compound, and we got increasingly greater control, even as the business continued to grow. As we implemented the systems, the team began to experience some victories, which built their confidence. We started winning their hearts and minds. Then we worked on accountability systems, and the team started taking ownership.