Are you perfect? With authentic aspiration and due diligence, you might come close, and that could be as good as it's ever going to get. Be sincere, and agree that you're not perfect, even though you may master some things.
All of us are fallible. We should remind ourselves that the same can be said of our employees. That's why we need excellent performance evaluation tools to keep a keen eye on their overall productivity and hope they aspire to be the best.
The title of Jack Nicholson's movie, "As Good As It Gets," comes to mind. Theoretically, we all struggle in our personal lives and businesses, wanting the best. At some point, many of us settle, thinking, 'This is as good as it's gonna get.'
Recently, my pastor said he hoped to become a saint. However, he made it quite clear he knows he's no Padre Pio. At the end of the day, all we can do is work diligently and aim for greatness.
If you want to take your business to the next level, you must stop and evaluate your current business model. Examine options, as there might be a better way to accomplish greatness.
Typically, you'll find at least one or two of these problems with a business. One: You've got the basics down, but you're doing it wrong, and the results are poor. Two: You're doing the wrong thing extremely well. You're buzzing along, working very hard and missing the necessary pieces, whether it is marketing strategies, keen risk management and/or innovative business development.
Near perfect results can be obtained. That's the good news. What's the bad news? You need change. It will take time, trials and errors to find what works for you to create perfection. It takes finding the master template, thus requiring patience, lots of study, perseverance and yes, perfection fine-tuning it all.
The difficult task is staying focused, as daily activities are time-eaters. You can unlock the door to your business, look up and it's 4:30 – where did the day go?
Run the numbers on various business models to scrutinize how well they protect your company in areas of potential risks and losses. Secure your assets, products and equipment, and don't forget: Your employees are your biggest asset.
Don't leave anything off the list of activities that need to be covered in your business plan. Many leaders are so focused on core activities that they miss their mark every time.
Some of the most overlooked key initiatives of a business plan are the human resources activities such as employee-related risk management processes and having predictable employee-related costs.
Large companies with HR expertise in-house implement a full scope of HR initiatives to maximize employee productivity, avoid costly problems and ultimately, increase and protect profits. Smaller companies, without that expertise, are at a competitive disadvantage.
A PEO (professional employer organization) firm brings that value to smaller companies at a small fraction of the investment of them doing it on their own.
Connie Laughlin is a business consultant for South Texas. You may contact her at conniel@uniquehr.com.
