The Ms. CEO Show

Felicia Joy’s column is published every Monday.

Your grandmother is (or was) probably reserved like mine, advising you not to be an easy girl.  With all due respect to granny, God rest her soul, I strongly encourage you to forget her advice.  When it comes to business, please be easy.

If you want more customers, better employees, bigger sales revenues, profitable business partnerships and more peace of mind as an entrepreneur, be easy.  Make it simple to deal with your business—a pleasure, even.

What are some things that make you easy?

Well, this is not an all inclusive list by any means whatsoever but here are some of the big easies that too many new or growing businesses drop the ball on:

• Easy for customers means they can find the answer to general questions on your website and when they email or call for customer service they get a timely reply.  By the way, your website should be easy too.  Save the flash and fancy openings for your first feature length film and keep your website simple and easy to navigate.  Customers can find what they are looking for and Google can find you (which means more customers can find you).
• Easy for employees or Independent Contractors means they know what is expected, are given ongoing and honest feedback that enables them to maintain or improve their performance, receive clear and repetitive direction (humans learn by repetition), and receive periodic progress reports/updates (written or verbal) that communicate where the company stands and how their role as an individual is contributing to that status.
• Easy for business partnerships means you make it simple for potential partners to contact you, simple to set up meetings, and a breeze for people/partners to follow up with you once an agreement has been made.

These easies will bring you bigger sales revenues because it can be such a challenge to deal with companies these days that if you are easy, people will remember that and talk about it.  And to this day, even with a gazillion dollars spent on advertising annually, word-of-mouth continues to be a major make-or-break factor when it comes to consumerism.  Being easy can become a part of your brand and everyone likes dealing with a company or person who makes it simple for them to meet their agenda, so this will be a boon to your bottom line. 

You’ll find more peace of mind when you institute these easies because you won’t get as many customer service complaints, you’ll have happier more productive employees/Independent Contractors, your company and revenues will grow and you will have systems/standards in place that take a lot of pressure off your mind and memory.  You won’t have to drain yourself always coming up with all the ideas because as you make things easier for those who work for you or with you, they will devise systems and ways of getting things done without having to ask you—and when you duplicate this “owner’s mentality” throughout your company then you begin to move into enterprise mode and that’s the entrepreneurial sweet spot!

So, if this is all so easy and the results are so great, why aren’t many companies doing this?  Well, the successful ones are!  Here are three steps for you to get on Easy Street:

1. Sit down, ask questions and listen—period.  Take one hour and sit down or get on a teleconference with everyone who works for you or with you—or if your business has hundreds of employees have your managers do this, and you in turn sit down with your managers—and ask the open ended question: What are all the simple and easy things we are not doing that we should be doing that could make your life easier and our customer’s lives easier?  And ask, “What are we doing that is just plain dumb?”  Have someone take notes or record the call/conversation then implement as many of the easies as you can, and if any of the easies are contrary to the ideas you have implemented or prefer, check yourself and let the best idea/practice win.  Your business is not about you—it’s about the customers and employees.
2. Get 10 to win.  People have enough information and requests coming at them without us heaping more on to that pile so make it easy for customers to give you feedback.  Send out a survey or find a way within your regular interactions with customers to ask one question, the answer to which will give you great insight, and could transform your business: How would you rate your overall experiences with our business on a scale from 1-10; and how can we make that a 10?
3. Set a standard.  If your business could grow or generate revenue through strategic partnerships or collaborations and you are interested in people coming to you with ideas then set a standard.  Establish that you will follow up on all such inquiries within 1 week and that once you have agreed to partner with a person/company you will follow up on communications from them within 24 hours.  It’s a major time waster and reputation buster when you present your company as unprofessional by missing the mark on something as simple as follow up.  Set a standard; stick to it.

As simple as 1-2-3 and a-b-c.  That’s the makings of good business!

Successfully Yours,
Felicia Joy
A Business Woman’s Best Friend