Building a business 4 dimensionally

Date: 14th September 2012  |  Author: Sean Toomer

What do most people do?
Most people go with the very basic; one dimension.
All people care about is their clients/customers and don’t even consider the others. They put all their efforts into how they can make it better for their customers, how they can make it cheaper, how they can bring more value.
They’re too ignorant to realise how ignoring the other things will mess it all up. If you’ve got an employee that isn’t happy, that’ll show to your customers. If your suppliers aren’t happy, they’ll give you a higher price, which means you’ll charge your clients more.
1D works, but doesn’t kick-ass.

What are these 4 dimensions?

  • Customers: People who buy whatever you’re selling
  • Employees: The guys who work for you
  • Suppliers: People you buy from to make everything work
  • Investors: Owners, who make it all possible (probably you)

People blab on a lot about a ‘Mission Statement’ or a ‘Business Philosophy’…what is that? I believe every businesses aim, mission whatever you call it should be the same, if they really want to build an awesome, kick-ass business and it should be something like:

“Our aim, our mission, our everything, is to give an awesome experience that our customers, suppliers, employees and investors categorically will not get anywhere else. Ever.”

Every business should have this above the door.

How you do it

Customers

Most understand the importance of giving customers what they want (most people believe there is only the customer to think about), so I don’t need to say too much on this. Actually, I’ll come back to Customer in the end to prove a point.

Employees

It sounds simple (in fact it is), but if you’re Employees aint getting what they want, they’ll either be disgruntled, pissed off or go elsewhere. Either way; you aint doing your job properly with them and your customers won’t be happy (it’ll show).
If anything, your Employees are more important than your Customers. Imagine, you upset a customer, you lose 1 Customer. You upset an Employee, who looks after 100 Customers, you could lose 100 Customers.

Employees need to be a massive part of building your business. It’s focused around them If you like. If you succeed, they need to know they’ll succeed and will see a part of it. Give them everything they want!

Look at Facebook. They have no dress code; BBQ’s every day; ride skateboards around the office. That’s awesome.

I’m sure I heard that Apple publish on the walls of the office the salaries for each position. So if you think the guy above you is lazy, you know what he’s earning and there’s something you can do about it; you know what you got to do. Honesty & clarity is awesome.

Whatever the success of your business is based on, Employees need to be a part of it. If it’s winning and keeping clients, you need your Employees rate of pay and promotions based on winning and keeping clients.
If it’s selling products, your Employees rate of pay & promotions need to be based on selling products.

And cut all the crap in between. stuff office politics and all that rubbish.
If they want to work from home, you let them and make sure they know at what stage in their career that’ll happen.
If they want no dress code, you give it to them and make sure they know at what stage in their career that’ll happen.
If they want no working hours, you give it to them and make sure they know at what stage in their career that’ll happen. You get the point.

Give them everything they want and they’ll give you everything you want. Design the greatest job in the world.

At Diverso (www.wearediverso.com), the business growth is based purely on winning & keeping clients. The Employees know this and that’s why when they start, they’re paid a basic salary which never changes. They are ALL paid £x per month. If they want to earn more, they have to win clients and keep them clients. Whatever the client pays, they get a %. If they win a new client, they get paid more. If they lose a client, they get paid less each month.
This way, Diversocan give its Employees anything they want. Want to work from home? Yes. No working hours? Yes. No dress code? Yes.
If the Employee doesn’t win & keep clients, the Employee doesn’t get paid & the business won’t grow.
So… the growth of the business is entirely dependent on its Employees, so why wouldn’t you give them what they want?

Suppliers

This depends largely on what type of business you’re in; if you’re selling products or a service. Either way, you have a supply chain – a supply chain made up of other people and businesses that you rely on to deliver your awesomeness to customers.

If you upset them, your customers will be upset, upsetting your businesses.

Too many times people get confused at how to treat suppliers. Just because you pay them, does not give you the ultimate power. Treat them well, pay them on time, and most importantly make them apart of your vision and ensure they know where the company is headed.

Doing this won’t only make dealing with them easy, it’ll make it fun, easy and if you do it right, they’ll fight to work with you.

Investors

I’m aiming this at a small businesses, and in the majority of small businesses, the Investor is the owner; the guy reading this!

If you’re not happy, not earning what you want, it’ll reflect on your business.

Too many times I’ve seen an owner who has had delusions about what it’ll be like running your own business and it’s closed them down. I’ve seen some who end up running their business for fun because it doesn’t earn them any money! Or certainly not as much as when they had a job.

Be clear from the start how and when you’ll earn your millions, because if you’re motivation goes, the whole thing blows up.

Customers

So now you can see that actually, there’s a lot more to making Customers happy, then just making Customers happy.

Our clients love us

Are you Ready to love us too?


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