This is an excerpt from Small Business School, the series on PDS.
Hattie: Hi I’m Hattie Bryant. This is the program about starting, running and growing a business. Every week here typically you meet one successful small business owner who tells their secrets, but today is different.
In this program you’ll meet many business owners who have proven they have staying power. The good news is that we can identify why and how companies make it passed the first three to five years.
Companies with staying power have these nine qualities. A leader with the vision who is able to communicated to others, a solid business model, in depth understanding of the financials, strong advisers, consistent quality, technology know how, an environment for employees to thrive, an effective sales and marketing effort, and a willingness to evolve.
Let’s look at each of these. Number one, a leader with the vision who is able to communicated to others. Jim Schell has started and sold four businesses when one of his companies reached to 250 employees he realized he had lost sight of his original purpose.
Jim: Vision is changed. They changed as companies grow as situations change. A hired the consultant and he come to work with us on a strategic. We have a strategic planning year and he says, “Okay, gang.” He says, “We’re going to need 10 people here. I want each of you to write down what your company’s vision is and what your mission is.” And I’m thinking, I’ve been a consultant for these give me a break.
So everybody writes it down and he says, “No, tell me what you wrote.” Around the room we go everybody had a different idea of what our vision was. Everybody had a different idea what our mission was. How can you all be going in the same direction if you don’t know what direction that is, right? And from that point forward we started to try and develop a vision and mission between our managers that made sense for a company that made sense for the time that took the dreams and missions change with time, and particularly in the small business environment were where moving fast and then communicate them down to our employees, so that everybody knows where we going.
Hattie: Okay, but after you determined that you agreed on the statement. This productivity increase, your profits improved, what happens?
Jim: Does it help when you go on vacation? Does it help if you have a road map where you are going? Do you get there quicker?
Hattie: Sure.
Jim: So it’s a focus issue. Everybody becomes focused on where were going and we’re all going to the same place and hopefully we all get there at the same time.
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