From Zero to $100 Million
Published on Dec 28, 2015
Some of the lessons i learned from starting and growing our family business into a multi-million dollar company, and the strategies we used to get there.
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
From Zero to $100 Million
by Yaseen Dadabhay
For more strategies and tactics to build your business, visit my blog @ http://www.yaseendadabhay.com
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This is based on my experience growing two of our businesses to around $100 million in annual sales, and also spending around 7 years working for some of the largest brands in the world learning what they did to build businesses that scaled beyond $1 Billion
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We begin every year by sitting down with not only our leaders, but front line partners (what we call all employees )
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We think about the cold, brutal reality of our business (competing in Coca-Cola’s 10th largest global market), our marketplace, our goals, our dreams, and what we want from the business.
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We are constantly asking and answering the following question : What can our business be in 2 years, in 5 years, in 20 years?
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4. We aim to hire one superstar every year (someone who can fundamentally change our business) – we start by writing a description of a person that we know or that we imagine could change our business for the better. And then we work damn hard to get that person.
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5. We make a list of every employee, partner, customer , and supplier – and we rank them from best to worst. This is really damn hard, but DO IT. And no ties allowed
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6. Then we look to see whether we can let go of one or more of the relationships that ended up at the bottom of the list.
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This could be customers who have been with us for years, suppliers who supported us when we just started out, employees who were with us from the beginning – but if you want to build a multi-million business, you have to face the brutal reality of business.
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7. Our aim is to replace all mediocre and good customers, vendors, employees with great ones – for us a great employee is someone who has the potential to be a senior leader one day
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8. We set OPERATIONAL goals, and toss financial goals – this requires us to invest within the limits of our current cash flow. If you keep setting operational goals, your company will be visibly stronger, and will eventually achieve financial success on its own.
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9. This idea is the opposite of what 99.99% of business gurus will tell you. They say write down a revenue or profit goal.
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BS
All that will do is stress out your company, and push it outside it’s capacity to manage risk. Eventually yes, when you are fully systematized, you will be able to set financial goals. But right now for the majority of people reading this, you will be better off focusing on smoothing and systematizing the operations of your company.
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10. Focus on solving core problems. As the CEO of your company, your focus should be on solving your businesses core focus. Everything else is a waste of time for you.
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11. In the beginning of the year, we write down the 10 major problems that are facing our business.
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We write the problems down on Post-It notes, and draw arrows on 10 other post it notes. We try to organize all ten problems into a single cause-effect diagram using the arrows to indicate the flow.
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We use additional post It notes to add additional insights, and mitigating factors as needed until all of the problems are part of a single diagram.
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The aim is to find the root cause of all our problems, and to make solving them a core part of all employees job description.
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12. One of the things that I would do differently now, and not wait till we hit $1 million in sales is to create an org chart that includes all the roles in our company.
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13. This is important as it will allow you to measure each and every role, each and every week. You will be as quantatitive as possible
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14. Outsource the measuring of all roles to someone else. Not you as the CEO.
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15. Another thing I would have done way before $1 million in sales. Document the heck out of every business process and system
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16. This is the anti-thesis of the 4 hour work week mindset, but in the beginning, when you have an opportunity to relax because of the income generated by your business. DON’T. instead take that time to systematize your business.
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17. As the CEO or founder or owner , WRITE a detailed job description for you.
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18. Systematize Testing in your business.
Test Everything
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19. Be brutally honest about what your services and products can and cannot do for your typical customer who uses your service and product properly.
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21. Train your staff and your sales people on your industry. Not just your product. We might sell Soft-Drinks, but our people know everything there is to know about the grocery market that our product falls into.
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22. Identify 5 major goals for every quarter. Make one of those goals your #1 company goal.
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23. Hold a SEPERATE hour long meeting each week on each of the five initiatives.
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24. During the weekly meeting , brainstorm new plans, procedures, policies – this becomes your operation manual over time for that initiative
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25. Weekly meetings SHOULD BE ABOUT CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENTS. Not about the status.
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26. It is great to think big, but as a small business owner, your focus should be on ONE THING in order to build the SYSTEMS and RELATIONSHIPS that can get you big.
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27. Who are your top 100 customers. Do you just offer your products and services to them . Or are you building meaningful, real, long term relationships with them?
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28. As a business owner the temptation is to CROWN yourself. DON’T. Make your business mission to CROWN your employees, your customers and your partners.
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I have a $60 million business, I can drive a Ferrari. I don’t, I drive a 2007 BMW. That I bought when it was 5 years old. The money that I could have spent on the Ferrari, I put back into the business.
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I can make a cash deal with suppliers to get even lower prices to give back to customers. I can use the money, to put a employees child through college.
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29. Think about the seductress in your business life. What investments are tempting, but build no lasting value. In the online world, there are new shiny objects offered all the time. Do they really offer long lasting value?
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In the online world, there are new shiny objects offered all the time.
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30. What is your speciality? What is the one thing that you can become the best in the world (your world, not neceassrily the planet) in.
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You can’t pick two!
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I love reading books, I have over 700 books in my library at home, and over 1000 on my kindle.
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I have a meeting every Monday morning at 6:00 for employees who want to learn more and grow more. I teach them the most important concepts that I think would grow our business.
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33. Be disciplined. Especially in the good times.
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WATCH YOUR BOTTOM LINE.
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34. One of the best decision we made was to implement the NET PROMOTOR SCORE to help measure our customer service. Not just for external customers, but for employees and suppliers.
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It helps us keep our people engaged.
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35. Can you develop a product for potential partners to give away. Something that makes them money.
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36. Schedule a brainstorming meeting to identify every potential point of contact, and every potential PURPOSE for contact between your customers and your company.
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Then build a weekly “contact” improvement meeting” to continually brainstorm and discuss ways to improve each and every contact.
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Document the results in your operations manual.
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37. We got this from John Jantsch Duct Tape Marketing, and it is the mantra of our customer facing teams.
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“ Make the customers happy, make the prospect happy, make each other happy”
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38. You know all those stories of great companies that you hear about all the time . Think Zappos for instance. And they always have a unique experience they offered their customers …
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well why isn’t that you?
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So invent an EXPERIENCE that you can give to your customers and prospects that is SPECIAL. Something that causes them to go WOW. Something they cant wait to tell their friends about.
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So schedule a brainstorming meeting with your team to brainstorm WOW EXPERIENCE ideas.
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Pick ONE cool idea, and schedule a second meeting, to figure out how to implement and execute it EXCEPTIONALLY well.
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And special doesn’t have to be expensive. It is about the relationship. It could be something as simple as a personal welcome call – from the CEO --- something they didn’t expect.
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39. As a CEO implement GETTING THINGS DONE into your decision making process.
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This is what I do. I write down everything that is on my mind regarding the business for a week. After the week I sit down and process everything I wrote.
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And then I do one of the following actions for each item.
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40. Core Values And Growing beyond $10 Million
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a. In our bottling plant/beverage manufacturing business … our annual turnover is 1/5th Coca Cola South Africa’s marketing budget.
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Think about that. They spend 5x more on marketing than we make in annual revenues.
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b. Yet our goal is to capture 10% of their $3.5 billion market share.
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c. We held a "do we want to grow" meeting with the majority of our employees, and discussed our strategy and vision for growth.
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d. Deciding to put together a vision for growth in competing against a global giant, meant that we had to have everyone's commitment to growth.
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Growth does not come easy, it is hard work, and hustling, and stress, and a commitment to getting there no matter the cost.
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So we wanted to make sure that we only took the people along who wanted to be a part of that journey.
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e. Once we made the decision to grow, the next question became obvious -- who did we want to become?
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This went beyond just gaining 10% of Coke Africa's $3.5 billion market.
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We described the behaviors that we wanted to see from employees ... it was based on the behaviour that we saw from our best employees.
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We engaged employees in helping to developing the list of core values.
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g. We then made sure that we used our core values in everything that we did.
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Recruitment, orientation, marketing, daily meetings, performance reviews, personal growth, the way we interacted with our customers and suppliers.
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h. We collected stories in our weekly meetings about our core values, and we added them to a "Company legends" book .. which we used at orientation for new employees -- and as a memorable, yet gentle way to discipline employees.
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This book basically shared employee insights and stories that demonstrated their commitment to the values of our business.
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i. The aim was to connect our core values to everything that every team member does, every day
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j. We examined our culture. How was it defined? How was it communicated to new team members? Were there gaps between the core values we had defined and day-to-day actions?
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k. We moved from yearly planning to 12 week planning (see the 12 week year),
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we picked 5 goals each quarter, and made one of those goals, the number one goal.
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Everyone in the team had to align their own goals with the number one goal.
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We picked a theme to go along with that goal, and we did stuff that was visible to lock in the theme.
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l. So for example service was one of our themes, so we bought aprons, printed with our logo, and everyone had to wear them for the quarter to reinforce the goal of getting our Net Promotor Score to 90%
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m. We made employee development a part of our core values
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. We seek to hire people at entry level and provide the training and mentoring necessary to support their advancement;
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the goal is that everyone will have the opportunity to become a senior leader within five to seven years.
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We have people who started off as sales associates in our retail business, and who are now senior leaders with profit sharing schemes.
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Yes , we share our profits with our people. Remember what i said about "crowning" others
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n. This essentially changed the way we dealt with employees. The goal became developing the person within the context of our culture.
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41. How did we keep our enrepreneurial spirit and family business feel while growing??
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a. We tend to keep project teams small – so the managers can have direct and meaningful contact with the people on the team. We wanted to keep our family-like atmosphere where people have shared experiences and know what’s going on in each other’s lives.
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We wanted to keep our family-like atmosphere where people have shared experiences and know what’s going on in each other’s lives.
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b. We ensure that we get the basics right in terms of our recruitment strategy (http://www.slideshare.net/yaseend/entrepreneurs-guide-to-hiring-the-best-ta...)
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meaning we have a intense focus on getting the right people working for the company in the first place and then concentrate on keeping those people happy.
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c. We worked at consistently coming up with unexpected ways to let people know how much they are valued – by doing small
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This ranged from giving a raise so the employee had enough money to do something important or paying their school fees to further their education.
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It is the little things that people value.
d. Even though we are not a massive business - The $60 million is high volume/low profit, so every cent counts, but we still allocate money every year to employees development
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e.g we pay for employees kids who want to go to university, for assistance in building a house etc.
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42. We educate employees during Orientation that their job is to make themselves so valuable to the company (profit wise), that the company wouldn’t want to see them go.
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43. This is not for everyone. But we use a combination of MEASUREMENT + COMPETITION to motivate employees. This requires public displays of individual performance. The best employees love it, the ones that don’t quit.
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This requires public displays of individual performance. The best employees love it, the ones that don’t quit.
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When we started both our businesses, i would compete with employees to see who could make the highest monthly sales.
sometime i won. sometimes i lost. but it motivated people to try and outsell one of the founders.
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Your job as CEO is to create work that is meaningful for employees, so that they are engaged and motivated to get up every morning to help create a great business.
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This is different from trying to motivate employees by making the workplace fun.
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45. Your job as CEO is to make the most important jobs in your company so PROFITABLE, that you can afford to make them BETTER jobs – to pay really well and to attract and keep the best employees.
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46. Where possible, We make every job a profit center, by redefining it, and adding marketing related goals.
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47. When we moved on to a POS/financial system, every employee had access to our numbers.
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Be transparent about your company's performance.
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Sales people had access to each others daily sales. They could see what their “competition” was doing. It helped drive our early growth. Because it made them invested in the business.
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48. To determine your POSITIONING – identify the biggest NICHE you can dominate (note : this can be a small niche) –
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49. Every year we look at our positioning for our businesses and ask these fundamental questions :
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a. What business are we really in ? Who are we? What are we best at? What turf can we defend?
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b. The aim is to define the biggest niche we can credibly dominate for the year and Dominate.
For us , last year it was the Sports Drink market. Our Chief food Scientists was the guy that created South Africa’s most popular sports drink. We have a great relationship with Richard Branson’s Virgin Gym’s – so that was a market segment that we felt that we could dominate amongst hardcore athletes.
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50. This is from Jay Abraham’s philosophy of PRE-EMINENCE. What is the niche, you can be the best in?
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If you cant be the premier provider in your Niche, then define your NICHE smaller.
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Be a big fish in a small pond.
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a. We cant hope to compete against Coca Cola’s core Coke brand. So we wont even attempt. But we can compete in the other flavour catagories against Coke’s Fanta range.
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51. This year in our retail business, we are looking at ways that we can reward customers for staying with us.
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52. Since we have moved from yearly planning to 12 weekly planning (Read the 12 week year), we have broken our marketing into creating a Irressitible marketing offer every quarter.
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The aim is to provide something that is NARROW, SIMPLE, MEANINGFUL, BELIEVABLE, HIGH ROI, DURABLE and BRIEF.
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53. From our beverage biz – to compete against Coke – Pick just one niche.
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If you are like most small businesses, you are stuck in the chasm, because you have not truly met 100% of the needs of any single niche.
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54. Give your business the practice and time it needs to master one thing, before it tackles another.
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55. Live your mission statement. Every business decision should be in the direction of your mission statement.
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56. We systematically conduct reviews of our systems and policies. If anything is causing a slow down, we either amend it or knock it out immediately.
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57. At the beginning of the year, we consider the recent historical events that led to changes in our industry.
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Based on these past events , we make a list of possible future scenarios that we can predict about the future of our industry.
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58. At the beginning of the year we do long term planning – we ask ourselves where do we want the business to be in 2 years, 5 years and 20 years ….
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59. At the beginning of every 12 week cycle, we write down a action plan that will allow us to see our business from a hands on perspective from the outside in.
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60. You have to systematically review every detail in your business to ensure that your mission is being accomplished at every step of the way.
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61. Plan for the rainy days. Emergencies only happen when you have not planned for the rainy days.
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62. Look at your org chart. Are the right people in the right position, so that their talent is being used in the manner that makes the most sense and contributes to the company’s success in the most powerful way.
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63. Make sure that your financial resources are delegated to the people and systems that are actually contributing to success.
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64. Keep an outsider in perspective that allows you to understand the mindset and expectations of your customers, as they interact with your company.
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How can you reward customers for sending you new clients?
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Adopt an extreme determination to sell. Sell yourself. Sell your product. Sell your company.
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I am talking about life or death determination, that that hits your gut with the total internal understanding that failure equals death. Profit equals life—it’s your bread and butter—your bottom line. If you don’t sell, you don’t eat. You die. Failure is not an option.
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If you don’t sell, you don’t eat. You die. Failure is not an option.
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That’s the determination that will put you out into the trenches everyday marketing your business at every point of contact you have with anyone in the outside world.
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That’s the determination that will have you canvassing your neighborhood talking up your products and services to families out for their evening stroll. They are at leisure.
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Develop a story about a real life problem involving people you’re telling the story to. Explain how your solution makes life better for them.
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Who are you telling your story to?
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Develop a survey for your customers. List questions pertaining specifically to the service you provide.
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Find out why they do business with you, and what keeps them coming back. Find out also what your customers
would like to see improved
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Use the survey to implement a plan to improve in the areas needed
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Set-up a frequent-shopper reward program for your customers -- their relationship to you is intellectual
capital
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We must learn what it is that our customers will buy, what they will pay for and what they will not pay for
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What will be your edge?
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What is your innovation.
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And how have you systemized your company's ability to accelerate and improve your innovation
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what do your customers think of when they hear your company's name.
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What is the essence of your business?
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Why was the company started?
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What did they plan to do better than anyone else?
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Are you fulfilling that vision now?
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Set your alarm clock to wake up at 4am tomorrow. Use the first half-hour you’re awake to plan your day.
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Use the rest of the extra time to get a jump start on your business goals.
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Stop going through your days with no plan
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Make the most of every moment by preparing for it ahead of time.
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Spend time each night
getting ready for the next day, While the other guys are watching TV and keeping up with sporting events
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make a list of your current customers. Then brainstorm possible services or
products you can offer each one tailored specifically to their unmet needs.
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Make a list of potential marquee customers. Who are the leaders in your industry?
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Set up meetings with each of your three best customers. Spend some time talking to decision makers about
their unmet needs
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Make a chart or graph to illustrate the supply chain in your business.
.
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Meet with potential vendors who can help reduce your current supply chain costs.
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Cut costs and pass the savings on to your customers as better value.
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Look at your current business model in light of the different types of marquee customers.
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Develop a Breakthrough Value Proposition
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ask these three questions in order to start developing your own breakthrough proposition:
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What market segments are we addressing?
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Who are our targeted customers?
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What benefits are we delivering?
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figure out who you want to serve and what it is that they NEED.
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Once you have that worked out, then ask, “What ELSE do they need?”—
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By asking, “What ELSE do they need?” — we’re opening up the possibility of doubling our revenue without the big customer acquisition costs...
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And once you begin
working with them to make them even better, your business grows.
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The relationship you build with your marquee customers can lead to exponential growth because not only does that one relationship dramatically grow your sales,
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but it also helps you get even bigger deals with other leading
companies as your reputation grows
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That's no different than any other sale.
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When you find and work with these marquee customers, your business will grow simply by virtue of being
associated with them.
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As a supplier to Wal-Mart we are likely to land a contract with other large retailers, because the fact that Wal-Mart works with us is a testament to the quality and value being offered.
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Who are the first movers in your industry?
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With a completely new product , competing against the largest soft drink brand in the world. We had to find the first movers
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If you’re just starting out, and you have a phenomenal product, First Movers will be your best bet as marquee
customers.
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Talk with your best customers and clients to learn as much as you can about why they do business with you.
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Identify what you like about working with them and how your work impacts them.
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Take time to celebrate success every day, week, month, quarter, and year.
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Set small step intermediate targets
that represent progress in the direction of your major goals and objectives.
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Set small step intermediate targets
that represent progress in the direction of your major goals and objectives.
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Recognize the completion of these
milestones along the way with small, but regular celebrations that provide momentum for you and your team!
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Identify a failure or rejection you have experienced in your personal life or with your business in the last six
months.
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Take some time to review the situation to see what can be learned and adopted to reduce the chancesof a similar failure or rejection in the future.
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Make whatever adjustments you feel are necessary to ensure
that a repeat does not occur.
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Make a list of the small things that need to be fixed in your business. You already know what they are
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they’re those nagging things that you have pushed to the back burner because other things seem more
important.
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Take action to fix these small problems by addressing one each day until you work through the list.
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Talk with your team, your partners, your suppliers, and anyone who regularly interacts with and impacts your business.
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Ask them to help you identify small changes that can be made to improve things.
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Give them the
power to make the changes that need to be made.
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Block out a 10-minute appointment with yourself to focus on finding one small step you can take to move you toward one of your larger business goals.
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the key is to ask the right question that allows you to identify something you can do to make progress in the
direction you want to go, then take action and do it.
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Ask yourself this question at least once a day:
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What is getting in my way and keeping me from growing my business?
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Develop the habit of seeking continuous improvement in every area of your business.
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Take time each day, week, and month to reward people who take small actions that help your business.
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They may be internal or external to the business, but if they do something, no matter how small, that helps thebusiness, take time to recognize them and let them know that you appreciate their taking action.
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Develop the habit of looking for small steps that can move you toward big outcomes.
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Assess your effectiveness and the effectiveness of your team in asking questions.
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Are you pulling the difficult issues into the conversation by putting them on the table, or are you avoiding raising the tough questions?
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Discuss this with your team and have everyone agree to start asking the right questions so that the team can find the right answers.
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At the same time, take a look around and identify the people you should be learning from and find ways to connect with them to gain their knowledge and insight.
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Remember, life’s too
short to make all the mistakes yourself, it’s much smarter to learn from others who’ve already made them.
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Map your ‘customer corridor,’ that is the pathway that a customer takes as they interact with your business and the products and services you offer.
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Identify who is involved at each step, what the customer sees and does at each step, and the potential impacts of each step on the customer’s perceptions of and satisfaction with your business.
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Invest some time in thinking about alternative business models that you could use to leverage your resources, activities, and partners to deliver a better value proposition to your current and customers and prospective customers.
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What change(s) could/should you make to improve the performance of your business? Take
action and make those changes
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Identify potential people you could ask to help you in reviewing your current business model and exploring alternative business models.
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Consider inviting them to join you for dinner and a conversation about your business. Look for a diverse group and be willing to open up and talk candidly about your business.
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Let the group serve as an informal advisory board for your business and have them meet a few times if you can get them to commit.
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The pay-off for you is a better business.
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Answer the question: What problem does your business solve or what need does it satisfy for your customers?
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Be as specific as possible and think through your response to make sure you get to the real answer.
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Ask your customers, suppliers, competitors, and colleagues. Dig until you really understand the problem or need, then refine your marketing and sales messages to make it center stage in what everyone understands about your business.
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Want help growing your business to the next level? Schedule a complimentary Business Growth Strategy with me
https://yaseendadabhay.leadpages.co/business-coaching/
Want help growing your business to the next level? Schedule A complimentary Business Growth Strategy with me
https://yaseendadabhay.leadpages.co/business-coaching/
https://yaseendadabhay.leadpages.co/business-coaching/
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