Another “fact” gets a dagger to its heart.
Speed doesn’t kill businesses. Slowness does.
And we’re talking about the speed with which you operate your business.
When you think about it, just about everything moves faster today than when you were born. Speed is a constant, and the new normal in our lives.
So why is your business still moving slowly?
Making decisions rapidly, responding wiki wiki to problems and opportunities, calling prospects today, getting your products created swiftly and hiring team who are themselves fast–that’s how a thriving business must act.
Logic says all of us would want to go fast, but the exact opposite seems to be true. Most businesses are not fast a-t-a-l-l.
Fall behind and catching up becomes super hard to do. Just ask Blackberry, Blockbuster, Loehmann’s, Kodak, DEC, and all those businesses in the cemetery.
Yes, I know they were BIG businesses, perhaps hard to relate to. But we all know them. If I told you about the slide into oblivion for my local cupcake store, the Dairy Queen franchise two towns over and the skate board apparel shop, it might be a little harder to relate.
But they all expired because of a lack of speed.
Look at who we value today: Google, Amazon, Facebook. They all move with speed and alacrity. Apple used to be in this group. We’ll see.
To move fast you have to be willing to live with and manage risk and develop a special “speed strategy.”
You can talk about getting speedier. Or you can learn to do it…now.
A Speed Strategy:
- Identify your barriers to speed. You have them. I have them. Maybe you’re missing certain processes or you’re super behind in hiring a critical team member because you “don’t have the money to pay them.” Maybe the barrier is you and your personal style of making decisions. Figure out the barriers to your “speed strategy” before you begin.
- Learn to go fast. Pick one area of your business. Time yourself. How long does it take for you to return calls, call prospects, or get a new product out the door? Give yourself a newer, faster target. Now transfer that new speed to other areas.
- Develop a speed culture. Yes, your business has a culture whether you created it intentionally or accidently. Now that you’ve dabbled with speed in one area, extend it to everything you do. Every new program, idea, process gets evaluated for whether it enables you to go faster or slower.
- Hire fast Team. Some people just move more quickly, think more rapidly and react faster. Those are the team members you want and able to deliver against your “speed strategy.”
- Share and decide faster. Few realize speedier businesses require fast decision-making. And not just fast but accurate. Then there must be a process for sharing with your whole team. Reduce the time it takes your business to learn about decisions, solutions and opportunities.
- Get fast yourself. A fast business and fast team mandate a fast leader. I know I personally work best when I have some time to sit with new ideas. I also know that I must give myself that “sitting” time, but now less of it to become a faster leader.
Yes, moving faster will probably lead to more mistakes. So what?
The truth is you’ll learn and adjust from the mistakes. And when this speedier you and faster business begins to deliver everything sooner, you’ll embrace speed.
Wrap your head around this: if your business is moving slower than the speed occurring outside your business, you are in a heap of trouble.
Just one more reason why it’s time to begin to move to working on your business rather than in it.
Go forth and do great things,
Martha Hanlon and Chris Williams