FOCUS vs. distraction

What makes successful companies so?

The differentiation of competitors is often slight. In essence, all products and services eventually become commoditized. So, how can your company continue to thrive.

A simple solution is to remain focused, as a vision, mission, set of core values, etc... on your core competencies. This means, keep your staff lean. Make sure that your employees are all focused on providing the best service possible within your businesses core competencies.

The opposite is the bloat and waste that comes from distraction. I will provide one simple example: internal eMail servers. There are a plethora of services available to businesses to solve this problem. Many are simply an outsourced replacement for your current internal product and staff. Others provide a level of service not even closely feasible given your internal resources and staff. The ubiquity of bandwidth almost completely negates the argument of: "...what if the network goes down..." and with today's remote workers, I'm not sure that argument holds water anyway. This is a really minor example, but in all cases, business leaders should be considering ways to purchase the utmost in value, from external resources, within their budget when considering business services required outside their core competency.

Great Communication Skills

We live in a real time world. People, things and activities are moving quickly. But, that shouldn't give us a reason not to communicate. Lately, I'm amazed at the lack of communication and courtesy given forth from people.

eMail complicates the situation, because the communication is asynchronous. You can send an email to someone, and there isn't a guarantee they actually receive it, so it may be common to re-send or remind someone. What irks me about this, is that I know in 90% of the cases, the email has been received and is ignored. Why? My suspicion is that the receiver:

1. doesn't have a good answer
2. is extraordinarily busy and doesn't have time or energy to communicate
3. doesn't consider your communique important enough to warrant a response
4. doesn't like the answer they have to give, and hopes you will just "go away"

NONE of these are acceptable excuses in my book. When one receives an email from another, and I'm not talking about SPAM here, or a voice mail, physical letter, IM, or other communication, the responsible option is to reply. Put your answer out there, or indicate you are too busy to deal with a situation at this point. The above behavior is just rude. I make it my duty to consider communication an important aspect of my business and life. I check my SPAM folder daily and clean it out to ensure I don't miss a communication from a client. And, I'm not afraid to communicate bad news where it is required. I try to help my clients behave the same.

Simple ... (imho)

Building a consulting practice

There is a lot to consider when building a new business. How should I organize? Corporation, LLC? I have helped so many businesses grow and prosper, but what about my own? The risk seems to turn everything a different color. So I am telling myself what I tell my clients.

1. Focus on the important stuff; don't get distracted with the little problems along the way.

2. Remember what you are good at. Leverage that, and find engagements which fit, rather than trying to shoe horn your services into a paradigm not your own.

3. Build and manage a process which produces repeatable results.

4. And, in the words of my estranged grandfather, "...provide a great service at a reasonable price and the consumers will beat your doors down to get it..."

That's all for today.