What Small Business Really Is: Business Mentor Hamilton, NZ

🌟 Business: The Simple Truth 🌟

Understanding Business Fundamentals 📚

Ok, for the second part of the trilogy, I am talking about what business is. 🤔 Yeah, I know that you know, but bear with me as I’m hoping by making you step back and look with fresh eyes, you might realize some stuff that can help you. 🌱

But if you know everything business, then delete this and go do something else. 🚀 Thanks for getting this far.

So, looking up a routine definition, this is common:
A business is an organized entity or undertaking aimed at producing or providing goods and services to satisfy the needs and wants of consumers for profit or other non-monetary objectives. 💼

Breaking Down Business Elements

The elements that make this up are:

• Entity 🏢
• Organised 📋
• Goods / Services 🛍️
• Needs and Wants ❤️
• Consumers 🧑‍🤝‍🧑
• Profit or similar 💸

I’m going to simplify this further into someone doing something for someone for some gain. 👥

Simplifying the Business Equation 🔢

I like to have simple explanations, so to reduce all of those words to an equation, it’s:

Labour +/or Product + Margin = Sales 💹

So, I’m not saying it’s easy to get a sale or easy to make a product; I’m saying the concept is easy. 💡

The Reality of Running a Business

Clearly, if you are in business and have been for some time, then you understand this equation and have solved it at least to the point of survival, or you wouldn’t be around; you’d be broke. 🏦 You also know that you haven’t solved it perfectly, or you wouldn’t be reading anything from a Business Coach. 🧠

The reason I’m dragging this out is that I want you to see that business is an equation. How any part of the equation happens is a process. You have ways that you charge customers and do your job; these are processes. 👨‍💼

Business as a System of Processes 🔄

My point is that a business system is a series or collection of processes. If the aim is for profit, then that is money. So my statement is:

Money follows process. 💰➡️🔄

“Yeah, right-o Slater; what are you dribbling on about?” I am saying that if money follows process, then better processes mean more money. There. I got to the point eventually. 🎯

The Science and Art of Business

Why is that so astounding? Because, as with most things, they are part art and part science. In the next part of the trilogy — it’s art. Today, it’s science. Process is something we can define step by step. We can document it and apply logic to it. Like science. 🧪🎨

Managing Business Processes for Profit 🧠

What that means is we can then manage it. If we document the process, think about it along the way, and work out the best way of doing things, then we can accumulate all those parts, and we have a business. Furthermore, we can then follow those processes and, if need be, improve them. If we get better processes, we get more money. 📈

Embracing Change and Improvement in Business 🌱

This is critical to making more money because you have to accept that there may be better ways of doing stuff, i.e., better processes before you will ever entertain changing what you are doing. Change is a big word and is mainly what we concentrate on in Business Coaching. Working out better ways to do stuff and changing from old to new ways. ⚙️

I’ve written many articles on change and have invented models to explain change — all for the sole purpose of helping clients with change. Most people resist change. 😤

Navigating the Chaos of the Business World 🌪️

There are quite a number of players on the field: customers, suppliers, competitors, your business, and the field itself, which is a continually moving environment with methods and resources, e.g., technology. So it’s chaos. 🌀

Charles Darwin made a career on his concept of survival of the fittest. Business is about as close to that wild kingdom as you can get. And it is survival of the fittest. 🦁

Simplifying Business — Beyond Processes

So you might say — my business is simple, I know everything about it, and I don’t need any written processes. 🤷‍♂️

“My mother ensured I could cook. So I can rustle up a half-edible burger and fries. That’s easy, right? Don’t even need a recipe, cool — tell that to the Golden Arches guy.” 🍔🍟

The Ray Kroc Story: Standardizing Success 🏗️

<skip this if you know the story>

Ray Kroc, the man behind McDonald’s global empire, recognized the power of standardized business processes in achieving operational excellence and brand consistency. He transformed the McDonald’s system from a small burger stand in California into a global phenomenon by meticulously documenting, recording, and controlling every aspect of the business.

Kroc’s obsession with process began early on. As a young milkshake machine salesman, he was fascinated by the McDonald brothers’ efficient Speedee Service System, which emphasized rapid service, limited menu choices, and a focus on quality. 🥤

When he joined McDonald’s in 1954, Kroc immediately set about documenting and standardizing every aspect of the business, from the precise proportions of ingredients to the exact cooking times for hamburgers and fries. By codifying these processes, he believed he could ensure that every McDonald’s restaurant, regardless of location, would deliver the same consistently high-quality experience. ⏱️🍔

Kroc’s emphasis on standardization was not merely about efficiency but also about control. He wanted to ensure that McDonald’s franchisees adhered to the company’s standards, protecting the brand’s reputation for quality and consistency. To achieve this, he implemented a rigorous system of inspections and audits, ensuring that franchisees followed the documented procedures to the letter. 📚🔍

Kroc’s relentless focus on process was instrumental in McDonald’s success. By standardizing everything from food preparation to customer service, he created a scalable business model that could be replicated across thousands of locations, maintaining the brand’s identity and quality while ensuring profitability. 🌍📈

Kroc’s legacy lies in the creation of McDonald’s and his pioneering approach to business process management. His emphasis on documentation, standardization, and control has become a cornerstone of modern business practices, enabling companies to achieve operational excellence, brand consistency, and sustainable growth. 🏆📊

Accessible Strategies for Business Success 🗝️

There are plenty of stories along the same lines as Ray Kroc and Henry Ford, household names. So, there is a finite supply of data and information worldwide. I do not have any golden keys. You can find the stuff I’m telling you here with a bit of searching; there isn’t anything original anymore. 🔍

What’s so amazing is that the recipe for running your business is freely available. And it’s not rocket science. If you want a better life and your business supports your life, then you want a better business. 🚀

If you want a better business, you have to do stuff better than you do now. Better processes. 🛠️

The Philosophy of Continuous Improvement 🌀

That doesn’t mean you take an axe to everything and go crazy. The Japanese have a great word, Kaizen. It just means continuous improvements. If you’re going to make continuous improvements, then those changes are likely to be small and often instead of some dramatic event with fire and brimstone. 🔥

“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”

- Confucius. 🏔️

Ok, Slater, you’ve gone from Japan to China; where next? 🗺️

The Bottom Line: Money Follows Process 💰➡️🔄

Well, that’s it. Money follows the process. Do it better; get more. Simple, right? Stay tuned for our next blog, where we tackle the biggest challenge in business processes: dealing with humans, especially the one that might be hindering you the most — yourself. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

PPS -

All that sounds straightforward, right? But in our processes, we have humans, and that’s the biggest issue. Let’s talk about that in the next blog. Humans are the biggest challenge to our processes, and the biggest of all the human problems is probably you! 👥

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