"If you employed study, thinking, and planning time daily, you could develop and
use the power that can change the course of your destiny."
-W. Clement Stone

Procrastination and ineffective use of time is an inevitable byproduct of the workday experience if there is a lack of direction or organized time. Implementing time management techniques in business workflows can help decrease these occurrences. While specific techniques can be altered from industry to industry or company to company, depending on outside factors such as market conditions or corporate culture, some basic principles will always apply.

The first step is acknowledging the existence of procrastination or disorganization and recognizing that it happens. The next step is determining why it is happening and with what frequency. Then the final step is to provide the tools and direction and motivational factors that will provide an opportunity for employees to work more efficiently. Management can institute increased motivation merely by setting up opportunities where their employees can succeed.

There was this office that had six employees and every week they chalked up overtime hours, approximately 20+ hours a week. They said it was because of all the interruptions they received on a daily basis.

Recognizing this is a problem is key because every time someone is interrupted, it will take them approximately 10 minutes to get back on track. If they are interrupted six times during the course of an eight-hour day, then they have lost a full hour.

Solution: Our consultant instituted one hour of non-interrupted time; ensured employees had a list of priorities to work on during that time; and made sure that this dedicated work time was set during their high productivity hours.

Results: The team became more efficient, and no longer needed the overtime hours; morale improved; and the employees had more time with their families. This resulted in happier employees and additional cost savings for the company.

A business development consultant can help companies identify areas like these, and teach employees how to work more efficiently. When managers promise to deliver things but never seem to have the time to accomplish those things promised, it could be a time management problem or a lack of knowledge to accomplish the task. Our consultants can make a difference, offer precise solutions and then teach individuals to manage their time better. The first step is acceptance that time management skills can improve current time constraints. Then we can help you institute a course of action.

Financial systems for successful businesses should be based on Management Accounting, not just tax reporting. A business consultant can explain in more detail the benefits of both.

Business owners need to understand this difference, and how to use it in their best interest. Financial planning and reporting requires accurate financials. Good financials need to be captured on an accounting system that can provide a profit and loss statement and a balance sheet, along with other useful reports such as job costing or job reports. Let our consultants show you how.

Good accounting systems will provide more than tax reporting. Employers will learn how to read and use their financial statements. Owners and managers will learn how these financials affect their section of operations. They will learn that the chart of accounts is the spine of your organization. A financial professional can help you develop your accounting system to gain the best results for your organization. With accurate accounting budgets, cash flows, overhead projections, labor burden costs, and job costing can all be gained fairly easily.

Budgets and cash flows are necessary and an elementary step in the financial planning for a successful company. Setting a budget accomplishes several things, such as getting control of cash flow, ensuring the funding for current commitments, making better financial decisions, and the funding of future endeavors. The cash flows are excellent planning tools to ensure that you can forecast the revenue before it is actually needed, as well as make the most of your money by paying when it is actually due and not beforehand. The longer the money is in the bank, the more it makes for you.

In the course of business development, job costing is essential as part of accountability to the purchasing system, operating systems and employee performance. This enables a company to know where their break-even point is so they always know what they must gain on each sale. If you go below break-even you are losing money on each sale.

Our financial professionals can help you develop your accounting system to gain insight as to how you are doing and what you need to do to improve.

A strong, effective, and enthusiastic sales force is critical to many organizations. In addition to recruiting the best talent, it is vital to develop a solid campaign and control the costs. Great Start management consultants assist organizations to hire great sales personnel and formulate sales plans based on national and local statistics. Building a cohesive sales campaign will always have four components: solid objectives; measurable results; a great product or service explanation; and a reasonable anticipated return on investment.

The vehicles which help you, as a business owner, to gain more potential customers differs based on the type of business you own. Websites, blogs, mailings, coupons, and networking are examples of what has worked for some companies. The right advertising vehicle can only be determined by first analyzing your target market, which means age brackets, sex, location, interests, likes and dislikes. This is one of the reasons industries like restaurants use comment cards.

A restaurant rewarding customers with a free dessert on their birthday is one example. If a customer completes a comment card in order to receive the reward, the company will have captured his or her email address or mailing address, and can then promote their business during slow periods, and get their customers to frequent their facility more often. Or look at what Starbucks is doing. Afternoons are slow, so they are now offering a discounted drink (usually priced at break-even) to get customers to visit in the afternoon. These promotions are geared for customers within the San Diego North County, customers who are living close to their facility.

What is your target market demographically? What will get your customers to buy more, or to refer additional customers to your product and/or service?

Let Great Start business coaches help you and your sales management team develop and execute effective programs to ensure a strong sales strategy. Within a successful and strong sales strategy, we strive to enrich certain components such as: the right personnel; canvassing; great customer services skills; follow-through; marketable pricing; the talent of closing the sale; and the enrichment of business development.

We have mentioned some of the attributes of effective communication in other parts of the website. Communication is one of the most under-appreciated skills known to humankind. When we tell someone something we assume they have gotten the message. But have they?

Communication in the spoken sense consists of not just words, but also body language and the tone of one’s voice.

Have you ever said something to someone, only to have it completely misunderstood? Or said something that you wanted someone to take action on, and the action was never taken? English words sometimes have several different meanings. So when delivering a message, it is imperative that the person receiving the message understands what we have said, and can take the action intended.

Our consultants, who have worked for many different companies, have witnessed how diverse our work cultures are, how mental capacities differ, and that attention spans are not the same. It is no wonder this is a challenge drives managers crazy. And if your message is not getting across, and action is not taken as instructed, what do you think the wasted costs could be? That is in addition to the frustration it causes. Have you ever counted up the money it costs (salaries plus labor burden) of a management meeting? We have conducted time management studies, and it is shocking. But if you are gaining the desired results, the cost is secondary.

It is important not only to disseminate information, but to ensure that your employees hear what you said and know what they are to do about it. There is a real distinction between merely hearing the words and really understanding the message. Here are a few reasons how the message may not be accurately received or retained:

• some people are visual learners and others are audio learners;
• when you just tell someone something they only retain 45% of it;
• there are times when individuals must translate what is being said into a native tongue before they can comprehend its' meaning.

Think of how that affects your employees retention of what is communicated.

Our management coaches can help teach you great communication skills, making meetings, corrective actions, performance evaluations, or coaching sessions more effective for your organization.

As they say, it's lonely at the top. Wouldn't it be great if a business owner had a knowledgeable person they could talk to in regard to challenges, changes, or desired growth initiatives? As an owner of a company, you probably know your product or services better than most. But what happens to the company if it grows so big that you cannot provide the leadership needed?

Executive coaches show owners how to delegate tasks and train other managers to lead in the same style as the owner. Delegation, teaching and communication are keys to making this happen. As the owner, you must know what is going on in your company and still provide the leadership the business requires. It can be done; our executive coaches can show you how.

The business entity and all the fuel it requires can sometimes be overwhelming. It leaves little time for an individual to enrich oneself or assist their supervisors/managers to enrich their skills. This scenario may be so overwhelming, that a person may lose touch with their original goals, or any goal for that matter. And of course sometimes during the course of time, goals may change and business owners and their employees may end up even questioning why they thought this would be fun.

Also, what we may have wanted for ourselves or the company today may be different than what we wanted five years ago, or ten, depending when we last reviewed the goals. Time has a way of sneaking past us as we try to keep up. The other problems include: we as people change; the economy or workforce changes; or the needs of our operational world change. Executive coaches can teach key personnel to re-identify their goals, and assist them to work on their weaknesses and enrich their strengths, bringing enjoyment back into their work day. That wonderful feeling of accomplishment makes every day better, brighter, and more enjoyable.

Since Great Start Management Services was established in 2004, we have helped many individuals in San Diego North County, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Vista and San Marcos to: delegate, train and communicate to their team; to reach new goals and set up new goals; to best manage their time; and to create timetables to keep each individual on track and keep everyone accountable until fruition. Business owners have found that an executive coach can also keep them on track and accountable for the things which they have committed to in support of this process.

Owners and/or employees do not have to come home from work feeling defeated. They have goals, and every day they accomplish something in their plan to achieve the desired result. We believe that people work hard and should have something to show for it. We believe people like to work as long as they can grow, feel appreciated and have satisfaction in what they do. Great Start management coaches help individuals gain success by developing a sense of pride in everyday tasks. People do not have to work longer hours if they have a plan and know how to execute that plan successfully.

And best of all, once individuals have mastered these skills, they in turn are excellent role models/mentors to their co-workers, subordinates, friends and family. If you do something well, you will find more enjoyment in doing that task. Great Start Management executive coaches can make this happen for you and your management team.

"Thinking well is wise; planning well, wiser; but doing well is the wisest and best of all."
-Persian Proverb

Once we have determined what our goals are, a Strategic Plan will help us identify how we get there. This is a great brainstorming and communication tool to help institute wise business development strategies. Business development strategies are crucial to long term success. Goals and objectives must be a top priority.

One strategy in making an organization successful is hiring the right employee to fill each position. Also, grooming motivated individuals within the ranks can help an organization grow to the next level. Analyzing workflows and then documenting these strategies so they are measurable is also effective. With these workflows in place we can find dysfunctions and correct them before they drain all the profits of the organization.

For example, we knew there were problems in production for a San Marcos based company, which had costly errors. We started tracking the errors and applying the costs associated. We found the company's average was in the neighborhood of $50,000 to $100,000 in losses each quarter. We pulled out the workflow and analyzed each error. We were then able to locate the problem and incorporated a quality checkpoint in that one area. As a result, we minimized their losses and they are now incurring losses of less than $5000 each quarter, which is fantastic when compared to the industry average.

Companies that try to run their businesses without goals and objectives and a clearly defined business strategy will lose sight of their ultimate goal, and are even at risk of losing their business during hard times. Financial planning and business development are very important in building a strong, successful organization. Goals may change annually as the market changes, so these objectives and the plans need to change as well. Business consultants can assist owners and executive management keep things on track.

Business runs on general structure and basic business practices, regardless of the industry. The quality and timeliness of information assists business owners with critical decisions. In order to make wise and profitable decisions, it is imperative to have a thorough business analysis and a written plan as well as excellent financials. This provides each person in the management team clear directives and evaluation tools to accomplish the tasks which will help meet goals.

A business consultant is trained to perform an exhaustive diagnostic study of your business. The consultant and support team have experience with similar business operations. An in-depth examination is performed including financial, operational and sales functions of the business, to provide recommendations for improvement by identifying strengths and deficiencies. This is something that business owners seem to never have time to complete. But our San Diego North County business consultants are ready to help to fulfill this need.