Every business has a leaky bucket. The bucket represents your profitability and the leaks are all the activities that you are doing, or not doing, that are eating away your profits.
The challenge for most businesses is that they don’t realise the degree to which their bucket is leaking, or if they do they choose not to make the changes necessary to address the issues. I know that sounds totally mad but it’s true!
Quite often the issues that need addressing to stop your bucket leaking may also be on the list of things you need to stop doing.
We all have “things to do” lists but we should also have a “Stop” list too as a “Stop” list tends to address our behaviours that are causing some of the lack of progress that most business owners suffer from.
So, if we combine your leaky bucket with your “Stop” list you get a “Leaky Bucket list” containing all the “things” you need to do different to achieve your desired business outcome for the year.
So what things tend to cause Leaky Buckets? Here’s a list of the top 10 areas where leaks tend to occur to help you work out where your leaks may be coming from and thus what behaviours you may need to stop or start to address them:
- Over-delivery and under-charging
- Improved following-up
- Tighter focus and control on cashflow (both in and out!)
- Improved supplier management
- Client management
- Enhanced marketing
- Measuring your business performance
- Pricing strategy
- Referrer management
- Improved staff management
I’ll expand on some of these over the next few issues of Fish & Tips so we can get your 2015 Leaky Bucket List in full swing, but in the meantime start your Leaky Bucket List today!