When Nitty-Gritty Detail Is Critical To Business Success

Written by Noel Peebles


WHEN NITTY-GRITTY DETAIL IS CRITICAL TO BUSINESS SUCCESS

By Noel Peebles

Many entrepreneurs fail to succeed because they won’t, or cannot, sweat repparttar details. Although it’s important to seerepparttar 106395 big picture, it is equally important to get details right. Trouble is; many entrepreneurs view detail work as boring, time-consuming and petty. After all, they could be pulling off some exciting deals, instead of wasting time on “nitty-gritty” details.

However, by not dottingrepparttar 106396 i’s and crossingrepparttar 106397 t’s, those very same entrepreneurs could be running a serious risk of having their wonderful deals come unstuck. The fact ofrepparttar 106398 matter is; evenrepparttar 106399 smallest business mistakes can be costly in terms of both time and money. These could be small (but critical) mistakes like:

- Adding up money incorrectly.

- Getting customer names, phone numbers and address details wrong.

- Not getting a web site address correct in an advertisement or sales letter.

- Not checking local bylaws, regulations etc.

- Not understanding employment, health or safety regulations.

- Not checkingrepparttar 106400 fine print on contracts, lease agreements etc.

Yes, simple mistakes like these can be very costly. And, it’s not easy, when small business entrepreneurs are expected to know everything and be experts at everything. It’s a tough ask!

Fortunately most entrepreneurs have a positive outlook on life and seem to bounce back after making mistakes. Although their mistakes may have been painful atrepparttar 106401 time, most would put them down to experience and move on torepparttar 106402 next exciting task at hand.

I guess we are allrepparttar 106403 same. We like to focus onrepparttar 106404 things we enjoy doing and things we are good at. It’s only natural when detail work is viewed as a chore and a bore.

As an example, I hate accountancy work, but I know it must be done. Important details like: if I don’t file a tax return on time I will get hit with penalty interest charges. Ouch! That’s why my accountant handles much ofrepparttar 106405 “boring” detail for me. I know my strengths and I know what I enjoy doing – accountancy is not one of them. Despite that, I do understandrepparttar 106406 importance of gettingrepparttar 106407 essential details right and that’s preciselyrepparttar 106408 point I’m making.

Setting Non-Negotiable Staff Standards

Written by Noel Peebles


SETTING NON-NEGOTIABLE STAFF STANDARDS By Noel Peebles When a person seeks employment with your company, he or she is basically saying, “I want to work for your company.” What this really means is “I will give up doing whatever I please, show up for work and behaverepparttar way you want me to behave, so long as you pay me in exchange.” Now, that gives yourepparttar 106394 employer,repparttar 106395 opportunity to set some standards of behavior that are non-negotiable. That doesn’t mean you are taking away any creativity from your employees. After all, it is important for staff members to have some flexibility and to project their own personality into their job. With that said; it is also a good idea forrepparttar 106396 employer to be inflexible with some things. In other words set non-negotiable standards. This is no different from every day life. Society has rules. Imagine, for example, if there were no road signs or laws to guide us on how to behave. Imagine if there were no rules in sport… it would be a shambles, right? The truth is, most of us like to know our boundaries, because that way we know what we can and can’t do. If we breakrepparttar 106397 law we get fined or arrested. If we don’t play fairly in sport we get penalized in some way. We are use to non-negotiable standards. Why should it be any different when running a business? It shouldn’t! To run smoothly, every business needs rules and policy. Although staff members may not always agree withrepparttar 106398 policy, they can and usually will comply. I will give you a couple of examples of what I mean - When I ran my retail stores I had a staff uniform designed. Staff members were required to wearrepparttar 106399 uniform – that was non-negotiable. However, it wasn’t quite like being inrepparttar 106400 military. There were various acceptable combinations, sorepparttar 106401 staff could adjustrepparttar 106402 uniform to suit their own personality. Here’srepparttar 106403 deal: It was a non-negotiable standard that staff members were required to wearrepparttar 106404 uniform. Furthermore, it needed to be within repparttar 106405 agreed guidelines using any one ofrepparttar 106406 approved combinations. Anything else was unacceptable. Now, that's not unreasonable. Another example wasrepparttar 106407 handling of money. Banknotes were required to be put intorepparttar 106408 cash registers inrepparttar 106409 correct compartments and all facing in repparttar 106410 same direction. I had worked out that it tookrepparttar 106411 same amount of time, to putrepparttar 106412 money away in a tidy order, as it did to shove it in any old way. This keptrepparttar 106413 cash registers tidy and made countingrepparttar 106414 money much easier. This was another non-negotiable standard that worked well.

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