2 More deadly sins that cost you money (and how to avoid them)

Welcome to the second post in the deadly sins series. Today we're going to cover two MORE deadly sins that cost business owners money that are completely avoidable! If you haven't checked out the first post in this series, please do so here. And if you're ready to move on to the next, hit the audio button below (coming soon!), read the text, or scroll to the very bottom for video. Enjoy!

00:00          Hi everyone. Welcome back. I am Katie, your Texas business broker. And today I'm going to be sharing with you two more deadly sins that most small business owners make that are costing them lots of money and how to fix them. As we jump into this, in case you're new here and you don't know who I am, my name is Katie. I am a Texas business broker. Small business owners hire me to help them get top dollar for their company from the perfect buyer quickly.

And if you really knew me, you would know that I haven't always been a business broker. I am a personal and business coach, certified by the International Coaching Federation and also holding a certification in C-IQ®, which is Conversational Intelligence®. I like to say that I am a coach by trade and an entrepreneur by heart, because I have always been entrepreneurial. 

00:59          As a matter of fact, I am a fourth generation entrepreneur and if you really knew me, you would know that I once created and founded a smartphone app for the travel industry.

And that is an interesting story that is beyond the scope of today's presentation but if you'd like to hear more about it, I welcome you to send me a DM and I'll share with you what I learned from that experience.

My husband and I now co-own and operate a sports fishing operation. And if you're curious to learn more about that and are open to a shameless plug, you can check out MegabiteSportfishing.com. I share this with you because I want you to understand that the stories that I share with you in these videos come from real life experience either from my own personal real life experience or the real life experience that my clients have encountered as they own and operate and buy and sell small businesses. 

02:02          A few nice things that other folks have said about our work together is at the top here. My friend Shelly, who is the CEO of Strategy Clicks, says,  "Katie's approachable style makes her message accessible and easy to apply to anyone open to learning and having fun." Sandra Hughes, an executive coach says, that she "especially recommends Katie for anyone who needs help with transitions."  Kerry Sutton, Community Relations Manager at HCTC says, "I ended up achieving far beyond what I had originally envisioned and ended up being celebrated on the front page of the local paper. Thank you, Katie!"

I've enjoyed the work that I've done with all these clients and more and encourage you to check out my LinkedIn profile if you'd like more information on the work that I've done. Now, let's jump into this. 

02:54          If you've seen the previous presentation you saw me go through deadly sins one and two. If you haven't seen those, I encourage you to check them out. If you need the link again, just drop me a DM and I'll send you the video that includes deadly sins one and two (also found in the blog post right before this one).

And today we're going to be focusing on the deadly sins and number three and four that most small business owners make that are costing them lots of money and what to do to fix them.

Deadly sin number three is that most business owners try to do it all themselves. I know that myself as a business owner can relate to this. When you're just getting started in business, a lot of times you don't have any help, so you really need to bootstrap just about everything that you do. 

03:42          In addition, business owners are usually natural born leaders. And so we're used to taking control. We're used to doing things ourselves. And as your company got started you probably didn't have much help. So you learn how to do things yourself. But this can actually be a hindrance to your company as you grow and it can prevent you from growing beyond a certain place. So whenever it makes sense for you and your business and whenever possible you should try to automate and you should try to delegate.

If you've read the book, Get To Done, you know that there are 4 D's: Do it, Drop it, Delegate it, Defer it. Don't try to do it all yourself, most specifically, it's really important if you're interested in selling your business someday and you want to increase the value of your business, it's really important for you to have manuals and checklists that explain how to run your business.

04:40          The reason why this is important is because it really helps a future buyer feel comfortable stepping into your role as an owner operator in your business. If you have a manual written down that says, Step One: do this, "When you come to the office first thing on Monday morning, talk to So-and-so and get the report on such and such" When you have manuals and checklists that can be handed over to a future buyer of your company and that is going to increase the value of your business. So don't try to do things all yourself. Make sure that you delegate your projects, you automate your projects, and invest some time in writing out manuals and checklists so that somebody could step into your role and run your business like a turnkey operation. Don't try to do it all yourself. 

05:30          Deadly sin. Number four: most business owners don't track customer satisfaction. This may not feel real obvious as you're growing your business, because, there's plenty of other top priority items that need to be taken care of as you're creating your business, as you're establishing a business, as you're growing your business; usually you're putting out fires, and tracking customer satisfaction isn't,, you know, top of mind in a lot of situations.

 want to share with you a why it should be.  Tracking customer satisfaction again, from the buyer's perspective, helps them know, that there is value in your company, that there is goodwill in your company beyond, what you tell somebody, you know, "Look at our books. Our books are great, our company company's worth something."

When you can actually measure and track your customer satisfaction and point to those manuals and checklists saying, this is how we deliver our product, this is how we deliver our goods. 

06:35          This is exactly how we make our customers happy. And we have consistently made our co customers happy, at a very high level. So, this is just building even more value in your business. And as a business owner, it makes your job a little bit more clear and a little bit easier because when you get that customer satisfaction, you know that you're on the right track, you know that you're doing the right things in your business, and you're serving your customers in the best way possible.

So if you're familiar with something called a net promoter score, it's a simple way to track your customer satisfaction. You can just do a Google search and find net promoter score. It's actually an a, on a scale of one to 10; you probably have filled out a net promoter score survey, before, if you've ever answered the question, "On a scale of one to 10, would you recommend our product or service to a friend?"

07:32          Anything, that is an eight or above is called a net promoter score. Anything that's below that begins to be considered as a detractor. So do Google search a for NPS or net promoter score, and you can dig into that a little bit deeper and begin to set up some systems in your business for how you can track customer satisfaction.

That brings us to our final slide and if these concepts and ideas have resonated with you, if they have brought you value, or if you're curious or have questions and want to dig a little bit deeper into this, I would love to connect with you.

Please use the buttons to book a No obligation, a free strategy call so that I can hear more about you, your business, and your goals and so that I can help you maximize your business value.

Signing off for now, have a great day.