From Peter Philipp – Director, TechOnline Pty Ltd

1.  A computer is a computer.

Wrong!  You get what you pay for.  A cobbled together car from various parts is not a Commodore – let alone a BMW.  You would not even consider purchasing a clone car.  Don’t purchase a clone or white box computer – go for a brand (Dell, HP, Toshiba, etc.) and always get a 3 year warranty.  Otherwise you will pay dearly for possibly saving a few $’s upfront.

2.  My son/husband/niece is a computer guru.

Correct – until your computer crashes and you lose all your data.

Use an IT professional – just as you would use a lawyer or accountant for your legal or accounting work.

3.  Computers are easy.

Except when they’re not.  If only I knew what to click on, I could do this myself.  Why not give it a go?  And now that it is really screwed up and I have lost all my data,  ……

4. If it’aint broke – don’t fix it.

Wrong!  Cyberspace and cyber threats have changed dramatically with hacks/scams growing exponentially for the last 5 years.  In the last 3 months 46%, 24%, and 83% of web-based malware was new malware in that month.  You must have the latest protection in place.  And remember – home and small business computers are the easiest and most often hacked (because they have the least protection deployed).

5.  Computers last for ever.

Wrong!  It is an electo-mechanical device and it will eventually fail.  It’s just a question of when.

Businesses should plan on replacing their computers every 3 to 5 years.  It makes sense financially and for reasons of productivity and efficiency.

6. I didn’t touch anything!  And now ……I can’t ….. I’ve lost …… this has never happened before.

You should know by now – computers DO fail.

And do you remember receiving an email, clicking through to a website, etc.  Yes.  But …….

7.  I can look after my own computers – and only call you when I have a (major) problem.

Do you wait until your car breaks down on a freeway and then decide to get it serviced?

A computer is x100 times more complicated than your car.  Get your computers regularly serviced.  And use an IT professional – not your son, daughter or Joe Tech.

8.  I have not had a problem with my computers for the last 3 years - until you (IT company) came on board/did something.

The 2 events are rarely connected.   You might have been lucky in the past and your time is up.

Or, you just did not recognize that little things (signs, error messages) in the past were pointing to a major issue in the future.  Good luck – but your time is running out.

9.  My computer is fine – it does not need to be replaced.

In 3 years, the performance of your standard PC will increase over 300%.  It can pay for itself with improved performance in less than 4 months.  And you will have fewer or no hardware and support problems for the next 3 years.

Note:  a 3-year old computer is like a 10-year old car.

10.  Of course we do back-ups.

Most small businesses do not do regular backups.  They need to be done regularly – best is daily, no less than weekly.  But also vitally important is what is being backed up?  Are emails (which are now deemed legal documents), or your accounting/financial (MYOB, QuickBooks) data included? Have you checked?  Is a copy stored off-site?  Have you tried to restore from your back-up?

Note:  tape back-ups fail 30% of the time – so don’t rely on them.

Note:  disaster recovery and back-up are quite different – you need both.

Peter Philipp – Director, TechOnline Pty Ltd. (=61 3 9886-9630)

TechOnline focuses on “proactively managing” and not “reactively fixing” your computers.  It does this by delivering a daily, fully automated and cost- effective service for small business.  A recent Telstra Business Awards state finalist, winner of Comm Bank “Small Business CHAMPION Award”,  listed in AFR’s “25 Rising Stars” and winner of  “Business Excellence” and “Innovation” awards, TechOnline’s service provides:

-          security and monitoring

-          offsite backup

-          disaster recovery, and

-          24 x 7 helpdesk to provide technical advice and resolve (fix) problems.

Don’t wait for your next computer incident. Protect your business now.

My advise is “You always see or get what you are looking for” or to put it another way you create ‘your world’ with the way you think.

Consider it is all about the way you and your thoughts are ‘being’. At Creative Business Builders we insist on ‘being’ creative.

Problems are things we make up to avoid something, maybe our success?

The following post is based on an article I came across some time ago, I cannot recall where or who the author is, however I would like to acknowledge the author for their creative work.

Japanese grocery stores had a problem.

They are much smaller than shops and therefore don’t have room to waste. Watermelons,big and round, wasted a lot of space. Most people would simply tell the grocery stores that watermelons grow round and there is nothing that can be done about it.

That is how majority of people would respond. But some Japanese farmers took a different approach.
If the supermarkets wanted a square watermelon, they asked themselves, “How can we provide one?”

With some creative thinking it wasn’t long before they invented the square watermelon.

The solution to the problem of round watermelons was not to solve as the farmers did not assume it was impossible – and simply asked how it could be done.

They found out that if you put the watermelon in a square box when they are growing, the watermelon will take on the shape of the box – and grow into a square fruit!

This made the grocery stores happy and had the added benefit that it was much easier and cost effective to ship the watermelons. Consumers also loved them because they took less space in their refrigerators
which are much smaller than those in the West meaning that the growers could charge a premium price for them.

What does this have do with anything in life or at your job or business Systems? Here are a few lessons that can you can take away from this story which I know will help you :

1. Don’t Assume:

The major problem was that most people had always seen round watermelons so they automatically assumed that square watermelons were impossible before even thinking about the question.

Things that you have been doing a certain way your entire life have taken on the aura of the round watermelon and you likely don’t even take the time to consider if there is another way to do it. Breaking yourself from assuming this way can greatly improve your overall life as you are constantly looking for new and better ways to do things.

This was one of the most difficult things for me to do because most of the assumptions I make, I don’t even realize that I’m making them.

They seem perfectly logical at the time and on the surface, so I have to constantly make an effort to question them.

Remember the saying: To Assume makes an Ass out of You and Me

2. Question your habits:

The best way to tackle these assumptions is to question your habits. If you can make an effort to question the way you do

things on a consistent basis, you will find that you can continually improve the way that you work.

Forming habits when they have been well thought out is usually a positive thing, but most of us have adopted our habits from various people and places without even thinking about them.

I have changed a large number of habits that I have had after taking the time to question them and continue to do so on an ongoing basis. Some of them I have know idea where they came from while others I can trace to certain people or instances in my life.

It’s a never ending story or process, but by doing this, you can consistently strive toward making all aspects of your life more enjoyable instead of defaulting to what you have now.

Remember doing things the same habitual way will give you the same results – Nothing will change!

3. Be Creative:

When faced with a problem, be creative in looking for a solution.

This often requires thinking outside the box. Most people who viewed this question likely thought they were being asked how they could genetically alter water melons to grow square which would be a much more difficult process to accomplish.

By looking at the question from an alternative and creative perspective, however, the solution was quite simple. Being creative and looking at things in different ways in all portions of your live will help you find solutions to many problems where others can’t see them. I am fortunately a creative person, so I’ve found that the more that you look at things from different perspectives, the more creative you will become. It’s a learned art and builds upon itself.

4. Look for a better way:
The square watermelon question was simply seeking a better and more convenient way to do something.

The stores had flagged a problem they were having and asked if a solution was possible. It’s impossible to find a better way if you are never asking the question in the first place. I try to ask if there is a better way of doing the things that I do and I constantly write down the things I wish I could do (but currently can’t) since these are usually hints about steps I need to change.

Get into the habit of asking yourself, “Is there a better way I could be doing this?” and you will find there often is.

Remember the Teacher (the solution) will appear when the student is ready (or asking)

5. Impossibilities often aren’t:

If you begin with the notion that something is impossible, then it obviously will be for you. Remember “You always see or get what you are looking for” or to put it another way you create ‘your world’ with the way you think.

If, on the other hand, you decide to see if something is possible or not, you will find out through trial and error. Take away the lessons from the square watermelons and apply them to all areas in your life (work, finances, relationships, etc) and you will find that by consistently applying them, you will constantly be improving all aspects of your life.

I am confident we can bring about change if we really want to.

Remember concentrate on what you want – the solution. Not what you don’t want – the problem

I for one have never had any problems with my Outlook, or I was not aware of any. Then I met Banaby De Palma who introduced me to the wonders of Web 2.0 and Google with all its incredible applications.

Now apart from the superior search engine facilities, what comes with Google? Gmail, of course. I started using Gmail and all the tools that go with it and all of a sudden Outlook gets left behind! No longer do I have to battle through he help menus trying to back everything up or attempting to work out the email folder rules. Now all of a sudden life became easy, with Google and Gmail.

Part of your Business Systems should be the control of your emails and in particular the time spent reading and replying to them. With Gmail you can have many different addresses (including your Outlook ones) all fed into one account and labeled for later location. Even while you are offline.

How would we live without emails in todays world? The problem is we can only access our emails when we are connected to the web, and even then when we are away from our main connection, it can sometimes be unreliable or insecure. Now with Google gears your emails are accessible offline – Yes, you read that correctly offline!

To find out more check here to read an article from PC World and Edward N. Albro

Are you a business owner who has spent years trying to work out the secret of business? Perhaps you’ve attended seminars, read books and magazines or listened to CDs on the subject of business systems and improvement. Afterward you return to your business and get swamped by the never ending stream of events that throw up pressures and challenges every day and never actually get to implement the ideas you saw and heard.

What are business systems?

One of the most often repeated words of advice is to ‘systemise’ your business. This is probably the most important project to complete in your business to ensure short and long term success…and it’s simple, yet most business owners avoid it and then miss the secret that systems contain.

Quite simply systemisation starts with documenting how you do what you do. This task may be referred to as completing a systems manual, operations manual or polices and procedures manual. Whatever you call it, the purpose is to capture the collective intelligence or ‘know how’ of everyone in the business. The why, what, when, where, who and how of your business. Your business system!

What are the most important business systems?

The top three critical systems are

1. Your Sales System – This system describes how your business finds prospects, presents, quotes and closes your sales

2. Your deliver or fulfilment system – This details how your product or service is delivered to your customers

3. Customer service systems – This shows how your business stays in contact with your customers over time

An example sales system would look like this…

Step 1. The system starts with an inquiry by a potential customer or by a sales person prospecting

Step 2. Meet with customer and assess their needs

Step 3. Present your product or service solution

Step 4. Create and deliver a proposal with a quote or invoice

Step 5. Follow up the contact and ask for the sale

Step 6. Acceptance by the customer

Step 7. Sale processed

Step 8. Payment received, system ends

Very simplistic and generic, but this is the start. This example system is one of probably 10-20 that exist in your business. Others include

• Advertising and marketing systems
• Accounts payable, receivable and payroll systems
• Recruiting, hiring, inducting, training and performance systems
• Customer service systems
• Production, warehousing, inventory and logistics systems
• Safety and quality systems
• Administration, reception and record keeping systems

How do you start systemising?

To get the ball rolling, start a document in Word for your sales system and write down the simple steps that show how your company does this. Now expand on each of the steps with a paragraph or two of the critical elements involved so that it starts to become individual to your company. Write it as you would say it as if you had just hired a new sales person.

For each step identify in bullet points the instructional documents that may be needed for extra detail; i.e. “How to arrange a meeting with a customer” would be a instructional document that may be required in order to train new employees.

After that write the instructions in detail, once completed you may have 5-20 pages which explain all of the actions required and the rules and guidelines which govern the decisions made along the way. Typically when one system ends another starts, in the case of sales the next system is your product/service delivery or fulfilment system.

How to measure the effectiveness of your systems?

When a system is working you’ll know it! No customer complaints, no late delivery, no staff complaining about things or each other…just harmony and productivity in action and all targets being met.

To test your systems try

· Asking two different staff members to explain a system and compare those against your own interpretation

· Interview your customers to determine their satisfaction

· Ask your customers to explain their experience with your business, good & bad!

At each step in any system you will be able to analyse the effectiveness by looking at the inputs and outputs of a step and measuring the result. In many cases you will have to determine what your goals are for certain steps first in order to determine if the system is delivering upon those targets.

In the sales system for instance, how many new customer proposals end up as sales. If you have set a standard or goal already you will be able to consistently measure the result and determine if the system requires changing.

Developing your systems?

Once you have a library of documented systems you will be able to focus your attention on any particular area so as to review and update it to ensure that the system delivers upon you goals.

So now you’re well on the way to being a market leader in your industry through the implementation of systems. It’s time to reap the personal benefits on offer that are inextricably linked to business benefits. Once you have documented the systems that you are personally managing and involved with it is possible to remove yourself from each responsibility methodically and meticulously without creating a chaos in your business.

Once you are spending less time doing the actual work of the business you are free to do the most important work of all. Commonly referred to as working on it, not in it! Which leaves you time to focus on things like: business purpose and cultural development; strategy development and planning; market identification, measurement and product development; development of your team and its collective skills; innovation and improvement; financial planning and investment.

Why develop systems?

Consider that a systemised business with an up to date operations manual will experience…

• Higher productivity through staff not carrying out tasks incorrectly or needing to continually ask for confirmation or clarity
• Greater customer satisfaction and confidence resulting in higher average sale process and increased repeat business
• Better accountability of staff through easier measurement of their performance against the systems
• Ease of movement of staff in, out and around the business
• Less reliance upon key individuals, most of all the owner, as a result of systems being in place and available for training and up-skilling others
• Greater control over the flow of information throughout the business leading to less double handling resulting in a reduction of errors

Beware of the traps of systemisation

The literal task of writing documents, creating folders, files, forms and checklists, manuals and all others contents of a system. You may find yourself quickly developing another problem of just how to organise and deliver the contents in a logical way to the people who will benefit most, your staff. There are many tools available to assist you to control the development of your systems manual, such as software applications. This can and will be a low cost undertaking provided you research the tools and plan the project effectively.

Making a plan of just how this whole project will look at the start is critical. Research the available tools and expertise required to evaluate your intended method before jumping in too far.

As a reader you are invited to evaluate TKO (Turn-Key-Operation) business modeller software. This tool is specifically designed for businesses of all sizes and industries to create, edit, review and publish your complete business system. TKO will easily and effectively enable you to create a manual with policies and procedures, job descriptions, organisational charts, to do lists and training systems. It also has the ability to output manuals for the entire business, single department or an individual in several formats including HTML web manual, PDF or printed.

All the best with your system development and may your business deliver you the life you deserve.