Building a business is a tough task, it takes passion, energy and patience.
Being a business owner usually means you are everything in the business; and as your business grows, your responsibilities to yourself, your staff, your suppliers and last, but not least; to your customers increase.
And the truth is, everyone has things they are good at and things they are at bad at, and then the things they just plain dislike!
Today I share our journey with Chocoloza.
When I met with the owner, she had challenges managing a variety of things in her business. While she did her utmost to get to these very important tasks, she just could not get to them.
I will never forget a conversation we had right the beginning of our journey…we were busy setting up, gathering information together and prepping files to kick off properly, and the owner of Chocoloza had a few things she was really worried about. I remember pushing back a bit to make sure we had everything laid out right before jumping in head-first and I recall me saying to her, “I am just getting my ducks in row.”; her amused response to me being,” Ducks? I don’t have ducks! I have squirrels and they are EVERYWHERE!”
She did at the beginning admit that administration is not her strength; she hates doing it and she can’t keep up with it, so this shed a lot of light on the challenges she was facing.
While there are a variety of tasks we do for the Chocoloza Team; I have chosen 1 item from each key area that have had major positive impacts on the smoother running’s of the business and their ability to look in deeper into their business and make critical decisions.
These areas I am going to be sharing on are Finances, Reporting and Office Management.
When it comes to knowing how your business is performing; do you know how profitable it is?
Are you pulling a monthly Profit & Loss report; are you measuring cost versus sales and do you have an idea of what your profit margin is every month?
With times being so tough now, we know the cost of everything is increasing, would you be able to assess your expenses, assess needed versus liked and where costs could be reduced to improve your cash flow?
Do you want to push to bring in more sales, do you know what you can afford to invest in a sales team, increased staffing solutions etc…?
Moving into tracking actual output. How do you monitor and measure your “output”? Whether you offer a service or a product; do you know your teams Daily, Weekly and Monthly ability versus actual output?
This reporting is critical to ensuring you correctly price your product or service to your customer, and it has huge implications on your customers’ expectations as well as your bottom line.
Last but not least, office management, this has an effect on all aspects of your business. If you don’t have raw materials, your production team cannot produce, if your production team cannot deliver, your client is let down. If your client is let down, you lose business and the impact on the reputation of your business is potentially ruined.
Do you have a process to monitor stock on hand, when orders are being placed and when deliveries are expected? Or are you the one running around at the last minute looking for that 1 item you are short of because planning is unplanned?
If you answered no to any of these questions, speak to us now and let’s discuss the way forward to get your business moving in a positive direction.
As I refer to Chocoloza, the impact of having reliable support and processes in place in these areas; this has allowed the owner to re-assess her business how she is going grow, diversify and keep moving forward in a positive way.
The first short term focus has been product pricing; realising that the product was priced too low for the high quality of the product as well as the extra’s her clients receive; being, quick turn- around, personalised solutions and more, so prices have been adjusted. Supplier solutions have been reassessed and with keeping with the quality of the product, some supplier expenses reduced where possible. Making the product as a whole more profitable; allowing for the next step of growth.
Next was to assess which outlets were selling and which were not. Some have since been closed down and a directional change to implementing an online solution, where customers are certainly not losing out; they can now have the product they love delivered right to their font door.
And finally, the production team have stock flowing in as and when they need it; we know how strong the team members are and we know their ability to push out orders within x amount of time; and sometimes sooner than the promised delivery times to their customers; guaranteeing return customers and having the flexibility to exceed customer expectations.
When I look back at day one with the Chocoloza Team, I remember the apprehension and frustration they had been experiencing; and I am truly grateful for being able to walk this journey with them; helping them and the business grow from strength to strength.
“Chocoloza would not be here celebrating their 5th birthday without the support of Mischief Managed.” -> Vicki Bain, Owner of Chocoloza (December 2021)
Contact Candice at Mischief Managed if you need the support that we offer our customers, we adapt to you and how you think and work.