I Will Survive...

If your business mantra sounds like a corporate remake version of Diana Ross's "I Will Survive" - you're not alone. It seems like everywhere you turn these days, we're getting more bad news about our current "financial crisis". Businesses that were well positioned for growth are shifting into maintenance mode. Businesses that were just getting by are closing up shop. So... how can a business survive in these tough times? By adapting.

Be Focused

You can't be all things to all people. Consider whether your business is spread too thin and whether you can consolidate your business offerings to do fewer things exceptionally well. Pick what you're going to do well and focus on doing those things profitably. Define this clearly in your company goals and the individual goals of all your people.

Connect With Your Customers

Just because you're getting your house in order, by trimming costs and possibly restructuring, doesn't mean that you can forget about the customer. They are ALWAYS the most important part of your business. This is the time to personally connect with your customers, ask them how you're doing, and make changes to give them what they want. Businesses that sacrifice quality and service likely won't survive.

Lean/Process improvement involves purposefully trimming the fat

Be Lean

Change the way you look at your business: look at your business as a collection of Processses. All businesses have waste hidden within their Processses. A business develops its ways of doing things, or its Processses, organically. These "ways of doing things" are passed down by tribal knowledge within the business. Lean/Process improvement involves purposefully trimming the fat, pairing down the activities of your business to the minimal, necessary steps that add value to the customer. This Process improvement activity doesn't happen naturally and is not intuitive. However, when Process improvement becomes a part of your business culture, it delivers rapid and continuing improvements to your bottom line business results.

The top companies in nearly every industry utilize focused goals, a priority on customer satisfaction, and Process improvement to become efficient, trim costs, and ensure their products and services delight the customer. Now more then ever is the time to harness these tools to enable your business to survive in 2009 and for many years to come.

Julia Robinson,
VP/ Process Consultant
Steller Solutions LLC

Steller Solutions is a company of Process consultants, change agents, results-focused coaches. We help you implement changes that produce rapid bottom line results, allowing your business to beat out the competition while using less resources.

We’d be happy to talk with you about your 2009 survival plan. Just give us a call at 425-485-4250 or email us.

Reprinted from the January 2009 "Steller Ezine", an electronic newsletter of Steller Solutions that is full of FREE tips and resources for your business. Subscribe at www.Steller-Solutions.com