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by Renee Fellows

October 11, 2007— Steps for Planning and Implementing Small Business Change

It seems pretty obvious, especially if you’re a small business owner yourself, that change in business is inevitable. Not just quarter by quarter or month by month, but often, minute to minute things change. What you expected to happen today never transpired because you were sidelined by a dozen other tasks that were more pressing. But when it comes to real systemic change either those forced upon your business by market shifts or those you’re implementing to bring about growth, the process can be difficult.

How you prepare for change and more importantly build your business to embrace change will be a determining factor in your success.

Culture Club

What is the operational structure of your business? Are your employees ready to take on new challenges or will your organizational structure impede their success? To find your answer, become one of your employees for a while. From customer service representatives who answer the phones to working on the floor, experience the day to day processes of how business flows through your company and how customers are treated. Are your employees empowered to make the customer completely satisfied or do processes or policies impede their success?

From your new perspective as an ‘employee’ of your company, see if you find obstacles that prevent you from doing your job well. Now, develop new ways to approach the position and invite employees to share their thoughts about improvements. Survey employees and really understand how the corporate culture affects their attitudes and behaviors toward the company and the products or services your sell. Once you’ve had a chance to experience the company, think about how a change or new product would affect the system and build in flexibility and a fluid responsiveness to problem solving.

Be a visionary

This isn’t the suggestion to go out and purchase your very own crystal ball, rather it’s about learning how to ‘tune in’ to what’s happening in your industry, your market and with your customers and use these small shifts in a way that your competition does not. According to Steven Little, small business expert and consultant to Inc. magazine in an article for American Express Open, “…success stem(s) from an ability to see the periphery of a changing market more clearly than (the) competition.”

Little suggests that business leaders need to ‘look for weak signals’ in their business, their market and their communities. Seen as ‘a common barrier for growth among privately-held businesses’ Little sees the entrepreneur’s “inability to recognize and act upon subtle (or micro) changes in the markets that lead to macro changes” as one of the major impediments to small business success. How can business leaders see these indicators and better yet take advantage of them as an immediate opportunity for growth?

Little’s Rules of Weak Signal Marketing

• The more irreverent and upsetting a new idea is to the status quo, the more chance it has of reaching a level of macro importance.

• The more often you hear, ‘that’s just a fad,’ the more likely it is not.

• Make identifying and monitoring weak signals as part of an ongoing, systematic process in the organization’s interests in sustained growth.

• If you hear about a new ‘thing’ in a popular magazine or television, you are probably too late to capitalize on it.

• Weak signals often grow by joining forces with other weak signals, i.e. they need other ideas as reinforcement to elevate them to be seen and heard by a larger population.

Many business owners report spending over 80% of their work day focusing on the here and now, or even the yesterday of their business rather than on future plans. That leaves planning for and seeing future growth opportunities on the back burner, if it happens at all. Growth requires planning and planning requires time management. Try scheduling a block of time into each day to prepare for new opportunities. Whether it’s five minutes or 30, scheduling time into your day to step outside your office doors and see what else is happening in your market is crucial to being engaged with the world and staying at the top of your industry. That small window of time may also help you find focus and spot opportunities you may have otherwise missed.

A Current Affair

Read magazines, journals, blogs, RSS feeds and other media to tune in to what’s happening in the world. Experts advise reading anywhere from 100-200 news periodicals a month in order to stay abreast of topics and trends. Don’t stress! These don’t need to be read cover to cover. With electronic news feeds you can narrow your target and receive the specific topics (right to your email box) that are important to you without reading all of the fluff pieces.

Think positively

Change never comes easy, so try to look on the up side of what the potential change can mean to your business, employees and customers. By focusing on the benefits, you’ll be better able to market the change and to see new opportunities as they arise. But that doesn’t mean you should stop listening to your inner voice if a red flag keeps surfacing. Listening to your gut is one of the most basic and effective tools an entrepreneur has. The message here is to strike a balance and not be afraid to take a new risk or opportunity.

Talk positively and often about change with staff about what change means. Set up a form for open conversations and invite new ideas and opinions. The more you address issues and discuss new initiatives the more comfortable employees will be in managing the tasks to achieve change.

Get your head in the game.

Don’t let the stress of change overwhelm you or your employees. Focus on how you can make the changes work for you and provide outlets for the accompanying stress. Large companies on the forefront like Google and Southwest Airlines have a fun, creative atmosphere both inside and outside the company’s walls. From rollerblading in the office to on-campus gyms, spas and medical care, the companies have a way of instilling loyalty while getting the best from each employee.

Get out the White Board.

Gather your team and start mapping out trends and new ideas in a pros and cons list. Write down details, tasks and potential results you may glean from any idea. Creating the list will help to give shape to your ideas and solidify the tasks that need to be accomplished in order to achieve goals. So go ahead, break out those markers and get those ideas flowing.

Budget for Change.

If you haven’t looked at your budgets recently, now is the perfect time to pull them out and review. Like any other part of your business, planning for change takes funding and preparation. Talk with your accountant or financial officer about your goals and future plans so that financial strategies can meet marketing and overall corporate initiatives.

Change doesn’t need to come at a high price to your employees, your business or your emotional health. Planning for change will help you implement it strategically and with support from your entire staff. Talk with the small business financial services experts at Fiducial by calling 866-FIDUCIAL or visit the web site at www.Fiducial.com.

Renee Fellows is principal and owner of ClearPoint Marketing Communications, a freelance creative agency located in Derry, NH. She works with small to medium-sized businesses to build solid branding and marketing communications efforts that achieve winning results. She can be reached by calling (603) 434-9433 or via email at Rfellows@oneclearpoint.com.

Whatever your small business needs, your Fiducial tax and financial professional can analyze your situation and recommend an appropriate action plan. To locate a Fiducial office nearest you on fiducial.com, see the Zip Code Locator located in the upper right hand corner of the page. Do you have a particular topic that we should be writing about that can help your business? Please send your suggestions to: Howard.Margolis@Fiducial.com.

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