New yearts resolutions for lamily business owners

/--lloslr.rc our one year and entering \-ranother alwavs creates a flood of thoughts in the minds of family business owners. We regret the things we didn't accomplish in the year just past, and resolve to bring a steely determination to achieving our goals in the coming year.

In our years of dealing with family businesses, we've heard all the common resolutions. Here are some of the best for charting your personal guide to success in 2013:

Resolution #1

Business on their businesses rather than just working in them. They know they should be working on big picture, high payoff tasks, courting new customers and nurturing old ones, building morale and creating a larger sense of family in their businesses, and grooming and mentoring leaders who will take over for them one day.

The reality is that most get caught up in the day-to-day operations of their companies and devote precious little time to the big picture items that are important. Resolve to devote eight hours per week to working on your business instead of working in your business, block off the time well in advance, advise your staff that this is sacred planning time, close your door, put your head down, and make it hap- pen.

Resolution #2

6This year |tm going to delegate more to other employees.t

There are two primary barriers that prevent family business owners from effective delegation. One is quite practical: If you're like most employers, you've reduced head count in your organization and there are fewer people to whom to delegate. The second barrier to effective delegation is ego.

There are some things that business owners think only they can do. We are not saying this is not entirely untrue. Sometimes, it is true that certain projects need the owner's attention. However, at least half-if not more-of their time is devoted to activities that could or should be done by someone else in the organization.

One of the challenges to effective delegation is the perception that if we're not busily engaged in some activity 24/1 1365, then we're somehow not contributing to the overall success of our companies. Marcus Buckingham, in The One Thing You Need to Know, has a startling recommendation for how to build on the philosophy of effective delegation: "The one thing we all need to know to sustain our success is: Discover what you don't like doing and stop doing lt.

Most family business leaders have horribly undisciplined daily lives. Their daily to-do lists grow and grow; they attempt to do more and more.

The results are unsatisfying, so they feel their lives are out of control. In Good to Great, Jim Collins says, "Those who built the good to great companies made as much use of 'stop doing' lists as to do lists. They displayed a remarkable discipline to unplug all sorts of extraneous junk."

Stop doing the things you dislike or which frustrate you, and if they truly must be done, pass them along to someone else. If nothing else, you'll be happier during the workday knowing that you don't have to do tasks that you've always dreaded doing.

Resolution #2

Business development in a small business often slips to the bottom of the to-do list due to the press of other urgent tasks. However, it simply has to be a priority for executives in family and closely held companies.

If business development is one of the tasks that you dread the most, you must delegate or hire talent to fulfill that function. Every business, whether large or small, depends on business development, the functions of marketing and promotion.

We once met with a group of owners who were considering retirement and possibly selling their businesses. One of them asked, "If I were to put my business on the market, what is the one thing that a prospective buyer would most want to see?"

Surely, a prospective buyer would want to see high quality products or services, a solid management team, strong financial performance and a sound balance sheet, adequate facilities, etc. These are all givens; no buyer would want to purchase a decrepit, run down, wheezing busiNCSS,

However, the thing that struck us as being most desirable in the eyes of a prospective buyer is a well-developed and robust marketing and selling system. Think about it: Nothing is more common than the under-developed business that has outstanding product or service quality, but lacks an adequate number of customers.

If a company has a well-developed marketing and selling system, it can put the right kind of suspects into the pipeline, convert them to prospects and eventually customers, keep prod- uct prices high by careful customer qualification and selection, and keep the production side of the business busy and engaged in virtually any economic climate. A marketins framework should be built urounl what we refer to as "The Six P's of Sales and Marketing."

1. Purpose: The anticipated results that guide actions, goals, and objectives.

2. Value Proposition: A business or marketing statement summarizing why a consumer should buy a product or service.

3, Plan: Strategies and action plans for products or services. Price, promotion, place, and physical evidence

4. Process: The processes involved in customer acquisition and customer relationship management.

5. People: Any person having contact with customers and how they behave.

16. Persistence: The act of persevering. continuing. or repeating behavior; doggedness, tenacity, tena-

Build your marketing and promotion capabilities using the Six P's, block off time for business development, and push through the marketing and sales challenges of 20 I 3

How will you know if you've been successful in sticking to your New Year's resolutions? Look at your calendar for the last week or month and analyze how you spent your time. Things that you assign a high priority to will appear on your calendar and will consume the minutes and hours of your day. Things you're not making a priority will simply not appear.

If you're not seeing your top three New Year's resolutions reflected in your schedule and activities during the week, you know you're not being true to yourself and your goals. As Stephen Covey says, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing!"

- Wayne Rivers is the president of The Family Business Institute Inc., Raleigh, N.C Reach him at wayne rivers@familybusinessinstitute.com or (877) 326-2493.

Reprinted with permission of Key Resources LLC. No portion of this article may be reproduced without its permission.