My work with start-up businesses in the UK reveals how important it is to have a plan. Even if not totally sure about your end point, a vision will provide a sense of direction and enable you to set objectives and goals. These look great on screen – even on paper – and to make success definable they need to be measured.
Two events this week can reminded us of what drives success in a business plan. As is often the case, I did not see all these things coming!
I attended a great session from Jacqui Harpur at the Professional Speaking Association meeting in Birmingham (well, on screen – you know how it is). Jacqui shared her expertise as a TV ‘anchor’ and presenter and highlighted a great concept when planning a presentation: your emotional objectives.
Here are some examples of the words she suggested you may want to use:
In business, and in communication, objectives are what you are working towards, and frequently involve numbers: it helps if you know what success looks like. Yet these alone may not be enough. You can deliver the numbers, but if people – your clients, employees, colleagues, suppliers, stakeholders – feel somehow not good about what you have done or the way you have done it, can that really be defined as success?
This was highlighted again when I was training on Pitching for Finance with Business Ready. The audience here was fast growing businesses who need to access finance for growth. These sessions included running through practice pitches, some really good ones, with convincing business cases.
Yet we also found something missing: belief.
Anyone can provide the numbers, and on their own may look good enough to be convincing. Yet if the person with the great numbers does not transmit belief – in one example merely by reading out the content of a slide – the human connection is lost, and the figures become irrelevant.
When helping people understand finance, we inevitably look at numbers. We have to check the words first too – there is plenty of jargon.
What consistently comes across is not what the numbers are, but how people feel about them that determines decisions. Numbers may look objective, but our judgement about them may not be.
Set objectives for your business, they are a great tool for helping you know when you are successful. Yet remember Jacqui’s ‘emotional objectives’ too. Adding these can translate an objective into an outcome.
How do you want people to feel when they have listened to you, read your report, or seen your presentation?
Buzzwords of the Week – Value
Definition – What a product, service or asset is worth in monetary terms. Early economist suggested this is based on supply considerations: what it costs to produce. Others suggest demand: how much utility it delivers. The market place often combines both.
Alternate View – It may be convenient to get something down to a hard measure, like an amount of money. Yet even an economic concept like utility is driven by emotional factors: how someone feels. The cliché that something is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it still holds good, even if what is a bargain to one person will deliver buyer’s remorse to another.
TOMORROW! Ascea’s Organising for the Future event at 4.00pm. I will be contributing thoughts on what skills are needed to meet technology changes, with Gill Perry from Ascea. There are also thoughts on sourcing and transformation from Chris Halward & Ian Hucker, among others. Yes, tomorrow Thursday 10th June 4.00pm. Book online at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/154311573069 .
Reset Restart is a funded programme of webinars and coaching to help new and small businesses recover. This is available in selected locations across the country, I am working with Rob Harrison from Glued with eligible businesses in Worcestershire. Over the next week I am coaching a range of businesses and also running a webinar on finance. Details at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/finance-making-keeping-your-business-profitable-3-of-4-tickets-143695580349?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
You may also be interested in joining the discussion on HR Hot Topics at 1.00pm on Friday 11th with CIPD Coventry & Warwickshire. The hottest topic this week is Hybrid & virtual working models – what works for you? I will be there with Sonia Khera from Cactus HR. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/online-cipd-cov-warks-hr-hot-topics-networking-meeting-tickets-154829315651?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
Online Learning – my online finance programme – How to Read Financial Statements. This is a series of 7 online lessons:
- How finance fits with Strategy
- The Language of finance
- Owning & Owing – using the Balance Sheet
- Measuring & Managing Profit
- Measuring & Managing Liquidity
- Budgets, what, why & how
- The most important part of all
Each last between 20 & 40 minutes and includes the slides and videos to help you understand what good looks like in financial terms.
This is now hosted on Vimeo – email me if you would like to learn more.