Why Isn’t My Business Working?
It’s scary when starting a new business and figuring out how you will define success. Some may see their business scaling right away, but some may take much longer. No business is the same. There is no blueprint for a successful business. But you can design and perfect your own blueprint by understanding the three P’s.
The Three P’s
If you find yourself asking “why isn’t my business working?,” then it's time to evaluate the three P’s: Profit (and Loss), Processes, and People.
These three areas of a business are incredibly important in ensuring the business is a well-oiled machine that is actually set up for success. If one of these are failing or lagging behind, it will affect the performance of the others almost immediately because they are so intertwined with each other.
The three P’s are all independent areas, however, they each affect one another and they all must exist at the same time.
Profit & Loss: Your finances can be a huge indicator as to why your business may not be performing how you want it to be. You should be immediately looking at your P&L and evaluating where your losses are — what are you spending your money on? Where are the areas of the business creating the most expense?
Start pinpointing these — whether it’s in product/inventory, programs or apps, maybe even in payroll or salaries and evaluate whether the expenses are actually providing benefit to your company in areas like productivity, project management, etc.
Processes: Another area that can be inhibiting your business success is within the processes and systems of your business. Whether you’re a service- or product-based company, the same goes for the different parts of your business. Ask yourself these questions:
How are you managing hiring or staff?
What is your process for social media and marketing in general?
What is your sales strategy?
How do you develop new products or services?
Do you have an onboarding process?
What is your financial planning process? How do you go about budgeting and approvals?
These are just a few of the more common processes and systems in place at businesses big or small. Are these processes in place? Are they efficient and/or working for your specific company? Are these processes streamlined AKA are they saving you TIME & MONEY or are they costing you both?
People: The final P is People. Whether you’re a one-man team, or you have a staff of X employees, this is an important area to assess as it can directly affect your business success.
If you’re a one-person team — ask yourself if you are succeeding in all of the business areas. Are you handling all of the design, sales, ops, project management, etc.? Do you feel you have a good grasp on all of the areas of the business? Is this efficient?
If you’ve got a staff — ask yourself if you have the right areas covered by the right people. Is your team or individual persons efficient in their position? Are they the right people for the job? Do you need to hire additional help to tackle other areas of the business that are lacking? Or, do you have too much staff that is not needed?
It’s not frowned upon to ask for help — but make sure it’s help in the right areas by the right people. If you are not yet ready to hire full-time for your team, think about hiring contractors to help on a contract basis! Again, make sure that it is to your benefit.
Much of the time, businesses struggle with maintaining growth or scaling at a rate that is sustainable to the company, and 100% of the time, it is due to an issue or issues within these three areas of the business.
Business owners can take on this battle themselves or bring in external help for an additional perspective as well as to implement a new plan strategically.
And that’s where I come in. Businesses come to JDP to grow — and I work with them diligently to evaluate these 3 areas and create a strategic plan for implementation so that you can scale the way you deserve to.
