MBA2374 How To Drastically Improve Your Business in 1 Hour

Summary

Podcast Summary: The $100 MBA Show – Episode MBA2374: How To Drastically Improve Your Business in 1 Hour

Release Date: October 9, 2023 | Host: Omar Zenhom

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Introduction

In episode MBA2374 of The $100 MBA Show, host Omar Zenhom delivers a transformative lesson designed to empower entrepreneurs and business owners to significantly enhance their businesses within a mere hour. Drawing from over two decades of entrepreneurial experience and the successful bootstrap of multiple multi-million dollar ventures, Omar provides a structured exercise aimed at fostering objective evaluation and strategic planning.

The One-Hour Business Improvement Exercise

Omar introduces a powerful, time-bound exercise intended to catalyze business improvement. The core premise is simple yet profound: dedicate one focused hour to critically assess and strategize changes across five fundamental areas of your business. This exercise requires complete honesty and objectivity, as if you were an external buyer evaluating your business for acquisition.

Notable Quote:

"Drastically improve your business in one hour. But I wouldn't make this promise if I couldn't fulfill it." – Omar Zenhom [01:11]

Five Key Areas for Business Enhancement

Omar breaks down the exercise into five critical domains: Finance, Marketing and Sales, Product, Operations, and Team. Each area is meticulously examined to identify opportunities for improvement.

1. Finance

   Finance is deemed the lifeblood of any business. Omar emphasizes the importance of robust financial management, highlighting that even businesses with mediocre marketing or subpar products can thrive with sound finances.

   Key Focus Areas:

   • Cost-cutting strategies
   • Reinvestment opportunities
   • Capital raising and investment
   • Enhancing profit margins and retention rates

   Notable Quote:

   "Money is oxygen to every business. Without it, you cannot survive." – Omar Zenhom [03:30]

2. Marketing and Sales

   This section delves into evaluating current marketing strategies and sales processes. Omar encourages listeners to identify what to continue, amplify, or discontinue, as well as exploring new markets and optimizing customer acquisition channels.

   Key Focus Areas:

   • Doubling down on effective marketing tactics
   • Exploring new demographics and niches
   • Enhancing sales processes and team efficiency
   • Leveraging digital marketing platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google Ads

   Notable Quote:

   "Write down a laundry list for each of these, finance and marketing and sales, and force yourself to just dump all the ideas that you can come up with." – Omar Zenhom [05:45]

3. Product

   Evaluating the product involves assessing its current market fit and identifying areas for enhancement. Omar advises entrepreneurs to critically analyze product features, eliminate redundancies, and explore opportunities for upselling and expanding product lines.

   Key Focus Areas:

   • Streamlining product features
   • Enhancing product delivery and customer experience
   • Identifying best-selling products versus underperformers
   • Innovating to create additional revenue streams

   Notable Quote:

   "Kill those darlings. As they say in the startup world, there are going to be things about your product many people don't really care about and they're just bloating your product." – Omar Zenhom [07:20]

4. Operations

   Effective operations ensure that the business runs smoothly and efficiently. Omar emphasizes the need for standardized operating procedures, clear documentation, and robust communication systems to enhance overall productivity.

   Key Focus Areas:

   • Streamlining operational workflows
   • Implementing standard operating procedures (SOPs)
   • Enhancing HR protocols and team communication
   • Increasing efficiency and reducing waste

   Notable Quote:

   "Operations is basically the playbook for your business. What improvements would you make?" – Omar Zenhom [09:30]

5. Team

   The final area focuses on the human capital of the business. Omar underscores the importance of having a competent and motivated team, advocating for honest evaluations and strategic investments in team development.

   Key Focus Areas:

   • Assessing team performance and potential
   • Identifying training and mentorship opportunities
   • Considering necessary hires and talent acquisition
   • Building a culture of accountability and continuous improvement

   Notable Quote:

   "Imagine you had to fire everybody on your team. Who would you rehire in a month's time? That's a clear indication of who actually adds value to your company." – Omar Zenhom [10:50]

Implementing the Action Plan

After completing the exercise, Omar advises listeners to prioritize the generated ideas and integrate them into their business schedules. This systematic approach ensures that the insights gained translate into actionable steps, leading to sustained business transformation.

Notable Quote:

"In one hour you're going to have a plethora of ideas to improve your business drastically. You're going to have a list of to-dos. Your job is now to prioritize these to-dos, to put them in order to plug them into your calendar so you can work on them." – Omar Zenhom [12:10]

Conclusion and Empowerment

Omar wraps up the episode by reinforcing the importance of personal accountability and proactive leadership in business success. He encourages entrepreneurs to continuously engage in self-assessment and strategic planning to drive their businesses forward.

Notable Quote:

"No one's coming to save your business. You have to tell yourself what to do. You have to be the leader of your own business." – Omar Zenhom [13:30]

Final Thoughts

Episode MBA2374 serves as a comprehensive guide for business owners seeking immediate and impactful improvements. Omar Zenhom's structured approach equips listeners with the tools and mindset necessary to evaluate their businesses critically and implement strategic changes efficiently. By dedicating just one hour to this exercise, entrepreneurs can uncover valuable insights and set their businesses on a path to greater success.

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Key Takeaways:

• Allocate dedicated time for objective business evaluation.
• Focus on improving Finance, Marketing and Sales, Product, Operations, and Team.
• Generate actionable ideas and prioritize their implementation.
• Embrace personal accountability and proactive leadership to drive business growth.

For More Information: Visit The $100 MBA Show to explore more actionable business lessons and strategies.

Transcript

[Jim]

Race the rudders. Raise the sails. Race the sails.

[Omar Zenhom]

Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over.

[Jim]

Roger. Wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution?

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[Jim]

And we're back, folks. It looks like Jim from Snails just got in from his client lunch and he's got receipts.

[Team Member]

His next meeting is in two minutes. The team is asking, can he get through his expenses in that time?

[Jim]

He's going for it.

[Team Member]

Is that his phone?

[Jim]

He's snapping a pic. He's texting Ramp.

[Team Member]

Jim is fast, but this is unheard of.

[Jim]

That's it. He's done it. It's unbelievable.

[Ramp]

On ramp expenses are faster than ever. Just submit them with a text. Switch your business to ramp.com.

[Omar Zenhom]

Hey O. Welcome to the hundred dollar MBA show. Because a better business begins with you. That's why we deliver practical business lessons that you can use to create the business of your dreams. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of Webinar Ninj, an independent software company I started back in 2014. And in today's episode, you will learn how to drastically improve your business in one hour. Yep, you heard that correctly. I'm gonna give you an exercise that you can do that's gonna take you about an hour to complete. And after that hour, you're gonna feel empowered, informed, and ready to drastically improve your business. This exercise will work whether you've been in business for a month, a year, 10 years, it doesn't really matter. But it does require you to be 100% honest with yourself. I'm going to walk you through this exercise step by step, give you real examples of how to implement this exercise and what it's going to do for your business afterwards. If you're driving or you can't actually do the exercise right now, don't worry. Listen through right now. Get your head around this concept, the exercise, and then listen back again. When you have a paper and pen handy, let's get into it. Let's get down to business. So this is actually a pretty big promise. Drastically improve your business in one hour. But I wouldn't make this promise if I couldn't fulfill it. I've done this exercise over and over in my business and it's helped me tremendously throughout the years in several different types of businesses. So let's jump into that exercise. Right now, you're going to have a piece of paper or maybe a few pieces of paper, like a notebook and a pen. And it starts with one question that you need to answer honestly. And we're going to break down the answer to this question and break down how to answer this question in today's lesson. Here's a question. If you bought your own business today, what would you change? If you were going to buy your business, what are the first things that you would implement? Change, improve. And it's important to ask this question from this perspective because you want to be objective. Most of us have poured our hearts and souls, have cried over our business. But now it's time to be clinical. Now it's time for us to be objective about our business. And let's say we bought our business as a new owner of this business, what would you do differently? And we're going to focus on five areas. What would you change? What would you do differently? How would you improve these five areas? And those five areas are finance, marketing, and sales. So number two is marketing and sales, three is product, four is operations, and five is team. Let's get into the details of each one. Let's start with finance. I like to start with finance because money is oxygen to every business. Without it, you cannot survive. You can survive with bad marketing, with even a bad product that can improve over time. You can improve your team, you can improve your operations. But if you don't have the money to pay the bills, it's impossible for you to sustain this business. Beyond that, if you don't have your finances right, if you don't spend on the right things, if you don't invest in the right things, your business will not grow, it will not serve you. So look at your business right now. You're about to buy this business. How would you do things differently when it comes to the finances? What costs would you cut? What areas would you reinvest in? Spend more money on how much money and where? What are some ways you can consolidate or save some money? Would you raise capital? Would you get investors? Would you leverage the asset to get a loan? What would you do from a finance point of view if you bought your business? If you're about to buy this business, what are things that you would change as soon as you bought it? What are some of the finance decisions that you can make immediately that can have an impact on this business you're about to buy? In the first few weeks, in the first month, in the first year, start Thinking like an investor. Start thinking like somebody who's buying a fixer upper house and is looking to improve the state of it. What would you do to make sure that your profit margins are bigger, that your retention was higher, that you lower your cost per acquisition? Look at all the areas in finance in your business that you would improve. Be brutally honest, as if this is isn't your business. This is a business you're thinking about buying. You're about to buy this business right now and you have to have a game plan to turn it around, to make it better, to make it a monster in the marketplace. Number two, marketing and sales. Take a look at the business. What would you continue doing when it comes to marketing, sales? What would you double down on? What are some things you just stop doing altogether? Are there different markets you'd go into, different regions, different demographics, different niches you would actually try to get involved in? What about your sales process? How can you improve that? Would you make some hires in the sales department? Would you automate sales through product led growth? Would you get the customer service team to get involved in sales and get them to upsell customers, existing customers, products and services that they can use and need? How would you acquire customers in new ways? Would you go into digital marketing ads like Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and TikTok? What about Google Ads? What about SEO? What are ways that you would improve in that area? Write down a laundry list for each of these, finance and marketing and sales, and force yourself to just dump all the ideas that you can come up with as if you're buying this business. Be brutally honest. You have an hour. Do it. Don't shortchange yourself and just do this for 15 minutes. Do it for 60 minutes. Come on, go all in. You'll be surprised how much incredible information you're going to get out of yourself and how much inspiration you're going to furnish for yourself for the months to come. Number three, the product. Whatever you're providing customers, a service, a physical product, a software, coaching, courses, content, it doesn't matter. What are you giving customers? What's your product and how would you improve it? Are there areas in your product that just need to just completely be cut off, need to be let go? Kill those darlings. As they say in the startup world, there are going to be things about your product many people don't really care about and they're just bloating your product. What are some areas that just need improvement and just some small improvements can make a drastic difference? Maybe your product is Ripe for some upsells, some expansion revenue, some other side features, products that you can sell to existing customers. How can you improve the delivery of your product? The experience of buying the product? Go ahead and buy something from the store, from, from the website. You're about to buy your own website, right? And have that critical eye. What would you change? What would you improve? Do an audit. You're going to absolutely love this process because you're going to come up with great ideas to implement immediately. Take a look at what products sell the best. Take a look at the services that actually don't move the needle and are duds, Are they worth the effort and the energy of sustaining and having on the website and supporting. If you have a physical product, how are you packaging it? How are you delivering it? Are there areas you can improve, be critical?

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[Jim]

And we're back, folks. It looks like Jim from sales just got in from his client lunch and he's got receipts.

[Team Member]

His next meeting is in two minutes. The team is asking, can he get through his expenses in that time?

[Jim]

He's going for it.

[Team Member]

Is that his phone?

[Jim]

He's snapping a pic. He's texting around.

[Team Member]

Jim is fast, but this is unheard of.

[Jim]

That's it. He's done it. It's unbelievable.

[Ramp]

On ramp expenses are faster than ever. Just submit them with a text. Switch your business to ramp.com.

[Omar Zenhom]

All right. We talked about the finances of the business. We talked about the marketing, sales talked about product. Let's get into operations. How is the business running? Is it a well oiled machine? Are there standard operating procedures for everything? Is there a manual, a guidebook for everything? Is it well documented? What about the HR department? Is there clear protocols and procedures for HR matters like taking leave and evaluations? If you opened up your business to the public and showed them your operations, would you be embarrassed or would you be proud? If you're not proud, what would you change? Change it. Make it a priority. Put it on your list of things you have to get done. How are you communicating with the team and making sure, everybody's on task and being held accountable. We talked about team evaluations. How are they being evaluated? What do those evaluation forms look like? Are they improving? Are they not improving? What areas in the operations of your business can you just flat out be better at? How could you be more efficient, time efficient, money efficient? What about training your team? Is there a system for team members to be trained, to improve, to follow instructions? Operations is basically the playbook for your business. What improvements would you make? And lastly, your team. This is usually the toughest part because you got to be honest. One of the exercises my coach, my mentor, Dan Martell once taught me was imagine you had to fire everybody on your team. You just had to. It was just mandatory. Who would you rehire in a month's time? That's a clear indication of who actually adds value to your company that you can't do without and who really doesn't? Take a look at your team members. Are there members with potential but they're just not contributing enough? They need a little bit of training, a little mentorship. Is there any ways you can invest in your team members so they can get better? Whether it's online programs or courses or a conference, maybe something in a local area, even just a book can change things around. Are there hires that you would make that are new positions that need to be filled? Are there whole departments that are being neglected, that you haven't even started? What areas of your business would you expand in? Would you make more hires in, let's say, engineering or product or customer service? Where does a company need more talent? Where will you get that talent? Where are you going to find them? What caliber of talent you're looking for? Fresh graduates that you can train and help develop, or senior people that are going to hit the ground running and be worth 10 people? Get honest, get critical. Five areas in your business. If you were to buy your business today, what would you change? What would you implement right away when it comes to finance, marketing and sales, product operations and team? In one hour you're going to have a plethora of ideas to improve your business drastically. You're going to have a list of to dos. Your job is now to prioritize these to dos, to put them in order to plug them into your calendar so you can work on them. And before you know it, day in and day out, your business is going to start to transform because you are doing the mission critical things to make it a much better organization. Because you're honest, because you're objective, because you went through this one hour exercise that can drastically turn things around for you. I can't tell you how much of a favor this exercise was for me. It saved me a lot of agony and heartache before it happened, before things got worse. I caught it. It got better because I made those changes. Thanks so much for listening to the $100 NBA show. Hope today's episode was helpful. If you enjoyed it, let us know in a rating and review. Hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast. Appreciate that way you never miss an episode. Before I go, I want to leave you with this no one's coming to save your business. Okay? No one's going to come and tell you what to do. You have to tell yourself what to do. You have to be the leader of your own business. Exercises like this remind you that you got to hold yourself accountable because your business needs you at your best. Your business needs you to be critical. Your business needs you to be honest so that you can be the best business possible. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in Wednesday's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

[Jim]

And we're back folks. It looks like Jim from sales just got in from his client lunch and he's got receipts.

[Team Member]

His next meeting is in two minutes. The team is asking, can he get through his expenses in that time?

[Jim]

He's going for it.

[Team Member]

Is that his phone?

[Jim]

He's snapping a pic. He's texting around.

[Team Member]

Jim is fast, but this is unheard of.

[Jim]

That's it. He's done it. It's unbelievable.

[Ramp]

On ramp, expenses are faster than ever. Just submit them with a text. Switch your business to ramp.com.