Generating peak profits and higher cash reserves comes down to accountable follow-through

The lack of reliable follow-through is the number one challenge holding small-business owners back from owning profitable businesses with more predictable cash flows.  Consider some of Merriam Webster’s synonyms for follow-through: accomplish, achieve, commit, execute, fulfill, and perform. The antonyms or opposites of follow-through are: fail, skimp, and slight.

When business owners fail to follow through on an action, they neglect to see a job, task, chore, duty, or obligation through to completion.  Most of the time, these well-intentioned individuals will commit to following through when they initially begin.  They then become distracted by the problem of the day, and their best intentions fade into inaction.  The “relevant many” things requiring their attention cause them to lose sight of the “critical few” things on which they must follow through.

BusinessCPR™ Step 5—Be Accountable for Your Results is the step that holds the other four B-CPR steps together. Take another look at the BusinessCPR™ Management System (B-CPR) for improving cash flow from higher profits through better reporting.

Without the commitment to action, you are likely managing by the “hope method”

Commitment to follow-through on an action until it’s completed is one of the most critical ingredients required to improve business performance.  It requires obligating oneself to a course of action and then diligently following through on that decision until the required actions have been completed.  Without commitment, you are working by the hope method that something needed to get done gets done.  The problem is hope is not a method.

Follow-through on your commitments is how you overcome the second and third highest killers of small businesses: complacency and procrastination.  Overcoming these business killers begins with your commitment and that of your management team to do what you say you will do before this same commitment manifests in your employees.

When people are committed, they fully intend to do what they have promised to do.  You can recognize a committed person because they will fight through many obstacles and challenges to accomplish their goals.

People who follow through on their commitment are steady, earnest, and deliberate in completing the actions they are accountable for completing.  They complete the “critical few” things they need to do to experience better results because they honor their commitment to follow through on promised actions.

They have moved beyond “I’ll consider it,” which often fades into complacency to “I want it,” which propels them forward to “I did it!”  Their accomplishments result from a commitment to themselves and those who depend on them to follow through.  None of which is possible without disciplined follow-through.

Being accountable for results begins with disciplined follow-through on your commitments

Both successful and unsuccessful people manifest through their actions what is most important to them.  What differentiates the successful from the unsuccessful is that the successful will deliver on their commitments to accomplish a goal.  Whereas the unsuccessful will fade when the going gets tough in doing what they set out to do.

The other differentiator between the successful and unsuccessful person is that they will consciously decide what they will and won’t work on.  Whereas the unsuccessful won’t make this conscious decision; as a result, they are highly unlikely to follow through on any action that becomes increasingly difficult to complete.

Consider the smoker who has been told they need to quit smoking.  The challenge the smoker must overcome first is making the move from a soft to a hard agreement to commitment, as shown below:

The hard reality is most people resist change, particularly change that is forced on them.  In the case of the smoker, this is incredibly difficult.  It is rare for people with even the best intentions to sustain changes they embark on to please someone else.  It is better to never commit to doing anything that you don’t want to do, no matter how persuasive the invitation is presented to you.  Failure to follow through hurts you and those depending on you, even more than merely saying “no;” you won’t do what’s being asked of you.

Active commitment moves its possessor to physical and mental action

The most effective commitment always moves its possessor to some form of physical and mental action.  Commitments based on known laws and true principles are more likely to produce desired results.

Any desire to implement change originates through your aspirations for things to improve.  By following through on specific actions, you will realize the fruits of your change.  First, you will see blossoms come through your leading metric results established in B-CPR Step 3—Confirm the Quality of Your Profits.  Before long, the actual fruits of your efforts to change will show up in new, healthier habits and, ultimately, healthier financial statements.

Consider why apple farmers plant and care for apple tree seedlings

An apple farmer is not likely to plant a seedling apple tree nor care for each tree in their orchard until it matures and bears fruit without the expectation that each tree will someday produce bushels of apples that the farmer could sell at a profit for years to come.

The hope of a better tomorrow is a powerful motivator for change.  B-CPR Step 2—Plan for Your Profits is designed to awake and arouse your faculties and lead you to think about what needs to be done differently in your business.  Your profit plan shapes the changes necessary to help you realize your goals.  Soon, you will begin to have faith that your business can do better.

Make your business generate your desired results by being accountable

Being accountable for your results is easier when you understand the essential principles, practices, and processes that create effective managers and management teams.  The management techniques used to make an organization work efficiently are not rare, unique, or even new.  What makes them “work” is your commitment to seeing them through until you achieve your desired result.

Mastering these principles comes down to how much control you want over your business.  Profit, in a word, is action; management, in a word, is control.  The truth is that the best way for a company to make more money is for each person in a business to hold themselves and each other accountable for achieving the planned- results.  This comes down to being accountable for agreed-upon actions as individuals, a team, and a company within a specific time frame.

Management truisms that shape disciplined follow-through

Truisms are encapsulated words of wisdom gathered from the experience of those who have traveled similar paths before you and me.

1. Your efforts as a manager do make a difference; some efforts matter more than others.
2. Information is a valuable tool and is an essential component of the vital work of planning, organizing, and measuring
3. You cannot manage what you cannot measure.
4. You must decide, or the world will decide for you.
5. Organized chaos is better than complete chaos.
6. A manager is an enabler. If you cannot tell someone precisely what you expect from them, then you cannot expect a specific performance from them.
7. Developing the skills and assets of employees is the responsibility of every manager, and it is the easiest way to achieve higher profits.
8. Specific and individual performance recognition, if fair and accurate, is very motivating.

Knowing what to act on to achieve planned results is identified through each of the first four steps of the B-CPR management system.  The opportunity before you is to start, change, or stop something that costs more than it should to produce superior profits and protect cash flow.  Following through on the identified action will not only give you a heightened sense of accomplishment it will put more money in your pocket.

Are you ready to do it and stop considering it?

If you don’t like feeling out of control—or worse yet, you are running out of cash—then click here to schedule an appointment with a certified BusinessCPR™ Business Scientist to identify what action(s) you must take today to improve your cash flow from operating profits.