Operational Ceilings

Commercial in Confidence. © 2014 Saasu Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

!9th July 2014 !BY Marc Lehmann CEO, Saasu [email protected] @saasu @marclehmann

CEO INSIGHTS

Operational Ceilings

About me

Marc Lehmann CEO, Saasu.com !Launched Saasu with a self-funded approach to creating a great value, cloud-based accounting solution for businesses worldwide. Prior to Saasu, Marc was a Director of Principal Finance and Credit Trading Risk at Deutsche Bank. Marc’s ethos is that businesses should automate as many processes as possible, giving their owners and staff the gift of time to spend with their families and exploring the world. !Email: [email protected] Twitter: @saasu @marclehmann

Disclaimer

General and Educational. !

These are take away ideas only, not advice. Your financial planner & accountant are your advisors for your specific circumstances.

What is an operational ceiling?

• Digression • Information firehose • Too many systems • To many decision makers • Lack of operating procedures • Government bureaucracy • Handling time • Tech transition time • Internal communications • Moving, synching & backing up • Distractions: tech and people • Blind spots • Complexity • Social media

• Content • Collections • Data entry • Invoicing & quoting • People management • Being sold to • Supplier management • Donating your time • Troubleshooting • Travel time • Living other peoples plans • Procrastinating • Unclear business model

Photo by Georgia Dixon

Mindset preparation

• You are what you haven’t automated. • Minimalism, aesthetics and saying no business. • Eating the elephant one bite at a time.

Photo by Pawel Kadysz

Creating break through?

1.Admit we have a problems. 2.Goal with conditions of success. 3.Strategy to achieve the goals. 4.Setup a minimalist process of improvement. 5.Communicate the above over and over and over to yourself and others.

Photo by Guillaume

SPAR

1.Strategy 2.Processes 3.Actions 4.Results

Photo: NY Times

Strategic preparation

Customer Advocacy

!Marketing Flywheel

👥Experience Refinement

#

HMRC online reporting

Recurring Billing

Reporting upgrade

Responsive UI (ongoing)

Help content upgrade

Service as Sales system

Community support

On-ramp (ongoing)

EPIC feature

Referral Rewards

Payment Gateways

Tax Product

Processes that are rituals

• Do it yourself • Artesans and craftsmen • Outsourcing • Community • Automating

Photo by Jonas Nilsson Lee

Actions

http://www.jaywennington.co.uk/

• Tasks that add, remove and improve processes. • Planned and prioritised. • EPICS • Tidbits

• The game you are playing. • The score board. • Financial Equation.

Results that give insights and excite you

Photo by Sebastian Müller

Structures to make it happen

“The walls were museum white, as they had been at the Macintosh factory, and there were $20,000 black leather chairs and a custom-made staircase… He insisted that the machinery on the 165-foot assembly line be configured to move the circuit boards from right to left as they got built, so that the process would look better to visitors who watched from the viewing gallery.” !!!!!!!Isaacson on Steve Jobs Photo: Craig Garner

Design

Journey

http://iceland.kamillehmann.com/

Discovery🔍

Request for info

%

Nurture✉

First Sale

'Servicing❓

Repeat Sale

'

Prioritise

Operational Ceilings

Smarties Guide by Marc Lehmann

Saasu Pty Limited ACN 093 453 886 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

CEILING Digression

Information firehose

Too many systems

To many decision makers

Lack of SOP’s

Govt. bureaucracy

Goods handling

Transition time

Internal communications

Moving, synching, backing up.

Distractions: tech & people

Existing rituals

Blind spots

Complexity

Social media

Content

Collections

Data entry

Invoicing/Quoting

Excessive meetings

Excessive email management

Lack of business model clarity

Process)

Action✓

Result◎

SPAR CYCLE

ANTIDOTE Focus. Work out what you can cull or delay.

Curate down to <10 key blog/news sources and <10 youtube channels.

Musts: Accounting, CRM, Vertical app for your industry (scheduling/project etc.). Use inbuilt phone apps.

Adopting the SPAR Cycle reduces exploration/decisions. Create a decision management team.

Bullet/list point procedures for processes that are manual, external or automated.

The more brands, companies, trading names etc. you have the more admin.

Drop ship, pack and send, customer picking. Use supplier leverage to get them to do more.

Systems with less navigation and really good search. Less systems to avoid digital birds nest overwhelm.

Educate staff on short email and less is more social media communications. Have rules about interruption.

Only buy systems that do these tasks for you easily or automatically.

Headphones mean don’t interrupt me. Turn phones and social off to focus on days highest priority.

You may have rituals and habits designed to help you procrastinate. Shorten tasks and reward when done.

Advisors, mentors, feedback forms, CEO doing time on different roles. Hire people that challenge you.

Distill down to the essential, curate, portfolio select the best parts. Use Pareto’s Law. It works.

Engage only a few times a day, schedule posts, use reposting tools, get a plan. Check out Bluewiremedia.

Enrol clients, partners in helping create content. Do video. Check out SmallBizBigMarketing.

Use Saasu’s automated statements & templates to help you collect money. Take pressure of relationships.

Use bank feeds. Connect marketing email/CRM systems to accounting. Clients buying online do you data entry.

Have well designed templates and workflow that minimises operations touch points.

Learn to say no unless it’s a meeting that relates to your current Actions list.

Don’t clear you inbox. Star/flag essentials. Develop canned responses. Say no nicely. Clients must get answered

Map your business model. Refine it to create efficient operations and sales. Check out: Board Of Innovation.

⚙⚙

👫

.

.

.

.

).

⚙

👫⚙

👫.

␡)

.

.

.⚙

ACTION IDEAS

Minimise, filter & curate

Automate

Outsource

Plans, SOP’s & Templates

Stop

👫)␡

)␡

Strategy💡

)