A collection of our favourite Weekly Business Tips from our weekly email series. Practical tips to inspire you to achieve more, and help you run your business better.

1. B U S I N E S S T I P S
P R A C T I C A L T I P S F R O M S M A R T F R A N C H I S E
Weekly Business Tips

2. W E L C O M E !
Running a small business can be immensely
rewarding. And it can also present plenty of
challenges.
We’ve put together this collection of practical
business tips to help you make the most of
opportunities, and tackle the challenges you face.
Whatever your situation, the tips in this booklet can
help you run a better business. We hope you find it
helpful.
Regards,
Peter Knight & Kate Groom
www.smartfranchise.com.au
Copyright, 2015 Peter Knight & Kate Groom. The contents of this book may not
be shared or reproduced in any form without written permission of the authors.
You can contact us by email - action@smartfranchise.com.au.

3. G O A L S
Help you focus
There’s always a lot to do in your business, with day-
to-day activities such as dealing with customers,
managing staff and doing paperwork.
But running your business needs more from you than
just being busy. It needs you to focus on achieving
good results. And this means knowing the results
you’re aiming for.
This is why goals are so important. They help you
focus on your priorities and give you something to
aim for.
We’ve seen extraordinary results come from setting
goals. For instance, record sales, spectacular profits,
and even winning national business awards.
The best way to start is to physically write down your
goal on a piece of paper. Then stick it somewhere
you can see it often. Next decide what you will do to
achieve it. Finally, set out an action plan which
outlines the steps you will follow.
Weekly Business Tips

4. B U S I N E S S P L A N
Steps to help reach your goals
If you want to do well in business it’s helpful to have a
written business plan. This creates a road map for how
you’ll achieve your goals.
A plan gives clear direction, a focus for work and
milestones so you can check on progress. Without a
plan you might flounder, become distracted and end
up missing the target.
When you put together your business plan it anchors
the path in your mind, creates order in your business …
and makes it more likely you’ll achieve your goals.
It’s helpful for your plan to include these 3 things:
1. Opportunities and how to make the most of them
2. Business issues and how you will address them
3. Financial and other milestones
The time you’ll put into creating your business plan will
provide you with a solid foundation for the growth of
your business.
Weekly Business Tips

5. – A N N I E D I L L A R D , A U T H O R
“How we spend our days
is how we spend our lives.”
Each of us has the same
number of minutes in the
day - 1,440 of them!
How we make use of our
time has a massive effect
o n o u r w o r k , o u r
relationships and our
lives.
The question then is how
can we best use our time
to live our lives well.
You might consider
taking time once or twice
a year to reflect on how
you spend your time,
and where you’d like to
make adjustments.
Weekly Business Tips

6. M O N T H LY M E E T I N G
A s t r u c t u re d re v i e w o f y o u r b u s i n e s s
Monthly Meetings are one of essential disciplines to help your
business stay on track.
There are 3 key areas to cover each month: Sales &
Marketing, Operations & People, and Business Management
& Finance
For each area, it’s good to review what happened last month
and discuss your plans for the month ahead. Here are some
examples:
Sales & Marketing: What sales did you achieve last month?
What do you expect for the month ahead, and how will you
achieve it?
Operations & People: Were there any operational issues last
month? What has been done about them? Is further action
required?
Business & Finance: Are you on target to achieve your
financial goals? If not, what do you need to do to get back on
track? If things are going well what can you do to improve?
Weekly Business Tips

7. M A K E Y O U R M E E T I N G S M AT T E R
The best way to get the most out of your meetings is
to have an Agenda and Action Plan. These will help
you stay focused and get things done.
An Agenda is a list of things to cover in the meeting.
It helps everyone stay on track.
The Action Plan is where you decide on follow up
actions that arise from each agenda item. These give
the focus for the follow up actions after the meeting.
It’s best to set the Agenda in advance. You could use
a Standard Agenda for key items and include
additional items as needed.
For example, a Monthly Business Meeting should
always cover 3 key areas:
1. Sales & Marketing
2. Operations & People
3. Business Management & Finance
At each meeting, refer to the Action Plan from your
last meeting and check progress on each item.
Weekly Business Tips

8. – T H O M A S E D I S O N
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it
is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Weekly Business Tips

9. One of the key roles of a business owner is to keep an eye on the
financial performance of their business.
So it's important to know which numbers to pay attention to.
Here are 7 key numbers to look at each month.
1. Sales last month, and for the year so far
2. Operating Profit last month, and for the year so far
3. Bank balance at month end
4. Total amount owing to trade suppliers and creditors
5. Total amount owing to the taxman, including BAS and super
6. Any large expenses coming up in the next 3 months
7. Total amount owed to you from your customers
F I N A N C I A L R E V I E W
The key numbers to look at
Once you have this information here are 4 things to do with it.
1. Compare with your target
2. Check if you have enough money to pay your upcoming bills
3. If you’re not on track, decide what you’re going to do about it
4. If you’re travelling well, how can you improve your results
In addition to these 7 key numbers there may be others that are
important to your business. Ask your franchisor and accountant
for their advice on the numbers to pay attention to.
Weekly Business Tips

10. S A L E S
Essential for business success
Sales are THE critical factor for business success! So
for a business owner it’s really important to have a
sales mindset.
If you’re not making sales you haven’t got a
business. And it’s so competitive out there you can’t
just wait for the order. This means you need to chase
down every opportunity.
The sale is a special moment between you and your
customer. It’s that moment they decide it’s worth
paying for what you have to offer. And it’s up to you
to help them with their decision!
So the questions you need to regularly ask are:
• What are you doing to help people choose your
product or service?
• How can you make your offer more compelling?
Selling can be one of the most exciting and
rewarding activities when you know how to do it and
do it well.
Weekly Business Tips

11. T R A I N I N G
H e l p s s t a ff d o b e t t e r
As a business owner or manager, you're responsible for your staff doing
things the way you want them to. If you're not happy with what they're doing
it's up to you to change it.
Better skilled and trained people are more productive. They are more efficient
in their tasks and capable of dealing with more complex issues.
It's easy to assume the initial training people receive is enough and leave it at
that. But it's not really good enough to do this.
You see, it's vital to provide ongoing reinforcement to help people develop
their skills. It's like going to the gym ... you need to keep working at it.
Change doesn't happen overnight!
To help your people do better in their jobs, make sure you:
1 Ensure new staff training covers all the basics. Leave nothing to chance!
2 Provide ongoing training to help people do their jobs better.
3 Help people coach other team members - it’s a great way to learn!
Training really is a big plus for your business and it also builds loyalty and
helps attract other employees.
Weekly Business Tips

12. – S I R W I N S T O N C H U R C H I L L
“Never, never, never give up.”
Running a business can
sometimes be tough.
There will be hard days,
maybe dark days. There
will even be times when
you feel like throwing it
all away!
These are the times to
remember this quote. To
dig deep and find inner
resilience.
D e c i d e o n y o u r
direction, grit your teeth,
decide your next step
and keep going. Never
give up!
Weekly Business Tips

13. A C T I O N !
Action produces results
Launching man into space is a massive undertaking, but
thankfully business is not that complicated for most of us!
In many cases it's really quite straightforward to get
something off the ground. You see it’s action that
produces results.
But it’s all too easy to get caught up in planning and
meetings and strategising and over-analysing, rather than
actually making things happen.
It helps to recognise that business isn't rocket science.
Over-thinking and trying to get things ‘perfect’ can choke
the life out of your initiatives...and zap the energy from
your people. It's a pity because one of the joys of being
in business is getting things done without too much fuss.
Look at the people who get in and give things a go –
they’re the ones who make things happen.
Of course you still need your checks and balances, but if
they're in place it's time to take action and get things
done!
Weekly Business Tips

14. A B O U T S M A R T F R A N C H I S E
At Smart Franchise we help franchise owners learn to ‘think like a business person’. This approach has been developed and refined over
many years working with business owners, delivering workshops and consulting to all types business.
Running your own franchise is very different from having a job.
To do well, you must adopt a “business owner mindset”, and learn how to run and manage a small business.
We have a range of resources and workshops to help you!
Peter Knight is a Chartered Accountant and a former president of CPA Australia (NSW). He’s also been a Marketing Director and top
sales performer. He helps people connect their financial results to what their business actually does. He then helps them find ways to
improve.
Kate Groom has extensive experience in franchising. This includes executive roles, operations and marketing. She has also run
benchmarking and performance groups with phenomenal success. And she loves helping people put together practical plans that
actually work.
Apart from Smart Franchise, we also created and run the Franchise Accountants Network - a national network for accountants who work
in the franchise sector and have franchise clients.
To contact us, please email action@smartfranchise.com.au