There’s nothing wrong with a little forward planning. 2022 is just months away, making now the perfect time for some clarity and focus for the year ahead. Answer these simple questions to identify your drivers for next year.

1. What was the most important decision you took in your business this year?
2. What was your best quality as a leader this year?
3. What was the best piece of advice you got, book you read or course you took this year?
4. Where were you most focused this year?
5. Which moment / single event was your proudest this year?
6. Which two actions brought about the biggest results?
7. Where were you most inspired this year?
8. Which three most important qualities will dictate your performance next year?

To help you on your way, here are some powerful insights from my good friend and life coach
Martyn Hume Cobbe.

Would you build a house without plans?

If you wouldn’t build a house without plans then why would you build your life without a clear
plan for how you want it to be and how to achieve it? Maybe to avoid disappointment if it’s
not achieved?

But if you fail to make a plan, you’re guaranteed to be disappointed. The first step in a creative process is getting clear about what it is you want to create. The
design might evolve throughout the process of creation but how can you commit fully to action,
focus your energies and make all the necessary decisions required without a clear outcome in
mind?

In the life planning process, step 1 is establishing the goal – what you’d like your life to be in 3-5 years time. This picture includes your relationships, physical environment,
your work life, your health and your experience of living, just to name a few.

Step 2 is getting really clear about your personal resources, your drives, your strengths, your
natural abilities and your values, for these are what will empower you and keep you on the
pathway to fulfillment.

Step 3 is to eliminate any limiting beliefs that arise as you start moving toward your desired outcome. These are bound to arise because they are the primary barriers that have prevented you from already
achieving your life goals.

This three-step process is about creating a map of your life and then creating and installing an internal
compass. This compass will keep you on track and in the right direction as you come to the many forks in the road.

The amazing thing is that, when you know you’re on the right path, you’ll find a wonderful sense of gratitude
in the now and an innate ability to enjoy the journey as it unfolds…

It’s incredibly tempting to engage in a race to the bottom. We can extort workers to show up and work harder for less in order to underbid a competitor. We can take advantage of less sophisticated customers and trick them into buying items for short-term satisfaction and long-term pain. We know how to do this. There’s always the opportunity to cut a corner, sacrifice integrity and quality and suck it up as we struggle through this lean period.

This might bring more cash-flow for now, but not for long and not without dire consequences down the track. Someone will always find a way to be cheaper or more brutal than you.

 

The race to the top makes more sense to me. The race to the top is focused on marketing, design, respect, dignity, guts, innovation, sustainability and client-centric generosity, making for a much more positive process. Best of all, the race to the top is the long-term path with the desirable profit outcome.

Your margins give you lifestyle and options so a few percent in gross margin could mean plenty on your bottom line. For example – if you’re turning over $2 million and you move from a 15% to a 20% gross margin, that’s a $100,000 and probably around a 50% (or more) increase in your net profit. So how do you go from 15% to 20% you ask? Here’s five ways:

1) Design a marketing system that allows you to put 1% on your pricing.

2) Identify your biggest inefficiencies on jobs to save 1%

3) Shop around and shave 1% of your materials and subbies

4) Target higher margin jobs for another 1% increase ie. jobs with higher labour or carpentry content.

5) Shave 1% of your running costs

This all takes a little time and analysis but it’s well worth the additional bottom line result.

If someone selling a flat-screen TV can give you options and deliver value to the extent that you’re prepared to pay more (ie. extended warranty or free delivery), you should be able to do a hell of a lot better on a new home or renovation. Don’t settle for lower margins because that’s what everyone else is doing. The big problem with the race to the bottom is that you might win.