Summing Up
I wrote this book to give back to small business, as I realised that the problems and experiences I encountered in my journey were the same for thousands of other businesses and their owners.
If a small business owner only takes away one thing as a result of reading this book, then I feel very happy that my book, Paulisms, has been a success.
The book is targeted at the small business owner, however from my experience in dealing with larger companies, they too can pick up on some of these gold nuggets.
I was struggling to write a summary to the book, and when I was out walking on a secluded beach, I suddenly thought that I should use one of my nuggets from the book, the 80/20 rule, to pull the book summary together.
There are over 55 Paulisms in my book; therefore, I will summarise 20%, or 11, of my favourite takeaways and hopefully give you 80% of the takeaways from the book.
Here goes:
- Start the way you want to finish
Set your business up with the right base from the start, with a clear model and structure in place. Start with a vision of where you will end up. Put appropriate controls and systems in place. Don’t try and do it all yourself. It’s imperative that you put good accounting and disciplines in place.
- Goals and plans
You have to have goals. You have to have a plan to get there. It has to be written down, with tasks, time frames, ownership and priorities. Setting goals with a plan on how to get there will get you to your destination a lot faster.
- Model
You need to know what your model is and have it very well defined. You cannot be everything to everyone. Analyse your business, and if you have it right it will make decision making easy and without emotion, e.g. when deciding on specialisation versus diversification. Model clarity will help you say no.
- Success Module
Apply this hugely powerful tool for meshing everything together to simply get things done. It will set tasks, timeframes, priority and ownership and give you and your team a structure to reach that goal or complete a project.
- Systems
Systemise the hell out of everything. Put in place systems and create a habit of continually updating these systems. Read The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. Systems will give your business consistency and enable you to work on the business as well as provide a great training platform.
- Financial
Know the numbers so you are working in real time. Have a goal of having a P&L shortly after the end of the month. Control your debt and protect your margins. Good data enables you to make good decisions. Know the maths.
- COA – Curse of Assumption
Take the Curse of Assumption out of everything in your business. Never assume. Assume at your peril.
- 80/20 Rule
Apply the 80/20 rule in all aspects of your business: your products, your sales channels and their profitability, and where you are getting the best return on your time and investment. Don’t be sucked into spending 80% of your time achieving 20%. The 80/20 rule will help you focus on what you should be focussing on and reduce wasted valuable time.
- For every adversity there is a seed of opportunity
There will be many a time when adversity will hit during your journey – probably more than once. Embrace adversity as a seed of opportunity and bad times will pass. Adversity will make you stronger. It’s part of the journey. Accept and embrace it.
- The power of no
If you have your model defined, a great structure in place with strong systems, goals and a plan, it is easy to say no. Saying no will make your business more successful than saying yes. Put the platform in place to be able to say no.
- Perseverance
Never give up. If you fail or get knocked over or there is adversity in your business, pick yourself up and go again. Success is just around the corner. Giving up is not an option.
