One Focus, Two Buffer & Cutting Costs Is Not The Answer

Heading North West through the park.

Looking back towards the East.

It’s 11am on Thursday morning and I have just come back from a ride around Rathtrevor Park after completing Thursday’s Bog, the February E-Newsletter and a conversation with Kim Black about our new “Circuit” Group Coaching Product.

It’s 7am on Thursday morning … Yesterday was a Focus Day with back to back coaching calls from 7am – 6pm with a lunch break in the middle.

Thursday and Friday are Buffer Days are a filled with the following priorities to enable Laura and I to go to Vancouver on Saturday to catch a Vancouver Canucks hockey game and then I will fly from Vancouver to Toronto on Sunday to coach and speak from Toronto for the week and then fly home on Friday, February 15th. You might think that this is a stretch … yes it is so we can fly to Maui on Sunday, February 17th.

• Blog
• February E-Newsletter
• Discuss the “Circuit” Group Coaching Product with Kim Black
• Update Power Point for Feb 14th Canada Life Presentation
• Update my Speaking Prospecting File
• Pack
• Microsoft Tasks Update
• Familiarize myself with next steps to Book … because I might be putting it away again for a while
• Create a list of Projects for On The Road
o Alumni Pricing
o Camera Purchase for Vlog
o CE Credits follow up
o Coaching Files Review
o Pro-Seminars Las Vegas Presentation Title
o Read Transcriptions of Power Point Presentations for New Booklets so I can forward to editor
o Reading
o Removing Your Roadblocks Audio / Power Point Upgrade
o SRI ( Socially Responsible Investing ) Research
o View latest Filming of my Speaking Presentation
o Web Site Main Page Update – 90% WHY, 10% WHAT

Cutting Costs Is Not The Answer

Here is an e-mail that I sent to a client that provided their business manager with a budget that included coaching with instructions to trim a significant amount from the budget.

Dear ________,

I’m writing in advance of tomorrow’s call.

You mentioned last time that you were giving your business manager a budget and that everything has to come out of that budget including the coaching.

I believe that there are different components of a business that include leadership, management, sales etc.

I believe that the coaching falls under leadership and sales. My evidence is the idea to hire a business manager in the first place so that you had more time for sales.

The reason that I say this is the approach that you may be taking under management is looking at cost cutting versus increasing sales.

To make it short;

• How much will the company save by reducing costs by 5%?
• How much will the company earn by increasing sales by 5%?

This relates to vision and sales which is what the coaching should be about.

If you do the math you will see that the best use of energy is in increasing the sales.

Here is an exeprt from an article written by Chris Barrow who is a business coach that works with dentists in the UK;

The key here is to look at the numbers – what will have the most effect on your bottom line? Obviously, increasing the sales and prices leaves you with a higher profit than decreasing the fixed and variable expenses.

Cutting staff costs, finding cheaper supplies, etc, does not have the same overall effect as increasing your sales/prices, so it may be best to shift your focus. Rather than thinking of ways to cut costs, ask yourself, ‘what would happen if I were to increase my sales and pricing by 5 or 10 percent in the next 12 months?’

This bottom line is that tinkering around with decreasing the costs of business has a relatively low effect on profit, but tinkering around with your prices and sales can have a significant effect.

Thank you for the opportunity to be of service and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s call.

Simon