10 Things We Would Like to See in 2020

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News

• Josh Ellsworth Promoted – GroupeSTAHL’s announces the promotion of Josh Ellsworth to senior vice president, dealer, and enterprise sales at GroupeSTAHL. An expert in the field of heat printing, he’s best known for his work as an educator. According to the company, he has created, written, and been featured in more than 1,000 educational videos. He writes a column for Printwear magazine and contributes to other industry resources. Additionally, Ellsworth delivers educational seminars at trade shows around the world. “As a regular participant in the Stahls’ Heat Press for Profit Facebook group, Ellsworth is deeply engaged with the needs and challenges of apparel decorators. He prides himself on bringing customer insights into all aspects of his job,” according to GroupeSTAHL.

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Planning for 2020

2019 Planning

Terry: 
New mindset for a changing marketplace, the time is at hand
Micromanagement self evaluation
Bonuses and rewards for your staff

Aaron: 
Do you Have a Business Plan?
Be MORE Customer Centric
Learn to Say No

2020 Planning

Terry: Be your own business consultant (again)

• I’ve talked about this before, but it bears repeating.
• Take a day, or an afternoon, or a week and study your business as if you walked in for the first time. Observe as if you don’t know the staff and don’t know their processes.
• There may be places in your business you haven’t set foot in for days, weeks, even months?
• Tell your employees, “I’m taking the afternoon (or the day, or the week) and I’m going to look at our business as if I’m a consultant. I’m doing this to see if all of us together can make this a better workplace. I may be asking questions. Tell me the honest truth just as if I were a consultant you just met today.”
• Write up a report just the way you would expect a paid consultant to do. Share at least a synopsis of this with the entire staff. Buy pizza and read them a story!
• Aaron and I talk about this a lot on 2RG. You have to commit time and effort, but I guarantee it will pay off. You’ll get back what you put into it. 

Erich: Know Yourself / Know your shop – Questions to ask yourself if you get stuck on planning/analysis

• What part of running this business/doing the work was frustrating this year?
• What parts of the process took the most extra effort to handle?
• Where did I or people around me get ‘stuck’?
• What caused this year’s customer complaints?
• What couldn’t we help customers achieve?
• Where are we or our market under pressure?
• Where are our actions not aligning with our purpose?

Drill Deeper for each department 

• Are initiatives in this area as far along as is expected?
• Where did we put the most effort in working on this?
• What was the most common complaint from staff working in this segment?

Catalog your strengths in each area 

• On which initiatives are we making real progress?
• What parts of this segment’s process are running smoothly?
• What successes are we regularly seeing in this area?

Once again, write down anything you see as a resource or a strength, even if it sounds silly or unimportant at first. During this part of the process, we simply want to get a handle on what we do well and what we can rely on in our company, taking special note of untapped or incompletely utilized resources. 

Terry: Be an order that travels through your process and facility

• Similar to being your own consultant but this is specifically to study the process of an order flow from the moment it’s taken, following every step, and then out the door.
• The purpose of this is to see if there are roadblocks to the process, or steps that are no longer necessary.
• Talk to everyone along the route to see what their true opinions are of the process.

Erich: Prefigure/Prepare – Envision your year

Take the time to imagine what your year end assessment will look like at the end of next year; 

• What would you have replaced, resolved, or achieved? Where would you like to be? What results need to be different for you to mark the year as successful?

Examine how your goals align with the resources you have now. If you were to take the strengths you identified in examining your, where and how would you apply them to the problems on the first page in your assessment? Look for holes in your coverage.  Which problems and goals can’t be addressed with the strengths and resources you have now? What is missing to enable the changes you want to make?

Terry: Map out by month how to improve your company culture

• Maybe you have just the best culture at your business, but there’s always room for improvement. 
• If you believe it’s perfect, it’s very likely not.
• All those things you know you should do, but never get around to.
• Step 1, sit down and think about what improvements need to be made.
• Step 2, think of one thing that will take you toward that goal.
• Step 3, Do you know why many, many business owners, sales reps, etc. don’t want to follow up with customers? They don’t want to hear bad news. Talk to your staff about your company culture, even if you think they might tell you bad news.
• Here’s an example: Every month recognize employees for their efforts, and let them know how important they are to your success.

Erich: Have to echo Terry on this one; plan your actionable steps to get the resources you need and to make changes. Start small, definable, and accessible, then work your way up.