If
it was easy, more than just three percent of businesses would grow
beyond $1 million in annual revenues.
What keeps companies below this barrier?
For technical
and value-added service providers—entities with either many or complex
projects—the primary obstacle to growth is confusion resulting from
ineffective communication practices.
The symptoms include varying degrees of chaos: Tasks
fall through the cracks. Deadlines get missed. Budgets are exceeded.
Goals are neglected. Clients go elsewhere. As a result, many service
providers never grow beyond 15 or 20 employees.
The business has evolved.
Your systems haven’t.
As you grow, there is more to do and more people to
manage. The interpersonal approach that brought you successfully to this
point eventually fails to keep pace. To regain control and move forward,
you need new systems. You must conquer the chaos.
Preparation is essential for project success, so you
must be organized. But your hard work will be wasted without an
information distribution system that provides verifiable delivery (in
other words, not e-mail). You also need shared access to tasks,
schedules, status logs and documents—a place where team members can go
any time to get up to speed, find answers, announce changes and ask for
input on issues.
The system must do more than keep you on top of one
project. It must enable you to manage and collaborate on all the jobs in
your business as well as keep tabs on your business as a whole.
Manual and paper-based methods just can’t do all this.
Control without intrusion
Getting people to work together effectively can be a
major challenge. If a group is going to achieve a goal, someone must
take responsibility for coordination and leadership.
You want self motivation. You want accountability. Not
just some days, but every day, systematically. You want control.
The problems come when you are seen as controlling.
Today’s employees want to feel empowered, not intimidated. It is better
to manage without micro-managing.
Clear communication drives accountability
GrandView can help you achieve the accountability you
want without the constant intrusion staff dislikes. How? By providing: a
system for clear communication; a shared location for project documents;
and real-time access to job costs and status.
GrandView allows you to stay up to date on individual,
job and business progress without getting into people’s faces. With
tools to ensure all team members are on the same page, you can take
coordinated action.
And begin to conquer the chaos that would otherwise
block growth.
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