How to successfully implement change in your business

Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.
with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management Services
Date: 11 June 2019

Flexible, adaptable and nimble: the strengths of small business and something in which we take pride in. We also know that evolving along with software is a better and more efficient way to work. So why do we fear change and the implementation in our business? Are we avoiding putting off our clients with a new process? Is it our employees who are nervous of change or is it just us… who’s stuck in our own self-made rut, avoiding change because of the fear of something new?

Change management in the corporate world is handled by entire consulting firms like KPMG or Deloitte. It’s hard enough in small business to keep on top of existing processes and procedures let alone creating what we could potentially be unnecessary change for ourselves, our clients  and our staff. But we are constantly bombarded with the latest apps, latest best practices and ever-evolving compliance changes from one govt organisation or another which means we need to adapt and change.

Good news, there is help at hand. Donnie Buchanan is an expert in his field who supports small and medium sized businesses to navigate this change and support them through the process. After working at Xero to implement complex and compliant heavy software into large accounting firms he knows the most practical way to break down the steps of change management and avoid putting all your stakeholders offside.

Welcome to the show Donnie.

Topics we’ll be covering:

Why hire a consultant when you’re undergoing change?

• Consultants offers an external point of view, honesty in the process & they’ve seen it before across different industries
• How to find one? Tap into your network, do you need someone with Industry specific experience?
• What does a transformation consultant do and why do you need one in your suite of experts.
• There is constant change in every industry and these experts are tapped in – seriously you don’t have time to explore all the options.
• They should have People skills, change management, empathy (breaking down the barriers, repau, building relationships)
• A consultant should offer a template for the process. But if you’d rather do it yourself Project management templates can be found online but they can be different so might take time to find yourself.

The 4 P’s - Product

• What are we trying to achieve with this change? Are you introducing a new product? Product improvement? Improving efficiency or processes?

The 4 P’s - Platform

• g. The difference between a crappy CRM excel spreadsheet to SalesForce
• This is crucial
• The investment isn’t in the cost of the platform, its in the TIME for your team
• Duplicated databases is a real issue
• You’re probably only going to “test’ 25% of the product
• Many people try free trials and it lasts a couple of weeks and give up
• Software vendors such as at conferences might upsell you, not mention what it’s not capable of, leads to frustration & loss of time & month
• Allow time to explore product
• Your change will affect your clients’ engagement in your product.
• How do they respond? What will this product do to the way they engage with you and your products
  • g. an accounting firm moving to Xero

The 4 P’s - People involved in implementation

• OK, you’ve made a decision. Accounting firm is Using Xero now
• Who’s using it? Who WAS the expert in the last piece of software?
• Different ways of rolling it out
  • One staff member might learn it and pass it on
  • You might go away
  • Put aside a whole day (there is where a consultant can shorten the time it takes) They analyse who’s doing what, where the efficiencies lie, and where the money can be saved.
• Perception - Fear in your workplace that this change means automation and they could be made redundant
• This is a real balancing act – an empathetic consultant recognises that people are nervous and balancing a personalities. Can I do this? If I can’t learn this in time

The 4 P’s - Process of product delivery – bouncing between people and processes

• Why you know who does what and
• Its essentially a flowchart of work
• Be kind; you won’t have a process for everything from the beginning. You need to learn the
• Find the repetitive tasks to automate that process first
• Think back to your customer impact.
  • Is it going to add more steps for the client to pay us
  • Think about customer experience

 

To find out more go to their website: http://www.entrycounts.com/

 

All About Donnie Buchanan

Known as a mover and a shaker, Donnie likes to help people transform their business and their mindset.

For over 7 years, he has helped businesses and accounting firms maximise opportunities, cut costs and achieve thier goals.

Specialising in Xero, he has worked with clients from all fields, all shapes and sizes and with all different personalities.

He uses a methodology he calls the "4 P's" to ensure the clients transformation is as successful and as headache free as possible.

He loves to see things change for the better.