Karma Chameleon - What's Your Small Business Culture Club?

INTRODUCTION:

Having grown up around the central west towns of Peak Hill, Parkes and Dubbo, I love all types of football whether it's rugby league, union or soccer.

The other night I was watching a segment which had the very successful Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy. When you have as much success as he does, there is a fair chance that what he is saying makes a lot of sense and can in many ways be applied to any type of business whether you are a small business accountant, tradie, retailer pub owner or whatever.

Two things really stood out for me when he spoke:

• Absolute single mindedness when it comes to focus on winning a game; and
• Culture (literal definition being the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society).

For the Melbourne Storm in my opinion their culture is one of discipline at training and practicing under pressure. They are known for being super prepared and each of their players including Cronk, Smith and Slater lead from the front with this approach.

It made me try and picture what our culture was as small business accountants and how it might look like to our clients. When we had our strategic planning day with our team, we reinforced what we wanted to be known for and what the culture of our firm is striving to be. Here is a sample that might give you an idea when you sit down and work out what it is your business's culture is and 'what you are famous for'.

Figure 1: Craig Bellamy is an inspirational coach who builds culture and focus into a very difficult environment. Photo courtesy of Fox Sports

1. Getting Back To People Promptly

Given our everyday experiences in a fast moving world it staggers me that more often than not businesses that just do not return phone calls or emails sometimes for days from their customers and clients. I tell my three sons that as part of the next generation they have a wonderful opportunity to get far in this world if they are:

• prompt;
• reliable; and
• get back to people quickly.

Very simple but very true as it can be a rarity in the current climate.

Technology has made this even easier to do so we make it clear to everyone in our business that we all need to take responsibility and get back to people as quickly as possible. Waiting for a train that is late with no known time of arrival promotes angst and stress.

Our firm is known for this and one that we don't wish to let slip. Am I saying it always happens? No, but it's a focus that if it occurs we build systems and processes to try and make sure such an occurrence is extremely rare.

2. Innovation

We pride ourselves on being innovative and encourage ideas from our team that will assist both us and our clients to receive better service. Recently we developed our own App on Itunes and Google Play which many of our clients (even non-clients) have started to use.

Figure 2: Being known as innovative is important for us.

3. Practice What You Preach

We can write as many blogs as business advisors as we like about business improvement, improving cash flow, having a strategic plan etc. but unless we are doing these ourselves why should anybody take our word for it?

We are passionate about our clients understanding the need for a business plan and three way budget together with monitoring.

It works for us so we should be showing our clients the 'how to'!

4. Mutual Respect For Clients & Each Other

If you want people to:

• buy from you;
• sell to you;
• work for you;
• refer you to,

then you need to show respect to one another. Whether or not it's a country trait I'm not sure as many do it in the city as well, but as small business accountants Sydney and Dubbo we see all walks of life and differing challenges. Showing respect is key to winning more business and assisting them out of sticky situations.

5. Accountability

Having a culture of accountability means asking that as leaders we take responsibility for when things don't quite go right. This is something that starts from the top (myself and Phil Comerford) and right down to each team member. If something goes wrong and you were responsible, acknowledge it, fix it and put in procedures to attempt to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Blaming something or someone else doesn't cut it with me! We call this 'below the line behaviour'.

Figure 3: Even Barry sometimes has to admit he was wrong!  Photo courtesy Balmain Baz & Lara Scolary Gallery Balmain

6. Ethical

This should be a given in any business and is expected. Reminding the team though and exemplifying this each day will make it become 'built-in'.

7. Knowledgeable

You need to be good at what you do and this means staying up to date with latest trends and technology within your business that will assist your clients to get ahead and in line with their goals and aspirations. This means reinvesting time and money back into your team and professional development.

CONCLUSION:

What is your business's culture? What are you famous for?

If you can work this out and build it in as part of your point of difference you are well on the way to success in business!