Sitting idly in a hotel room in Accra, I lazily swiped through my phone scrolling through photos taken at the Cape-Coast castle the pr...
Sitting idly in a hotel room in Accra, I lazily swiped through my phone scrolling through photos taken at the Cape-Coast castle the previous evening. I pondered on the business angle of slavery and the operational management systems employed to export human beings. The thought of business jarred me back into my own reality, my young Laundromart business is in Lagos, Nigeria. What are they doing right now? Are today’s sales better than yesterday’s? Are they treating customers’ right? Are they pilfering from sales? On and on...
Now let us set something straight right away, if these are among your biggest business worries then your chances at growth from point A to B is still very slim. Your job is to grow the business not sweat operations.
Here are top 9 Reasons I can vacation at Seychelles for a month (if I like) and not worry that my business will crumble in that time.
1. Receipts and invoices for every dime in and out. Keep a record book. Make it electronic this is 2014.
2. Inventory Control. We never store more than a week’s supplies. Saves storage space and avail a more easily monitored inventory
3. iP camera. This is my new favourite pastime. When am stuck at airport lounges, rather than play candycrush I log in and watch live videos of the store. Try it.
4. e-invoicing. We got rid of paper receipts within 6months of opening. Checkout http://www.salesforce.com/ and https://www.salesvu.com/ I can remotely log into daily sales and see who came today. When they came. How much they spent and if they were offered any of our frequent discounts. There are FREE versions too. Ask me*wink*
5. Bank alerts. I can’t get sms’ alerts from everywhere but, I can assess via mails to see if sales matches what went to the bank. Monthly bank statement works too.
6. Culture of accountability. If you demand it, am willing to wager your staffs will follow.
7. Feedback from friends who patronise. My friends wish me well so they usually mail me complaints or thumbs up after patronage.
8. Improve your hiring skills. Don’t leave idiots at your office and wonder why they act that way.
9. Healthy dose of trust. “If you must hire the man, trust him. if you can’t trust him don’t hire him”
OBA C. ILOBAA | Email: obailoba101@gmail.com | twitter: @ilobaa | IG: obailoba
