In his book, How to Grow Your Small Business, Donald Miller explains that a business has six critical parts, just like there are six critical parts to an airplane.
“If you want to grow your business on autopilot, you need to know what makes it fly,” writes Miller. “Build all six parts the right way, and your business will run on autopilot.”
Let’s discuss the six steps in turn.
The Small Business Flight Plan
1. The Cockpit
The cockpit of an airplane serves as a metaphor for leadership, with the pilot responsible for steering the plane to its destination. Similarly, leaders of small businesses need to know where they are headed and have a plan for getting there.
Many small business owners, however, tend to focus on priorities that don’t contribute to their bottom line. To ensure business success, owners must prioritize activities that generate revenue and align their organization accordingly.
To do that, small business owners should identify three objectives to make their business more profitable and build their strategy around those goals.
2. The Right Engine
The airplane’s right engine represents marketing efforts that contribute to a business’s growth by increasing sales and moving the company forward. A clear marketing message and an effective marketing plan are essential.
However, many businesses use messaging that is too cute or clever, writes Miller, which can confuse customers about what the business offers and why it matters. To create a clear and compelling message, business owners need to articulate the problem their product solves and the positive results their customers will experience.
This messaging should be repeated consistently across all marketing materials to ensure customers understand the product’s value. Moreover, business owners should create a 2-3 sentence marketing message, called a “One-Liner,” that succinctly communicates the problem their company solves and how it improves their customers’ lives.
They should then build a marketing funnel to support this message and take someone from a stranger to a paying customer.
3. The Left Engine
The left engine of an airplane represents sales, which increases the plane’s thrust and moves the business forward.
To sell effectively, business owners need to make their customers the hero and craft a sales pitch that invites customers into a story where their products or services solve their problems. When businesses approach sales conversations with a problem/solution mentality, they can create a million-dollar sales pitch.
Rather than pushing product features and benefits, businesses should primarily talk about the problem their customers are experiencing and position their product as the solution to that problem. This approach reminds customers of their pain points and prepares them for purchase.
Business owners should identify the problem their product solves and consider every possible pain point it causes for their customers. They should then write down sales talking points that start with the customer’s problem and position their product as the solution.
4. The Wings
The wings of the airplane represent the products or services a business sells. These products or services must be in demand and profitable to lift the business and support its weight. To optimize the product offering, the business needs to evaluate the profitability of its products and look for ways to reduce costs, increase prices, and create packages for overlapping products.
Neglecting product profitability can result in business owners (1) spending more money on product creation than they’re making or (2) creating products with narrow margins that don’t generate meaningful revenue for the business. To get started, business owners must focus on selling more of their most profitable products or services.
5. The Body
Miller uses the airplane’s body as a metaphor for the overhead and operations of a business. Miller stresses that if overhead gets out of hand, it can lead to a business crash. The largest expense of any business is often payroll, so it’s crucial to have a management and productivity playbook in place to ensure that every team member contributes to the business’s overall economic priorities.
To achieve this, Miller suggests having regular and proactive meetings with key team members to get ahead of projects and put out fires before they start. By doing so, morale will increase, and team members will feel cared for and heard, which leads to a happier and more productive workplace.
6. The Fuel
The fuel tanks of an airplane represent cash flow, which one must manage to ensure there is enough money to operate and handle unexpected expenses. To manage cash flow effectively, Miller suggests using five separate checking accounts: operating expenses, owner’s personal account, profit, taxes, and investment holding.
By separating business and personal finances and allocating money to specific accounts, small business owners can gain clarity and accountability with their finances. Miller also recommends keeping a rainy day fund in the profit account and transferring excess funds to the investment holding account to diversify revenue.
Conclusion
In conclusion, managing a small business can be compared to flying an airplane. Just as an airplane has various parts that must work together for a successful flight, a small business has different areas that need attention for success.
The cockpit represents the owner’s vision and mission, while the wings represent the marketing and sales strategy. The body of the airplane represents overhead and operations, and the fuel tanks represent cash flow.
Managing all of these areas can be overwhelming, but by breaking them down into manageable parts and creating systems and processes for each, small business owners can set themselves up for success and avoid crashing their businesses.
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