The “Hourly Rate Challenge” Program implements key findings from a client assessment conducted prior to commencing a program. It should be noted that it is not practical to resolve all opportunities within 6 weeks. Therefore the program focuses on strategies that produce “bankable” returns to provide an ROI on the program as quickly as possible!

When the program starts, clients receive a “challenge” every week with a video, a workshop and “Take-out Tasks” to implement. They also attend a facilitated “live” on-line session to answer any questions and ensure they are implementing their program correctly.

Check out the video below to see how it works in more detail…

Week 1: The Time Audit.  Without a business owner reprioritising their time, there is very little capacity for new tasks because all owners are already busy!  Therefore we focus on quantifying the opportunity cost to the business owner of doing tasks that may have high urgency, but don’t make a lot of money.  It’s these tasks we are “competing” with when we assign them tasks from the program.  A hallmark of all high performing business owners is the ability to complete “non-urgent” tasks.

Week 2: The Price Play.  Given that speed of “bankable” results is a high priority for clients, conducting a pricing review is the fastest way to achieve this outcome.  This session provides a framework to maximise gross profit with many strategies for optimising their prices.  There are also exercises for review cost controls together with assessing the impact of discounting on their business.

Week 3: The Cash Grab.  Maximising margins will not achieve a “bankable” result without ensuring the timing of money-in versus money-out is managed effectively.  This goes beyond the obvious areas of inventory and debtor controls.  We also have an extended definition of work in progress that includes outstanding sales transactions that “leak” from month to month.  Effective strategies for managing terms of trade is also part of this session.

Week 4: The Sweet Spot.  Some parts of a business are more profitable than others.  This session looks at where profit “leaks” from businesses by way of identifying what “blows out” when profit is lost.  We have an exercise for finding these blow-outs and developing a corresponding “Claw Back” system to prevent profit leaks.  The session also has an exercise to find the highest value customers and provides strategies to both retain and convert more of them.

Week 5: The Double Down.  The primary focus of this session is productivity gains.  This is linked to being able to identify the tasks being done by both the business owner and their team that produce the best revenues.  It addresses how to measure and maximise both “chargeable hours” (for hourly rate type businesses) and/or “saleable hours” (that measure the amount of time spent with prospects/customers) that are being done in the business.

Week 6: The Leader Profile.  Here we conduct a DISC behavioural analysis before applying this to the dominant leadership style of the business owner.  This profile will highlight performance strengths as well as areas to work on with how an owner operates their business.  There are often leadership blind-spots that many cannot see without having the insights that a professional profile can uncover.