Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas – Entrepreneur’s Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.
When you discover an issue in your business, how often do you treat the symptoms and not the problem? Often business owners respond to the issue, getting it resolved as quickly as possible, but don’t take the time to ask “why?” It’s a simple question, but not always easy to answer.
By asking “why” at least five times when analyzing an issue, you can get to the root cause and put together a plan to address it.
For example:
• Why are our sales dropping? – Our sales people don’t know how to sell
• Why don’t they know how to sell? – They haven’t been trained properly
• Why haven’t they been trained properly? – They don’t stay long enough to be trained
• Why don’t they stay long enough? – they find better jobs
• Why are they looking for a better job? – We don’t challenge them enough
In that example, you can see that asking why uncovers several issues: sales training, employee engagement, and sales growth. These can all be improved with a good strategic plan. Be sure you’re asking why for the positive aspects of your business as well. You can learn from your successes and apply that knowledge to other areas of your business.
