The September Checklist

Hey, happy Monday! Nice to reverberate!

The last note I wrote was the one dated Aug. 2 in which I recommended to you 14 strategic books for the summer. Of course, this is a list that doesn’t just apply to summer; good books are always good for you!

It was 3 weeks of rejuvenating break even though it was not a break in the true sense of the word–exactly the opposite!

A break from habits that took me until August.

I like to call it a “reset.” Better yet, a “re-set”.

I’m leaving you with my checklist for starting again in September by taking advantage of a simple principle. Feel free to take use it (and let me know how it goes).

Re-setting priorities

Time in summer flows differently. It’s probably the rhythm of notifications if it gets softer, the battery life of the phone that is not that of winter, or the different warmth of the light at sunset… In summer you are allowed to change your priorities.

The time you can spare from work gives way to family, body, mind, study and plans for the future.

When I think of September, I always think of the smell of new notebooks and pens just waiting to be used.

How can we make sure that we continue to smell that smell even today — to feel that exciting feeling of starting again?

Follow the money

You might think it is venial or inconvenient, but it is only very pragmatic.

It is the most practical, quickest, and most effective principle for prioritizing what-needs-to-be-done especially when it is necessary to make behavior change and new habits take root as well.

We could turn around and feel at peace with ourselves by “starting with the why,” which is also right, but you would go too far around to get to the same point.

Besides. no one is interested in your why, but everyone is interested in their own.
And when you understand the why of your neighbor you also become able to extract the right value from relationships. I had delved into this the matter in detail here.

When you follow the “follow the money” principle, you decide to simplify your life and get more results.

Here’s how to apply it to five important areas

1. Current Customers
2. Future Customers
3. Products
4. Processes
5. People

▢ Follow the money with Current Customers.

You may not have noticed, but if you look at the homepage of STRTGY you will notice a little something new. There is a new P that stands for Profits and it is added in our framework to the P’s of People, Processes and Products.

This will be an important innovation that we will discover together later. But the bottom line is that without profits, talking about Business Design becomes an exercise in style for its own sake.

Current customers are the first source of profit. But also of costs. Start with those.

If you sell projects:

1. Make a list of open projects
2. Sort them by closing date (the one scheduled)
3. Write down for each what you need to do to close them as soon as possible or at least reach the next billing step (or renewal)
4. Get the backlogs in order and make sure there are no obstacles

If you sell products:

1. Sort customers by LTV (life-time-value) and then by product
2. Ensure that the backlog has in the highest priority all activities related to retention, i.e., that they do not leave you before the end of the year
3. Next in the backlog prioritize initiatives that have as their focus those to increase LTV. For example, many brands have already started working on Christmas campaigns!

▢ Follow the money in CRM (Future Customers).

In here are future profits. If you need money to grow, it is the first place to look before you go to the bank.

1. Look at opportunities in the last stage of selling. What can you do to accelerate closing?
2. Look now at the opportunities in the previous step. What can you do to pass them in the next state?
3. Continue backward to the first step.

Although new contacts are more “fun” to follow up with, focus on those who are already ready to buy.

▢ Follow the money with Products.

Constantly improving the products/services you offer is most important so that they remain relevant while continuing to generate the necessary profit.

If you have products already in the market

1. List products in order of revenue and then in order of number of customers. Doing so will ensure that the impact of optimization will be greater.
   • What can you simplify?
   • What unnecessary processing steps can you eliminate without compromising quality?
   • What can you improve?

Products in development

1. Make a list of the new products you are working on and focus on those closest to monetization.
   • What needs to happen to launch them?
   • What experiments will bring you the data you need?
   • What reworks are needed?

▢ Follow the money with Processes.

More efficient processes bring better margins. Focus on those closest to improving cashflow:

1. Sales
2. Marketing
3. Fulfillment
4. Return/Upsell
5. Hiring

For each one ask yourself what you can:

1. Simplify
2. Document
3. Automate
4. Delegate

▢ Follow the money with People.

Without the right people in the right place, you cannot tackle any venture. Many people complain that they can’t find anyone to hire, and they are often the ones who don’t even have a “work-with-us” section on their site (Osvaldo Danzi in Italy is the benchmark on this topic; he often talks about it on LinkedIn, for example here).

By this point in the checklist you will have put most of the things on your team in order and will be clear about everyone’s priorities.

Don’t miss the opportunity to fix your Hiring processes. Make sure that for each area there is at least one active search ad (September is always a hot time for recruiters).

Use the Team Focus Planner

The purpose of the Team Focus Planner is to make sure leaders have clear priorities and deadlines. Create a sheet for each team and enter the priorities you have identified. In your writing you can use the technique of Micro OKRs.

Want to learn more about using this tool?

Let me know, we could arrange a live, or talk about it privately.

Good work!