Essential items in an entrepreneur’s business scorecard

What is a scorecard? It’s a tool or report that monitors the status or success of a project. In business, a scorecard allows teams to set their goals and rate their performance vis-à-vis what they have set for themselves. Every organisation may have different scorecards, depending on their targets, focus and key performance indicators.    

For entrepreneurs, what are the most essential items in their business scorecard? EO Melbourne members share with us the important things they put in their scorecards and why they keep track of them.

• Net cash flow – According to Rahul Kale, Director at Sunpower Renewables, one of the three most essential items on their scorecard their Net Cash flow position (current and forecast). “This can make or break your company. You can be profitable in the long run, but if your net cash flow position is negative or has the potential to be in the red then you are in serious trouble. For me, this is the most important metric to monitor,” Rahul explained.

• Cash at bank – For Jeni Clift, Director/General Manager of DWM Solutions, “no cash = no more business. We need to know the cash position every week,” she stated, which is why they need to put Cash at Bank in their scorecard.

• Total dollar amount quoted - Anthony Lam, Managing Director of Punchy Digital Media, remarked that knowing the “total dollar amount quoted gives us an indicator of our future work and pipeline.”

• Headcount, revenue and net profit – Appscore Co-Founder & Managing Director Alex Louey shared that they have various scorecards in the various levels of their organisation. “At the company level, the most important ones are pretty boring – headcount, revenue and net profit. We use the headcount as a measure because our target is to be 300 persons in 24 months,” he expounded.

• Performance measures – “At the team level, we use a dashboard to measure performance and predict outcomes. We normally have 2 leading indicators and 2 lagging indicators, i.e., for the sales team, each salesperson is to have a rolling $3M new business qualified pipeline for a $1M new business target. On the other hand, our recruitment team’s measure is on the number of interviews as a leading indicator and the number of contracts signed, targeted at 3 per week,” Alex added.

• Customer and employee satisfaction – This is another item on Rahul’s scorecard. “This is not a regular metric as we update this semi-annually, but we have found this to be a great metric to monitor and shape our strategy. This gives us an external perspective of what our employees and customers are thinking of us and our products and it helps us improve, innovate, and get better.”

• Days when projects are open – This is found in Anthony’s scorecard because for him and his team, “the average number of days that projects have been open gives us an idea of our current production pipeline.”

• Total projects open – In addition to the number of days that their projects are open, Anthony also looks at their “Total number of projects open, which gives us an idea of our capacity.”

• R&D and Non-R&D costs – These costs are important to Rahul because according to him, “We are all about innovation, and understanding the R&D spending is an important gauge on how we innovate and evolve our product offering.”

Depending on your industry and type of business, you may have different things on your business scorecard. Also, within your organisation, each level, department, unit or team member may have different scorecards based on their deliverables. Also, this tool helps in improving one’s performance, growth and development, whether as a group or as an individual.  

Share with us in the comments section below what you have in your scorecards and why they are important to your business.

Managing the daily influx of emails – is it possible?

Going through the daily messages is one of the constant concerns of busy entrepreneurs and business owners. Jeni Clift, Director/General Manager of DWM Solutions and a Professional EOS Implementer admitted that she needs help when it comes to managing and organising the daily influx of emails she receives.

“Unfortunately, I use my inbox as a repository of emails. I am open to seeing how others do this as it is not an effective method,”

But not all is lost, here are a few tips we put together from some of our EO members that may help you get ahead of the game.

Schedule reading your emails

According to Arosh Fernando, Founder and Director of WooHah Productions, “The biggest time killer in our world right now is email, especially when you’re getting cc’d in everything and the inbox is filling up fast if you don’t check it. Fellow EO Member Dean Cherny had a great idea which I adopted – checking emails at given times of the day. So I do this at 10 am and 2 pm, for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on whatever your business needs are at the moment. This helps me manage time around and, as a CEO, get to tick off the real objectives like my long term goals to grow the business. As I have learnt in EO many times over, it’s not about what we start doing but it’s what we STOP doing that is important to enable us to focus our time and energy on the big goals.”

Scheduling reading and responding to your emails is a brilliant idea that can be a big help, as long as it suits your work schedule and lifestyle as well as the requirements of your business. You can calendar going through your messages at certain times of the day and make sure you have the discipline to carry it through.

File and have separate inboxes

Another helpful tip is to file your messages in folders so that it’s easier for you to check them. You might need to allocate some time to do the preliminary work, such as creating folders and segregating messages, so that the succeeding ones that arrive in your inbox get filtered easily.  

Anthony Lam, Managing Director of Punchy Digital Media, shared, “I have separate inboxes and tackle each one at separate times. I have one for clients, prospects, and teams. I try to set a timer and tackle each inbox one at a time.”

On the other hand, Appscore Co-Founder & Managing Director Alex Louey tries to undertake the challenge of sorting through his emails through their levels of priority. “My inbox is a disaster, and I wish I could tell you that it is well-sorted and filed. The only ones that I focus on that are a must-do are customer-related ones. They get top priority and my full attention. The rest get attended to in terms of the priority of my task list that I run throughout the day or week. I can’t respond to everyone that tries to contact me so I don’t,” he professed.

Work on “zero” emails

Having “0 emails on inbox” is one of the policies that Damian Blumenkranc, co-Founder of Creativa, Attento and Just Click Videos and CEO of Sunset Sleepers, personally follows. “I use a very simple decision tree to tackle them as they come:

1 - Can I respond to this quickly on the fly? If yes, then I just respond to it and archive it;

2 - If no: Is this something I will read/look into on spare time? Then I move it to my ‘read later’ folder that I can read on the train or when I finish work;

3 - Is this something I need to work on for more than a few minutes to respond to it? I set a time on the calendar to work on it and even copy the link of the email or the content of the email as a reference, then I can archive it as I will be working on it when the time comes;

4 - For those emails that we want to keep as a reference for something but really have no need to reply, I move them to an 'important info’ folder and those that I want to use as a reminder to follow up later I also put on the calendar or I snooze them for later.”

Automate it

In this era when technology has created so many breakthroughs in fast-tracking everything we do, one can get a little help by automating their emails. It is one of the things that Nathan Chan, CEO & Publisher of Foundr Magazine, does to lessen the workload brought about by daily emails. “I have automation rules,” he declared. “Also, “I view my inbox as everyone else's to-do list and treat that accordingly.”

Depending on the email software or platform you use, various email automation tools can make things easier for you, sometimes sending automated replies, based on the rules you create. You can consult with an IT professional or explore how you can make this work for you and your business.

Hire an assistant

But apart from automating his emails, Nathan also gets a little help from his staff. “I have an incredible EA (executive assistant),” he added. If the tasks are too many and going through your daily emails can often become a burden to you, don’t hesitate to delegate to your team or have someone help you with it so that you can attend more on other important matters.

If you’ve been in this situation before – getting overwhelmed with the number of emails you receive and you’ve surpassed it, share with us how you have overcome it as it may also be helpful to those who are currently stuck in this predicament.

Using LinkedIn to promote your business

LinkedIn is a social media platform that has been used by individuals, companies, and organisations to connect, network, and promote their products, services, causes, and brands. Entrepreneurs have also recognised the value of LinkedIn to their business, and EO Members share with us how they utilise LinkedIn to promote their brands and organisations and take advantage of the platform’s network.

Create brand awareness

As more and more professionals connect on LinkedIn, it becomes an effective venue to push for brand recognition. Although most users tend to use it for business purposes, it doesn’t mean one cannot get creative and playful on this platform. Let your brand’s personality shine and inject a bit of fun to make your posts stand out.

“I use LinkedIn for business to create brand awareness and get known in my field. It is mostly for PR purposes. To be honest, I treat it more like Facebook and do not take it too seriously as some of the comments I leave are more for fun than serious engagement. LinkedIn can be a bit dry sometimes, so why not spice it up,” quipped Alex Louey, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Appscore.

Attract new prospects

Raising awareness for your brand can help generate prospective customers and new clients for you. If you use LinkedIn well by regularly expanding your network and posting quality content, you will be able to attract a potential market for your business.

“We use our LinkedIn to re-purpose awesome content that will help us attract new prospects to our community and world that, in turn, will hopefully see our brand as a source to learn from,” said Nathan Chan, CEO and Publisher of Foundr Magazine.

Promote one’s products and services

While you’re at it, go beyond your regular posts. Talk about your products and services so that readers become more familiar with what you do and what you can offer. Your content doesn’t have to be a hard sell as you can subtly present your offerings that can pique the interest of your readers. 

“We use it to post and share videos that we have produced for our clients. It's a great way to showcase what we do on a mass scale. And every month, we always win new clients that say they found us through the videos that we share,” Anthony Lam, Managing Director of Punchy Digital Media, claimed.

Tell a story

LinkedIn is a platform for professionals, but remember that they are also individuals whom you can inspire and motivate. The users can also relate to your experiences, so use the platform to reach out to them through your stories.

“LinkedIn has been my go-to marketing platform to tell an authentic story without spamming people’s inboxes. During COVID, when we had no budget for marketing but still needed to tell the story to the world, we used LinkedIn to showcase and as a case study of what we were doing. The result from this was a 75% increase in new customers. Being able to connect with people at a one-on-one level was important to me. Few important things on LinkedIn -- personal profiles and personal articles get better traction than company updates,” Arosh Fernando, Founder and Director of WooHah Productions, shared.

Build credibility and authority

There is power in your LinkedIn profile and posts. Whatever you put out there can make or break your image. Make LinkedIn work for your advantage by sharing things that can build your portfolio. Share your wins, give and ask for recommendations, engage with people in your network, update your profile, and be consistent in your messaging.

“I use LinkedIn in building credibility and as a way of being seen. I try and post an article weekly that is in alignment with how I want to be recognised, which is as an authority on People,” remarked Jeni Clift, Director/General Manager of DWM Solutions and a Professional EOS Implementer.

If you have some great experiences on how LinkedIn has helped you in your business, share them with us through the comments section below.

Check out the EO Melbourne LinkedIn page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/eo-melbourne.

How to become an impactful public speaker

Every entrepreneur has a good story to tell. But, how do you tell a story and make a difference? How do you deal with stage fright? How do you make sure that you create an impact every time you come in front of the audience? Some of our EO Melbourne members share how they overcome this fear and make sure that their story and learnings reach their audience effectively.

We’ve got help from Appscore Co-Founder and Managing Director Alex Louey; Punchy Digital Media Managing Director Anthony Lam; WooHah Productions Founder and Director Arosh Fernando; DWM Solutions Director/General Manager and Professional EOS Implementer Jeni Clift; and Foundr Magazine CEO and Publisher Nathan Chan, who shared with us their learnings on how to become an impactful public speaker.

Preparation

“Public Speaking is something I enjoy doing, although I still get nervous after 20 years. But I know this is a good thing as preparation is key to a flawless presentation in any public speaking event,” Arosh Fernando pointed out.

This is why many public speakers always say this, “Practice, practice, practice,” which Anthony Lam also reiterated. “The first proper public speaking event I did was the Digital Marketing Summit 3 years ago. I practised the presentation until I knew it by heart. I had 4 weeks to learn and I practised 2-3 times throughout the day. But having done it once, I think it would be pretty easy to do it again, going forward,” Anthony enthused.

Proper preparation also includes putting together the right materials needed for the presentation. “Make sure your slides don't have too much text,” Nathan Chan stated, to which Jeni Clift added, “Just a handful of slides – not death by PowerPoint.”

Connecting with the audience

Being able to resonate with your audience is an important factor in a powerful presentation. “Really make sure that you understand the audience you are speaking to,” Nathan remarked. That entails “Talking TO the audience and not to the lectern or the screen behind you,” as Jeni advised.

In order to keep your audience focused on your message, “Keep still and stay in control of your hands. It is so distracting for people to be pacing the stage or waving their hands around as that will probably make you lose your audience,” Jeni added.

It also helps that you acknowledge your audience every now and then during your presentation. “My biggest tip for public speaking is to pump up your audience by telling them how amazing they are,” Alex Louey said.

On the other hand, Anthony shared an interesting insight. “Lower the bar. I always try to share very advanced tips, which I find they confuse the audience at times. It's always better to lower the bar on how ‘amazing’ the content needs to be and keep it simple. More times than not, what I find as ‘common knowledge’ is what the audience will relate to and find most interesting,” he stated.

Delivery and presentation proper

Once you have prepared well and connected with your audience, be mindful of the delivery of your messages. Arosh’s tip is to break it into segments. “Have an intro or icebreaker, make your content interesting like ‘5 Things I Love Doing When Public Speaking’, and highlight the value and summary. This helps the content to stick because sticky content is what people remember. Keeping it short and sharp will make it impactful rather than long drawn out speeches,” he shared.

For Alex, it is also important that you “slow down your speaking by pausing so you don’t sound rushed.”

Moreover, a good story can make the audience relate to you and remember what you are trying to convey. “I love to use a story to articulate what I need to get across,” Arosh said. This is echoed by Nathan, “Tell as many stories as you can. They are what people remember the most. Lastly, be vulnerable.”

These are simple yet very helpful tips for those who may soon be facing a group of people to speak about their business or a particular topic. If you have additional tips on public speaking that you’d want to share, please feel free to drop them in our comment section below.

Alex Louey’s lessons on entrepreneurship through smartphone apps

With millions of apps available online that are increasing each year, an average smartphone user has a wide array of options on which ones to use that correspond to his needs. For Appscore co-founder and Managing Director Alex Louey, whose company has been developing apps, websites, cloud solutions, Internet of Things (IoT), and other technology-based products, it’s more than just building a software. Its mission is to create great customer experiences for their clients and make their lives easier every day.

“We started off as a mobile app company. But now, we've progressed from being very focused on apps to focusing on making our customers’ lives easier and better for them to do things,” Alex quipped. “It means that we don’t look into a particular technology. Rather, we look at the problem to be solved and the appropriate technology to do it. We look at the entire life cycle. We look at the customer experience and the problem that they're facing. Then, we build the software and look at what we can do to help clients engage customers and get the customers to use their business software,” he added.

Although Appscore is a technology company, Alex admitted to not having any IT background. He built his career on project management, working in various banks. It was not until he and his mate, Nick Bell, one of the co-founders of AppsCore, decided to start a business that he got into this industry. His parents, who were Chinese immigrants that ran restaurants, had advised him to get an education, work for somebody, and not get into the restaurant business. “It’s true. I'm not in the restaurant business, but I am working for myself,” he countered.

With the challenges that come with owning and running a business, Alex shares his insights and some entrepreneurial lessons derived from smartphone apps.

1.) Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp: Communication is key

“I use this a lot because it's a way that I communicate and talk to a lot of people. The idea is when you start a business you've got to talk to a lot of people. Even with existing clients, you've got to go out, talk to them, take them out to lunches, find out their future objectives. And it's all about communication. It's all about building relationships,” Alex explained.

He emphasised that the key is having the right networks and the right relationships. By engaging various stakeholders in the business, it allows him to understand the values that are important to their customers and staff. “As the company grows, I continue to learn how to communicate with a broad range of people. You need to speak to them in their language. Different people process communication in different ways. Some are very visual, while others are very auditory. As I’ve learned recently, some challenges that I’ve had was not about others being difficult, but it’s the way I communicate with them. They don’t understand because they don’t process information the way I do. So, I’ve had to change the way I communicate to get my message across.”

In communicating with different kinds of people, Alex underscored the need to be genuine about it to show care. He receives and exhibits care through his engagement with EO Melbourne, where he found value in talking to people who share similar experiences with him and can empathise with his concerns.

2.) Angry Birds: An exercise on frustration

Alex believes that there is no entrepreneur or business person, whether successful or unsuccessful, that can say their journey has been smooth sailing, without problems or stressful situations. But he learns to deal with those circumstances and move forward with the lessons. “When you start a business, you're going to be frustrated and have setbacks. There are going to be hurdles that you can't initially work out. But if you persist with it, even how hard they come, you'll eventually find a way through. Out of all the five stages of Angry Bird, I think I got up to stage three, and I spent about three hours playing on the plane,” he laughingly shared.

3.) YouTube: Continuous learning

“YouTube is quite entertaining and also very educational. TED talks are one of my favourites. Sometimes it tells me stuff that I already know, but it reinforces the things that I need to focus on or the skills I have to learn. As an entrepreneur, you can't stop learning. I don't think there is anybody who is good at everything. You'll always learn because there is no playbook to be an entrepreneur. For every step you take and every way you advance, you create new ground,” imparted Alex.

To learn continuously, they send their key executives on training courses to learn about the newest and greatest stuff. Since Alex didn’t have any sales background, he had to learn that skill by reading books and talking to other people. He also found various learning opportunities from EO Melbourne.

4.) Instagram: Know the trends and tell your story

According to Alex, “It is important to look at how other people are doing things. Instagram is great at that. I follow people on a whole range of topics, whether business or personal. If you're interested in a particular topic, you can see how other people are doing it. It’s the same with business. There are always people that do worse than you, and those that do better than you. As an entrepreneur, always look at what other people are doing better than you and learn it.”

He stated, “Businesses, especially in the technology field, need to be on the lookout for new trends. With technology, you can easily be superseded the next year, even if you are the best last year. When processes change, customer expectations also change.” He also stressed the importance of marketing and being able to tell your stories to your customers. Culture and corporate values also play a major part in attracting people to the business.

5.) ANZ Bank app: Tight control over money

“Cash flow is king” is a line commonly heard from business people that Alex echoed. He expounded, “You are responsible not only for the company’s success but also for everyone that relies on you for their livelihood. It's important to keep an eye on what your business is doing financially. It is good to spend money to grow, but you have to make sure that you get a return on the money before you start to splurge, thinking you can hire fifty people if there's no sales pipeline to refill.”

For the next two years, Alex aims to double the size of the company, create more services, and grow the consulting space and resource sector. He wants to continue to push at the forefront of the various technologies that are coming out in the market while strengthening their core business of building software for their customers.

To Alex, the entrepreneurial journey has highs and lows. But what he found helpful is having a good team around him that can help him refocus when he’s down. “I don't think an entire company can rely solely on a single person to drive it forward. The important thing is you have a good team to make up for your shortfalls. If you have a good team, and you are honest with your team and transparent with your leadership team, you can make anything happen,” he conveyed.

Know more about Alex Louey through his LinkedIn profile. More on AppsCore at https://www.appscore.com.au.