Andi Gray
Andi Gray is president of Strategy Leaders Inc., strategyleaders.com, a business consulting firm that specializes in helping small to midsize, privately held businesses achieve doubled revenues and tripled profits in repetitive growth cycles. Interested in learning how Strategy Leaders can help your business? Call now for a free consultation and diagnostic process: (877) 238-3535. Do you have a question for Andi? Email her: AskAndi@StrategyLeaders.com. Visit AskAndi.com for an entire library of her articles.
Andi Gray: Maintaining control as the company grows
Controlling things as you grow the company is a challenge for most small-business owners. Build systems, procedures and checklists so you can teach everyone how you want things done.
Andi Gray: Become an expert at ERP
ERP stands for enterprise resource planning. That’s a fancy way to describe the various software systems that a company relies on to execute the work of the company.
Andi Gray: What’s market share all about?
We don’t have a clue what is our market share. We are in several vertical markets, but we don’t know how much just comes to us from each of those markets, and how much we have to fight to get.
Andi Gray: Teaching a new supervisor to supervise correctly
Make sure you have a job description for your supervisor. Include responsibilities for goal setting for her unit, understanding company goals and how her area fits into those goals.
Andi Gray: Finding the right clients
Make it clear what kinds and quantities of business your company wants to acquire over the upcoming two to three years. And then work with each salesperson to build a portfolio of prospects that matches those goals.
Andi Gray: Special rules for family?
Everyone in the family should report to someone. Figure out who your sister’s position logically reports to.
Andi Gray: Office drama must be eliminated
Unfiltered commentary does no good. You hire employees for their ability to make good work decisions. Make it clear you expect the same when it comes to their actions with co-workers.
Andi Gray: Empowering employees to make decisions
Owners should encourage people to make mistakes and learn. Agree on the goal so you're both focused on the same endpoint.
Andi Gray: Don’t hesitate when dealing with thieves
Often employee theft is committed by first-timers, often due to personal financial stress, justifying the theft by thinking they’re due more compensation, and finding an opportunity to quietly remove funds.
Andi Gray: Getting products to the right customers
Marketing is the most important function in any company and often one of the most overlooked. Turn it into your secret growth weapon.
Andi Gray: How to instill time management in your employees
Hold a weekly meeting to review the overall flow of work. Keep a calendar with notations for big projects that might come in so everyone can see where a jam-up in workload might happen.
Andi Gray: Diagnosing and correcting a sales downturn
Push hard on the sales and marketing accelerator and turn things around as quickly as possible.
Andi Gray: How to get your cash flow in order
Plan for extra invoicing in order to build up cash on hand and avoid getting caught short.
Andi Gray: Learn to make the right choices
Once you know what you want to accomplish, it’s time to put together your task list. Include all the things that will have to get done in order to achieve your goals.
Andi Gray: How to build a strong management team
Unify the team with goals. Organize functions to eliminate duplication and conflict. Use incentives to get the point across that collaboration is essential.