Do you have the right tools to implement your plan?
“Although I don’t know a single for-profit business that is managed as well as a few of the nonprofits, the great majority of the nonprofits can be graded a “C" at best. Not for lack of effort, most of them work very hard. But for lack of focus, and for lack of tool competence….
“For years most nonprofits felt that good intentions were by themselves enough. But today, we know that because we don’t have a bottom line we have to manage better than for-profit business. We have to have discipline rooted in our mission. We have to manage our limited resources of people and money for maximum effectiveness. And we have to think through very clearly what results are for our organization.”
- Peter F. Drucker from The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask Your Nonprofit Organization
Over the past month, we have reviewed our responses to the first four questions on mission, customers, value, and results.
But we are stuck on how to implement our plan.
We need simple proven tools to implement our plan.
I’ve searched for competent tools that help nonprofit leaders focus on mission and manage limited resources of people and money to grow mission impact.
I’ve found them using the Business Made Simple's airplane analogy.
1. Leadership – Business On A Mission: We cast a vision that includes prioritizing mission and three economic priorities with a deadline. Each priority supports our mission. We make sure every role (staff, volunteers and champions) supports our priorities. We use our mission and priorities to clearly define what are results for our organization.
2. Marketing – StoryBrand Messaging Framework: We clarify our marketing message by inviting our primary customer into a story in which their problems could be solved by our product or service.
And we invite champions into a story which they join us solving our primary customer’s problem.
3. Sales / Development – The Customer Is The Hero: We install a sales framework that makes our primary customer the hero and we learn how to craft a simple story that connects the primary customer to products or services they value and solves their problem.
And we craft a simple story that connects with champions to share their resources through our organization for our common cause.
4. Products or Services – Optimization Made Simple: We optimize our products or services that are valued by our customer and grow mission impact.
5. Overhead & Operations – Management & Productivity Made Simple: We keep overhead lean by running a management & productivity playbook providing clear communication, aligning the roles of paid and volunteer staff with our mission priorities.
6. Cash Flow Made Simple: We manage money that comes in and protect cash flow by giving each dollar a mission centric name.
If you’re spending too much time putting out fires and not enough time connecting with and serving customers, you likely need to focus your operation with simple proven tools to take action.
Here's your plan to grow revenue and mission impact:
1. Begin by taking My Business Report free assessment of your organization's 6 parts. You'll receive a custom report on the health of each part based on your response. And you will receive recommendations to optimize each area.
2. Book a 30-min call with Wes to discuss the report's results. Together, we will review options for your organization.
3. Get an Action Plan that focuses on mission while managing your limited resources. Use the the tools to effectively grow a healthy sustainable organization.
Here's to growing mission impact!
Wes Legg
Eldred Legg LLC
Business Made Simple's primary customer started with small for-profit business. It has expanded to include the nonprofit sector. Some documentation has not caught up to include the differences.
In addition to being a BMS certified coach, my role is interpreting the few organizational differences between nonprofit and for-profit organizations such as development instead of sales and explaining mission supporting customers (champions: donors, volunteers, community partners ) not found in the for-profit world.
Take My Business Report and book a call today.