Have you ever walked by someone’s desk and seen that they were using Excel and thought, “Oh they must be pretty good at computers,” and later found out that they were using it as a table editor? This is one of the most common “afflictions” in the modern office, the belief that because someone is using Excel that they actually know how to use Excel.
There are many businesses that use technology to simplify their work. QuickBooks is a great example of a tool that most small business use. When you ask the owner of that business, they will tell you that it is what they use to do the accounting, pay bills and maybe get paid.
That isn’t all QuickBooks does!
QuickBooks has a host of features and capabilities that allow business owners to manage their business better. It generates reports by customer, day, week month that show you who is your best customer, who pays on time and who you should really get rid of right away. It can also be extended to do inventory management with Bar Coding add-ons that will let you simply scan your inventory. “But we print checks with it.” Yes, yes you do.
Like in the opening paragraph on Excel, there are many people who simply use Excel to edit tables. Maybe they don’t use QuickBooks and have an invoice template in Excel and use that, but don’t track any information about the invoice. They simply print a copy and keep it in a file drawer.
The lack of technology use/knowledge costs your business anywhere from 10% (you are doing well) to 50%! Yes, 50% waste when your people don’t know how to use the tools you have provided them. Imagine being able to run your business with 50% fewer people. It is easier to “see” that with direct cost with say field personnel, but office staff is equally capable of chewing through your profits.
OK, so you get it, you need to make sure your people are trained to use the tools you provided for them, but what if you don’t know how to use them? What now? There are dozens of on-line classes and certification programs that can do it for you.
Henry Ford was sued by investors at one point because they thought he was a scam artist. They insisted that with his lack of education there was no way Ford could know all that he knew about business and the process of building cars.
During the trial, he was asked a question about a particular subject that he could not answer. When the lawyer saw that, he started to use that as proof that Ford was scamming people. In response, Ford simply turned and looked at the Judge. “Judge,” he started to say, “in my office I have a desk with a row of buttons. By pressing a button, I call up to my office an expert on any one of dozens of subjects that I want to learn more about. Calling on an expert, doesn’t that mean I am smarter than most?” The Judge agreed and the case was dismissed.
The point is that you don’t have to be the expert in every tool, just know who to call when you need some advice. You need to make sure your team knows how to use the tools you provide, and it is a good idea to test them from time to time to make sure they are not “faking” it!
Want to learn if your team is tech savvy? Just contact us, rick@gramatges.com
Gramatges Consulting 