At one of my recent 52 Ways events, an attendee commented that I must have a lot of staff to be able to constantly travel around the country speaking to hundreds of people at a time.
Here’s something that may surprise you — at Business Blueprint, we only have a total of 6 full-time staff members here in Australia. Most people assume we have a team of 50 or 60 people but in reality we run an extremely tight ship.
I have to say, the team I work with is small but MIGHTY. It was the Founder of 37Signals, Jason Fried, who once said “There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.” I couldn’t agree with this statement more, and I’ve seen first hand how hard my team works as they dedicate so much of their time to helping business owners grow their operations.
In fact, my team is so mighty that last year we were able to help hundreds more business owners than we initially set out to help in that 12 months.
At the start of 2017, we created some ambitious goals. To motivate the team to achieve their targets, my wife and I created a pretty darn amazing reward. As a result of aiming high and smashing their goals out of the park, the entire crew was booked on an all-expenses paid trip to the USA.
Over the course of a week, we visited LA and my favourite place of all, New York City. Throughout the course of our adventures, we explored the city including the financial district, Times Square, Central Park and the 9/11 Memorial. We also did a doors-off helicopter scenic flight across the city, and jet skied around Statue of Liberty and under the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s pretty safe to say that we packed a lot in.
I travel to NYC often and I was so excited to share highlights of New York City with my team. Organising this reward was such a pleasure because I know they are so committed to making Business Blueprint so incredible for our members. By offering the incentive, I created a win/win situation, with growth for my business and amazing payoff for the people who made it happen.
There is an extra win too, in that we have been able to help more clients than ever before to take the next steps in their journey towards business success.
The importance of rewards
One thing I have never believed in is the term ‘Self-made millionaire’. Over time, it has been proven that nothing great was ever achieved by just one person. Behind every successful business owner or CEO is an incredible group of motivated and supportive team players, sometimes numbering in the hundreds or even thousands.
If you’re a business owner, how often do you set goals and incorporate rewards for your team? You may not be positioned to take each and every person on an overseas trip but believe me, even the little things matter. You can start with something as small as coffee vouchers or movie tickets, offer a local weekend away or even dinner in the fanciest restaurant in town.
You can even encourage your staff to reward each other by nominating for weekly or monthly ‘prizes’ or bonuses. These can be as simple as an early finish on a Friday afternoon or as sought after as a $500 cash bonus.
As small children, we appreciate the value of being rewarded for our hard work. As adults, this stays exactly the same! Yes, you pay your staff a salary but this remains static whether they achieve great things or deliver average results. By adding a bonus or reward, they will be inspired to make the extra effort and achieve more.
The best thing about taking my entire team to the USA was that I hold each and every one of them in such high regard. For me, it was like taking a holiday with a bunch of my very best mates. Now the challenge is to raise the bar, and the reward, even further so we can achieve even more together.
