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How to Stay Lean and Agile in this Business Environment

Lean-Agile is a set of working ideas and practices that tries to reduce waste while increasing value. This allows businesses to prioritise quality in their products and services.

We’ll look at the fundamental principles of Lean-Agile and strategies that increase effectiveness while reducing waste in this post. We’ll also look at why your organisation has to be trained in Lean-Agile before you and your team start using it, even if not all units will be utilising it daily.

What is Lean-Agile?

Principles

Lean-Agile principles put adaptation over prediction and have seven core ideas: eliminating waste, amplifying learning, empowering the team, and more. Borrows from Lean software.

Project Management Practices

Sprints, retrospectives, points, user stories, and so on. Often other businesses who see themselves as Agile are already focused on these practices and are using them.

Technical Practices

Frequent/continuous integration, TDD, BDD, and so on. These processes are highly centred on achieving quality in software and are focused on ensuring effective software development.

The term “Lean-Agile” refers to a combination of Lean concepts and Agile methods.

What are Lean principles?

In their book Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit, Mary and Tom Poppendieck effectively describe the principles of Lean. Here’s a quick rundown:

Eliminate Waste.What exactly is waste? It’s everything that doesn’t “bring value to a product, as seen by the customer.” Waste is anything that is created or stored but isn’t utilised. Parts that are collecting dust on a shelf. “[When] developers code more features than are immediately needed,” for example. How much time is wasted transferring development from one group to another? According to Mary and Tom Poppendieck, this is also a waste.
Amplify Learning.Taking on a software solution, according to the Poppendiecks, is akin to trying to come up with a fresh recipe for a top restaurant dish. A chef will iterate and gain knowledge from the results. Software development is more complex, and teams can be large, but amplified learning allows for this discovery process.
Decide as late as possible.There can be a lot of unknowns with something like embedded software development. Which processor will best suit the product and the needs of the users? Should we write code in x, y, or z? Is this screen superior to that one? Is it conceivable that functionality will change as a result of user or market feedback? Speculating is a waste of time. Instead, wait until you have all of the data before making a decision.
Deliver as fast as possible.“Design, implement, evaluate, and improve,” and so on. Rapid development is a good concept; it allows you to make informed judgments based on real-time feedback. Shortening the cycle increases learning and ensures that clients get what they need now, not what they required yesterday.
Empower the team.The people who are doing the task are the ones who know the most about the intricacies. Do you want to achieve “excellence”? Make sure your technical team is involved in technical decisions in the specifics. Allow these teams to arrange and complete work using pull approaches and local signalling mechanisms (such as Kanban) while keeping everyone informed about what’s coming up. “They will make better technical decisions and better process decisions than anyone can make for them,” says the boss.
Build integrity in. The emphasis is on quality control here. This is more than just satisfied customers. Perceived integrity is what it’s called. And it goes beyond conceptual integrity, in which all of the pieces fit together flawlessly. Building integrity in software means that it can evolve smoothly over time because it has a coherent architecture, scores high on usability and fitness for purpose, and is maintainable, adaptable, and extensible. Building integrity in a team means having wise leadership, relevant expertise, effective communication, and healthy discipline.
See the whole.Don’t concentrate on just one aspect of a project. Take a step back and assess the entire situation. Quite often, the common good suffers when people are preoccupied with their own [specialised] interests. Instead of evaluating people’s [specialised] contributions, consider the project’s overall performance.

Where does Agile fit into the picture?

When you compare the aforementioned Lean principles to the Agile Manifesto principles, you can see where they intersect. Both emphasise learning and a people-first approach while enabling waste-free, sustainable solutions. Agile’s emphasis on continual improvement complements Lean’s approach.

Prediction is a waste of time.

Traditional project management methods like Waterfall attempt to foresee all aspects of a solution from the start. This type of solution is unlikely to adjust significantly in the face of new facts, and it is also unlikely to adapt to new learning.

Predicting wastes time and stops you from making an informed decision once you have all the data. It also slows down delivery.

When traditional project procedures are utilised in software development, software functionalities may go underused. Trying to guess what features the user wants is a common source of waste.

Without training and awareness, Lean-Agile is nothing.

We also make sure that our clients understand where we’re coming from. When a sales conversation begins, we coach them using Lean-Agile principles.

But how can you empower people without becoming tyrannical?

Coaching is the best way to gain adoption of Lean-Agile. Rather than dictating the ideas, training should allow your employees to discover them and how they may apply them to themselves and others. You then continue the instruction, assisting them in making it a habit rather than a thought.

Be lean and agile to be effective.

We hope that you’ve become interested enough in Lean-Agile to consider how you may apply it to your company by this time.

How To Monitor and Reduce Your Carbon Footprint as a Business Owner

Reducing your carbon footprint is an essential element of going green. These four strategies will enable you in improving your company’s sustainability and efficiency. Running a profitable business is challenging. Running a good company while being environmentally conscientious is much more difficult.

However, just because our modern free-market industrial system makes running a sustainable business complex does not determine what your company should offer to the global catastrophe. Populations will suffer, economies will suffer, and business spending will skyrocket as resources become scarcer and more expensive due to climate change. It gives us insight into sudden climate change by defeating your company’s carbon footprint, humanitarian and commercial.

Microsoft, Google, Lyft, Salesforce, and smaller businesses like Burt’s Bees and Diamond Foundry have already made commitments to becoming carbon neutral. Business leaders who join them as sustainability pioneers can take four crucial first steps to encourage their organisations to take on more carbon responsibility.

Aim toward zero waste.

Moving paperless, if you must, giving old machines and office stuff, and utilising reusable, biodegradable, or recyclable packaging can all help you achieve zero waste. Assessing your company’s existing waste generation, management, and disposal is the first step towards zero waste.

Harness renewable energy sources.

Although taking measures may require a significant financial expense, the use of green energy banks such as solar energy will protect your company’s funds over time. Solar panels are the most common and efficient option if you want to get or rent renewable energy tools for onsite placing at your firm.

Several power companies offer the option of purchasing a “green” service that uses electricity produced from renewable sources for a small charge. Given the inadequate production of resources and the urgent passing of the international climate change bill being implemented soon, businesses should immediately analyse and reduce their energy consumption.

You can work with a provider specialising in generating energy from renewable sources in states where electricity generators can compete.

Cut business, travel emissions

It doesn’t matter if you travel by plane, car, or train. Modern modes of transportation are one of the most significant sources of glasshouse gas emissions. Of course, the most effective strategy to cut business travel emissions is to avoid it altogether.

Transportation emits 29 percent of total glasshouse gas emissions in the United States each year. To reduce commuter emissions, consider allowing employees to work from home. The travel businesses themselves contribute to the reduction of emissions.

Educate and engage employees.

Let your employees participate in environmental agreement assistance, such as Forest Founders, which uses a lower body dashboard to encourage customers to regulate and neutralise their carbon footprint by planting trees through NGOs and local organisations. Make it unique to overcome environmental discouragement and urge your employees to understand their potential to make a positive difference by educating them about carbon accountability.

Carbon tracking subscription services can make carbon accountability more enjoyable for customers by allowing them to see the results of their activities firsthand. To motivate your team members to see their carbon footprint awareness, appeal for ideas for energy-saving solutions in the workplace through employee meetings and suggestion boxes.

Dismayed by dire predictions and blunted by corporate greenwashing, it’ll be simple for everyone to comply and understand the strength that holds us from taking a significant environmental action. Nature and business don’t have to be mutually exclusive. You may save money on energy, raise employee confidence, strengthen your brand as a sustainability leader, and boost your bottom line by decreasing your company’s carbon footprint – all while saving the resources and environment we all rely on.

Start a greener and healthier journey with us today!

Signs that Mark the Time to Rebrand

No matter how well-known a business is, as your company grows and you pivot with the times, it will eventually need to be rebranded. Hitting milestones may indicate it is time to rebrand the company. On the other hand, there is no value in changing the business name every year so be careful of how you do this.

Why rebrand?

The goal of rebranding is to change your company’s image. The main goal is to develop a new logo for your company to make it stand out and resonate with your customers. Rebranding can be accomplished in a variety of ways.

But what part needs to change?

Some business owners may be hesitant to rebrand because it might be costly. However, rebranding is frequently required and highly beneficial; it can serve as a rebirth, renewal, refresh, or change in the face of the business and a change in how you position and differentiate your brand in the market and pitch your company.

Here are some of the most common indicators you should consider rebranding and everything you need to know about rebranding.

The visuals are faded and weakened.

This is a common question when organisations and brands have been operating for a long time. They become old and stale, and the most significant problem is that this is frequently the impression left in the consumer’s mind. It could indicate that a company or brand is stuck in the past and isn’t developing or keeping up with the times. It may or may not require a complete overhaul but merely a modern infusion to keep it current.

Customers don’t recognise your value proposition.

This is also a common occurrence. Your company’s logo, website, and marketing materials no longer reflect who and what it is today. There is a separation since they are incoherent.

Internal marketers and sales teams will have a difficult time representing the brand. It’s also possible that your clients are perplexed and don’t understand what your company or brand is all about. Any brand’s worst enemy is confusion.

You should redesign if your current brand no longer accurately represents your company.

Innovation has changed the marketplace.

Businesses have ‘carried over’ logos from one industry to another. So I reasoned that because I had already paid for it, I may as well reuse it.

Be wary of the brand! Adopting a cookie-cutter approach to all logos is fueling issues and dangers. Logos and brands should reflect a brand and its various audiences, their requirements, language, and expectations — using a cookie-cutter approach to all logos fuels concerns and risks.

Suppose your company/brand is forced to relocate into a new industry due to unforeseen circumstances. In that case, it’s time to rebrand because it’s a whole new audience that will necessitate an entirely new brand creation and strategy.

You’ve lost control of the brand image.

This is also extremely frequent in the early stages of a firm. They only have enough funds to get the business up and going. Frequently, the logo/brand is the last thing to be designed. Worse, there aren’t enough dollars to invest, so it’s outsourced to a friend’s young relative or sites like 99designs, Fiverr, or E-lancer.

As a result, you’ll have a brand that looks good but doesn’t mean anything. These logos consist of nothing more than words or a form on a page. There is no strategy, uniqueness, purpose, or personality in this brand. Customers will not understand or desire to support this brand. Rather than a meaningful and recognisable identity, it’s just a visual.

Yes, it’s time to invest in a genuine rebrand by specialists who truly understand branding and can bring your brand to life in significant and effective ways as soon as your company can afford it.

You are changing your business structure.

This is more common in larger businesses. When two companies merge under a new banner, some companies retain some previous logo/brand, but this rarely works.

The problem is that two separate teams, cultures, messages, marketing materials, and so on, must come together.

In any merger, strive to accomplish the same for your new brand and business. Rather than a makeover, this should be a completely new brand.

If your company is experiencing these, it’s time to think about a rebranding or even a whole new brand. We recently conducted a brand identification study on behalf of one of our clients, and 80 per cent of those surveyed felt that their brand was tired, not modern, and didn’t do their firm any favours; a rebrand was required! Over 100 percent of the same audience felt that the new identity better reflected the organisation positively, modern way after the rebranding effort.

This is your sign to do some rebranding and pinch on your business, and we’re here to help!

How To Rank Better on Google with SEO

You can’t purchase your Google ranking with money alone, but with a bit of time and planning, you can enhance your position on the search engine results page (SERP) without spending a dollar. According to studies, almost 91% of clicks go to the first page of Google results. It’s easy to assume why a lot of businesses want to be on Google’s first page. Barely a tiny percentage of web traffic makes it past the first page, and if your firm is on the third or fourth, it will struggle to get visibility, traffic, and leads.

Search engine optimization is a long-term effort. It takes commitment and money, but there are ways to improve your rating without spending a lot of time and money.

Let me share with you how to get your website onto page 1!

Enhance the user experience on your website

According to a SEMrush analysis, the top four ranking factors include website visits, length on site, pages per session, and bounce rate. As Google recently highlighted with its Page Experience upgrade, all four are entirely linked to the user experience your site provides. Assume your website is easy to navigate and conveys a relevant message. In such a situation, you’ll persuade people to stay on your site longer and view more pages, improving your search engine rankings.

Create excellent SEO-optimized content

High-quality content on your website is one of the most effective ways to increase traffic and improve your search ranking. Google indicated in a blog post about page experience that exceptional, relevant content is more important for ranking than page experience. Make sure your content is error-free, keyword-rich, mobile-optimized, and tailored to your target audience’s specific needs, as well as contain valuable links to further internal and external resources.

Find stronger backlinks

One of the most strongly weighted Google ranking variables is backlinks or links from other websites to yours. Incoming links to your website or blog from high-authority domains enhance your site’s authority, boost traffic, and improve your search ranking.

Improve the website speed

Because one of the crucial metrics in Google’s latest Core Web Vitals improvement is load rate, it’s a good idea to make your site swift to improve your search ranking and provide a pleasant user experience.

Use H1 and H2 header tags

Not only do headers make your material more legible and understandable for humans and search engines alike, but there is a strong link between the use of header tags in the body of your content and Google search rank. Header tags are also a fantastic method to highlight significant points and display the structure of your material

Strive for “position zero”

When a user uses Google Search to ask a query, Google may display content from a relevant website above the #1 search result in a featured snippet or answer box. Having your material published in a featured snippet is an excellent method to increase your brand presence and visibility while also generating traffic to your website. Evaluate the possible searches connected to your business and fuel your site with clear, authoritative responses to optimize your content’s chances of being selected as a featured snippet by Google.

Which of these strategies have you applied so far this year?

How to Double your Website SALES

So you have a website with amazing information, it looks great and you provide a much better product or service than your competition.

But your website is also not selling your product, no one is buying. If you are in this position, then you have the wrong tool for the job. You don’t need a website, you need a SALES converting website.

The difference is – A sales converting websites closes deals and makes you money.

At Zelesco Consulting we are experts in this and we want to share with you some tips on how to do it. But firstly, you need to shift your thinking from worrying about clicks to thinking about sales and conversions.

To be brutally honest, you could have 1 million clicks, but if people don’t buy anything and you need sales, then you need to convert those clicks into sales and cash.

5 tips – To increase Digital Sales by 100%

1 – Phone Number at the Top of your Website

To maximise conversions, one of the easiest and most effective things you can do is to put a phone number up the top of your website.

In 2021, the majority of online search is now via mobile. If someone hits your site and they cannot see a phone number, they will simply click off and you just lost a sale.

Get your phone number top of the page – Ideally top right.
Set up a “Call to Action” button. Depending on your industry, this may be to book a meeting/call/appointment.

See below how we did it on our website.

2 – Responsive Website

Today it’s imperative that your website works across all platforms. Otherwise you will lose prospects and sales.

A responsive website is one that works on PC, Phone, Tablet and Laptops.

Imagine if your website did not work on mobile phone and only PC? Over 50% of people who search websites are now doing it via mobile, you will miss 50% of your total market!

This is especially important for industries that are phone search heavy like plumbers, mechanics or tow truck operators. If someone’s car breaks down, the first thing they will often do is a Google search, then call. If your website does not work on mobile, in some industries you could miss 70-80%+ of the search volume.

3 – Website Structure

You need to make sure your website is structured correctly, this is important so people can easily navigate the website.

Get it wrong and it will cost you sales, people may simply think they are in the wrong place and click off.

For example,

Imagine you sold both cars and trucks. Now imagine on your website, both the Car and Truck section is mixed in together. Or imagine they are both on the same page. For a buyer of a car, if you mixed the truck information in with it, it would be confusing and detract from the key car selling points.
Or imagine an Accounting firm putting personal tax services and large business tax services on the same page of a website. If an individual wanted a tax return done and they saw on the page you are providing tax services to large companies, they may assume you’re too expensive and click off.

These problems can easily be overcome, but the right site structure is required to do this. Get it right and website leads will flow in, get it wrong and you may get a donut a big fat 0!

4 – Live chat

Live Chat is a useful tool to capture people’s contact information that can then be used to turn them into a lead and sale.

It’s generally run one of two ways, by directly answering questions which is monitored by a human or automatically via a script.

One – Directly answering enquiries:

Some companies monitor their website live chat 24/7, using it to answer questions to close sales. This can help to potentially close off a sale then and there.

This is especially useful for talking to potential overseas clients, anyone who cannot speak english well or people who are just reluctant to call. For example, a single mum calling a trade company because she does not have the confidence to talk to them. Live chat can solve this problem.

I have also personally seen a lot of sales closed in real estate from wealthy Asian buyers who prefer to chat via the live chat than a phone call. Companies can either run this inhouse or get someone overseas to monitor it with a script 24/7.

Two – Capture Lead Details:

Often live chat will just pop up with a question for a website visitor so you can capture there details, so you don’t need to monitor it 24/7!

For example, “Hello, what’s your name and number? How can I help you?”

The busiest time for the internet is between 6-11pm, if someone gets online at 10pm they rarely will call you as it’s too late. But they may engage with the live chat. If so, it’s your opportunity to ask them a questions and then capture there details, you can then call them the next day.

Summary:

Live chat is an often underutilised cheap tool, even if it only generates you one extra sale every two months, if that’s 6 sales a year in many industries that could be tens of thousands. Not bad for something you can set up that can runs automatically!

5 – Call to Actions!

What is a Call to Action? Well it’s exactly what the name says, It’s calling someone to act!

On a website, you need to firstly have content and then secondly have a way for people to get on with it and buy, get a quote, sign-up or call.

You want these to stand out and for the Call to Action to compel them to act in the easiest way possible to buy your product or service.

There’s no point in people getting onto your website and then not going the next step and buying from you.

Tips:

Bold – Colours and Font
Advantages – Clearly show the advantage of engaging
Make it easy to find – Don’t hide the sign up button at the bottom of the page!
Professional – Also, try to keep it professional. I know a girl in a bikini would stand out, but if your an accounting firm is that really a good idea? Probably not.

Those were just a few of our top tips to increase conversions on your website. At Zelesco Consulting we have worked with many businesses to increase their conversions and help them increase sales by 100%+ and fast!

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Why You Need a Digital Strategy

It might sound obvious to have a plan before you do something, but weekly we come across businesses that are participating in Digital Marketing or engaging online without any sort of plan or business goal they are trying to obtain.

And for small businesses, I would go as far as to say the majority are basically just “winging” it and doing random actions, pictures, posts and advertising. For some reason people seem to forget that business is a marathon not a sprint. A business may have revenue goals, the owner plans a holiday, to go to the gym etc. But then with Digital Marketing, there’s just a series of Ad Hoc random activities.

If your planning to run a business for the next 5+ years, what’s the point in running an Ad for a few weeks, getting no real data then turning it off? Even if you get a sale, that business will have no idea how they did it and they won’t be able to replicate the performance.

We often see:

Ad Hoc Posting – The business may post daily for a week or two, then the owner gets busy and stops or changes the Digital platform, say from Facebook to Instagram.
Tracking – You are posting and have no idea if it’s even working.
Random Actions – Such as running an ad for a short amount of time, not tracking it, having no real data that you can replicate and then turning it off.
Advertising Variables – If you mess with multiple variables in the targeting of a Facebook advertisement, how do you know which one worked? For example, if your Facebook Ad was performing and targeted towards the middle of a city and 25-35yo women. If you then alter it to the country and towards 40-60yo men. If it performs or does not, you will have no idea why.

Why you need a Plan

The issue is that Digital Marketing is a numbers game and if you have the correct data you can replicate results. But if you’re all over the place with random activities, you don’t know what’s working and you won’t be able to replicate anything.

You really need to start from the top, work out what you’re trying to achieve and then put a clear plan in place to get an outcome.

For example, a business might need to generate 3 sales a month and its conversion rate may be 1 in 5 from leads to sales. This means that if it can generate 15 leads a month, it can hit it’s sales target. Therefore it needs a strategy that can generate at least 15 leads a month.

You can then take that target and work out the best way to advertise online to generate the required inbound leads while tracking results. Once established, you can continue to optimise the strategy and also replicate it if you choose to expand.

For more information on this please contact Zelesco Consulting:

lucia@zelescoconsulting.com.au