The Russian Brothers and their Cousin. In Blackboard Fridays Episode 8, Jacob talks about Productivity. Need this implemented into your business? Talk to the international business advisor who can do exactly that – Contact Jacob, Learn More, or Subscribe for Updates.

Who is Jacob Aldridge, Business Coach?

“The smart and quirky advisor who gets sh!t done in business.”

Since April 2006, I’ve been an international business advisor providing bespoke solutions for privately-owned businesses with 12-96 employees.

At this stage you have proven your business model, but you’re struggling to turn aspirations into day-to-day reality. You are still responsible for all 28 areas of your business, but you don’t have the time or budget to hire 28 different experts.

You need 1 person you can trust who can show you how everything in your business is connected, and which areas to prioritise first.

That’s me.

Learn more here. Or Let’s chat.

Transcript

Hi! Jacob Aldridge here, and this year sharing one of the simplest (and more powerful) tools I have learned from my partnership with businessDEPOT. In last week’s Blackboard Fridays episode we talked about R ‘n’ R. Creating roles and responsibilities in your business and with you as the business owner to get more rest and recuperation.

Today’s tool we call “The 3 Russian Brothers” (because we love family businesses), and it’s one that I use to help a business owner take that “responsibilities” conversation to the next level. You may remember we broke a business down into four categories.

1. Black which was all about growing Wealth through your business, including functions like vision and valuation.
2. Green which is Growth, your growth plans for business management, reporting, culture–those kind of activities.
3. Blue which was around Revenue responsibilities like sales, operations, workflow, and
4. Red which was about improving your Margin, managing administration, finances, IT, premises and similar non-revenue-generating functions.

Most business owners I talked to find that they’re spending more time in the Red than they want, and not enough time in the Green (growing the business) or in the Black (building wealth). So todays 3 Russian Brothers exercise helps them identify the specific tasks that they need to change in order to reinvest their time much more profitably.

Introducing the 3 Russian Brothers and their Cousin

So let me introduce you to the Russian brothers: Morov, Lessov, Ridov, and we’re going to throw in their cousin Tossin.

How will these guys help you to manage your time and invest your time in the business?

Fairly straightforward.

Morov – what are the tasks that you need to be doing more of? If you have colour-coded your current and future responsibilities, then Morov will almost certainly be walking in fields of green for all of the growth activities you need to be doing more of in your business.

How can Lessov help? Maybe you need to be doing less of some of the administrative tasks that are going on in your business. In which case, are you handing them over to somebody else delegating or are you ditching them completely because they’re not that helpful? For some businesses that are going quite well, the business owner needs to do less of the blue revenue generating activity. They need to get themselves off the tools and maybe even get themselves out of the sales process to release some capacity for the business to grow.

How about Ridov? Good strategy isn’t what you say “YES” to, it’s what you say “NO” to – sometimes my clients will have some very good business ideas but in the context of investing their time … they have to get rid of those projects. “You know what I really just shouldn’t be doing that.” Other tasks might be the lower value responsibilities you never quite handed over, and by putting them in the Ridov category and then having a conversation with your team, you may find they’re easier to get rid of than you expected.

Lastly, cousin Tossin asks what else you need to toss in? What are some things that you’re not doing anything of at the moment, that you need to add to your role and responsibilities? This is where I tend to find some more of that green growth and the black wealth building activity. These are the things that really energized most business owners and yet as a business grows and develops, they find that they have less and less time to invest in.

Applying the Russian Brothers Tool

If you undertake this activity, you’ll find activities you need to do more of and one that you need to toss into your weekly routine. These may not be surprising to you – this exercise task isn’t about finding great new business ideas, but rather identifying the ideas you already have that need more of your time.

So why haven’t you already completed these tasks?

Because it’s easy to say you will do more of certain things, or toss in some bright new shiny ideas. Adding them to your list, however, doesn’t magically manufacture more hours in your work week.

The only way to do more of one function is to do less of, or get rid of, other responsibilities. And executing this part of the exercise takes more discipline.

Through Lessov and Ridov you can find opportunities to create that time for your business.

You are the most valuable resource your business has. Make sure you’re investing your time in the activities are going to get the greatest return on investment and leverage your team to do those activities that drive the business forward.

Next Steps

Want to learn more about how this can apply to your business? It costs nothing to chat:

• Email me jacob@jacobaldridge.com (I read them all)
• Call, Text, or WhatsApp me +61 427 151 181
• Or just Subscribe https://jacobaldridge.com/about/subscribe-to-jacob-aldridge-com/ to stay in touch