Would every single one of your employees say that they know the rhythm that creates a predictable business?

Better yet, would all of their answers match? Or does your business sometimes stumble over its own feet?

The best companies don’t leave anything to chance when they don’t have to. They have a process for making sure things get done when they’re supposed to be done.

A business rhythm is probably one of the last secrets anyone tells you about when you’re trying to grow your business. You either stumble onto it on your own, or you get lucky, and someone tells you about it.

This post lays out the proven 30-Day Business Rhythm that will both, make your business predictable and grow your business. I’m going to show you which actions to take at 5-day intervals in your business to help you grow it.

This business rhythm covers: leadership, accountability, goals (company and individual), personal touch, forecasting, making adjustments, and results.

Believe me. You’re going to love this plan!

A Predictable Business Moves Like A Marching Band

Businesses have a rhythm, just like a marching band, to make sure everyone’s on the same page doing what they need to do.

When you watch a marching band, it’s a beautiful thing to see everyone in step, moving in the right direction. There’s a flow to the music. There’s a flow to their step. Each band member takes perfectly timed steps, and everyone knows exactly where they’re supposed to be and when they’re supposed to be there.

Put that all together in one fluid movement, and that marching band looks awesome! And when you see someone out of step, or you hear them miss a note in the music, it’s painfully obvious. Even casual observers notice! You’ll see people in the audience wince when somebody misses a note, or they see someone step out of line.

People love to watch marching bands like Grambling’s or OSU’s “The Best Damn Band in the Land” because they flow. They look and sound so good.

A well-run business is no different. It enjoys the same appreciation.

Rhythm is the secret that makes the business run so smoothly. A business rhythm is what lets some business owners take vacations while others hardly take an afternoon off. 

A business rhythm lets everyone on the team know what’s next; when it’s going to happen; what they need to do; and why they’re doing it.

People love to know what’s next. The people who work for you love to know that they know what’s on your mind, what’s next in their day, and what you’re expecting them to take care of.

Your team likes to know they’re doing the right things at the right time. It gives them a sense of accomplishment.

This 30-day rhythm helps make sure that they’re able to do that. There are six major touch points you need to make happen on specific days in your business every month to build a predictable business.

They’re the same every month. They’re never any different regardless of which month or quarter you’re in. These 6 things have to happen every month.

Let’s jump in.

The 5^th of the Month – Current Forecast

On the morning of the 5^th of the month, you should be reviewing all of the forecasts for the current and next two months; possibly even further if your business has that much visibility. How far you look into the future depends on the length of your sales cycle.

Pay the most attention to the current month and take note of whether or not the future months are building momentum as they should.

These forecasts should be on your desk or in your email for you to review. You need to know that the sales you expect to happen that month are in fact going to happen.

The reason you want this the morning of the 5^th is because this gives you time to make adjustments, go out and maybe pull some sales forward, push a little harder. It allows you to tell Operations to be ready for whatever production is coming based on sales, so you can deliver successfully.

You’re better off trying to make small tweaks early in the game than trying to make big changes late in the game.

You want to know that you’re going to hit your revenue number. Think of all the times you’ve missed a number late or didn’t realize that something big was going to hit when it did. Wouldn’t it have been easier to handle if you’d sat down and taken a moment to think about it earlier in the month?

Doing this will allow you to manage your finances better, make adjustments to operations, and spend where you need to on marketing. Forecasting is perhaps one of the best skills you can learn to develop as a business owner.

The 10^th of the Month – Close the Previous Month

Five days later – the 10^th…

This is the day you should receive the closed financials for the prior month for your review.

How did last month go? What are you looking for?

Anything unexpected? Anything awesome? Anything you need to celebrate with your team? Messages you need to send out regarding thank yous to your team – that sort of thing. Anyone you want to specifically call out for a good job?

What adjustments need to be made in the current month based on last month?

Look at every month’s financials by the tenth day. If you allow a whole month to go by, then you’ve just lost at least 20 days you could have used to take action on something that was out of control.

Or maybe you signed a new client, and there are new client steps that need to be taken, but you’ve unfortunately let 20 days – 3 weeks – roll by without properly starting things up. Maybe you could have saved some money and heartache by taking action as a result of the financial performance that you had in the prior month, but you let 3 weeks go by instead…

That’s why you look at your closed financials every month on the 10^th. A predictable business does not let time needlessly slip by.

The 15^th of the Month – Current Month Update

This is where you go back and you check; how’s the month going?

Is the forecast that you saw on your desk on the 5^th becoming reality? You have half a month left – how’s the business doing?

Any production or service delivery problems?

Any sales or marketing problems?

Anything that’s going to hold up revenue, that’s what you’re looking for.

You want to make sure that you’re on target. And not just for sales, but for profit margin. This is where you make your mid-month adjustment to make sure you’re going to hit your numbers.

The 20^th of the Month – Individual Goals

Welcome to the 20^th. You’re two-thirds done! This is when you get back to individual goals. Not your individual goals, but rather your employees’ individual goals.

Not everything is about what’s happening in spreadsheets. You should be checking in with your individual team players.

You’ve heard people say “Trust the process”. This is that idea in motion. When you’ve built up the individual goals on your team in a way that they collectively deliver the company result, you can trust the process.

A good leader checks in with their team to see how they’re doing on their individual goals.

You should be getting with your team every month. Walking around and talking to people:

How are they doing on their goals?

Where do they want to be?

Who’s close?

Who needs a little extra help?

Who knows they’re going to hit it?

Who’s having resource problems?

Who can help a teammate?

Intentionally check in with people and keep a running mental tally. This gives you the chance to high-five people who were struggling last month and who are doing well this month. It’s a powerful tool when you’re recognizing someone at, and you’re doing it real-time as opposed to long after-the-fact.

When you have people who are beating the goal, it becomes a game because you can ask them how far they can go, how much more can they get done? Can they set a new personal best? Those are always fun!

You’re driving the importance of the goal while also cheering people on and helping those who need it. 

You’re checking in with everyone – how’s it going? This is a great time for them to speak up and let you know that a process isn’t working well or a piece of equipment isn’t working well. They can tell you specifically and point out what’s keeping them from their goal. 

You’re not waiting for them to come to you after the month is over; a predictable business doesn’t operate like that. You’re going to them to get them the resources they need to get it done.
An important note on these conversations. Only 1-out-of-5 times should you bring something to write on. Nothing says you’re keeping score like a clipboard! If the two of you agree that something is important and you need to follow up on it or take an action, ask them to send you an email during the conversation. The 20th is about motivation and goals, not score-keeping.

The 25^th of the Month – Month-end Push

We have two things happening on the 25^th.

The 25^th is first when you kick off your month-end push.

You’ll have anywhere from 3 to 5 business days left in the month so this is when no holds are barred; how close are we? What’s the best we can do? And then make it happen.

Confession: I’ve been known to take this step 5 business days before the month ends, rather than 5 calendar days.

It is soooo painful to come very close to hitting a goal and then missing it. But had you known you were going to miss it 3 or 4 days ago, you coulda/woulda/shoulda done something to hit the goal.

This is your last check, where you’re asking, “What do I need to do to make sure that the team hits the company goals and individuals hit their individual goals?”

This is your final check-in. This is you’re asking “hey, who’s close? Who’s gonna hit it? and who’s gonna miss it?”

Even the folks who are going to miss their goal; you don’t want them in a huge hole where they have to make up too much of the goal the following month or months.

This is all about “how do we get that month-end push that guarantees us as much of our team and individual goals as we possibly can?”

The second piece of what happens on the 25^th is this:

With 5 days to go, it’s time to start thinking about next month while also closing out the current month.

Anybody who’s going to hit their goal – actually everybody – needs to be setting up how they will hit the ground running in the following month.

This is when you’re asking, “What do we need to do to line up and make sure that we’re going to hit next month?”

So there’s two things to think about on the 25th:

1. Close out the current month with solid performance, and
2. Set up next month.

By now you should be seeing how a predictable business intentionally spends time looking forward. Looking forward isn’t a casual thought that randomly occurs when your gut suddenly tells you next month isn’t going to be good.

Party like it’s the 30^th-1^st!

Last day of the month, first day of the next month;

As you’re moving through the day and closing out the month, and people are hitting their goals, you celebrate!

Someone hits a sales goal, you celebrate!

Some hit a quality goal, you celebrate!

Someone hit a project goal, you celebrate!

This is the moment, the day, when everyone celebrates and cheers each other on.

On the 10^th next month you can celebrate again. And the reason you want to be celebrating these numbers both at the end of the month and the day they closed out is that it’s important to celebrate as closely as possible to when the success happened.

Celebrating January’s success at the end of March or April kinda feels like “eh… It’s not that important.” Maybe you need to bring in ice cream and cake on the first day of the month because of all of the people who hit their goals.

The Whole Month

You’ll notice that we touched on every aspect of your business.

This is the rhythm that builds a predictable business, and you don’t hear many leaders talk about it. This program helps you make sure your team’s focus is always where it needs to be.

Obviously, goals are an integral part of this rhythm. The really great thing about this business rhythm is that it helps you from a leadership perspective as well. One of the difficulties that companies have with goals is that they take a “set it and forget it” mentality. Then they wonder why the business isn’t moving as fast as it can, or should. 

With this method, you’re not just handing out goals at the beginning of the year and then rehashing them at the end of the year during employee reviews. You’re actually down in the trenches checking on progress and getting your team the resources they need. Your team is going to love you for that!

When it comes to planning and execution there is definite accountability. “I don’t know” disappears because you’re constantly checking in on the numbers and actions people are taking; from forecast to execution to results. 

Yet a plan like this would fall flat on its face without one more thing: Balance.

Balance – no doubt you noticed that there’s a lot of goal and number-driven activity in this business rhythm. You also noticed that there were a lot of “personal touch” actions (thank you’s, celebration, help with struggles). This rhythm has both the hard numbers stuff and the human touch stuff. 

Because of the personal touch you put on paying attention to your team’s goals, they feel like you give a darn about how they’re doing. When you check in on their roadblocks, celebrate their wins, get them resources, or help them plan, that all shows you truly care. 

One of the secrets to building a great business is that when you show an interest in your team, they show an interest in your business. If you implement only the numbers side of this program and skip checking in on everyone’s individual goals on the 20th, if you skip the celebration piece, you won’t maximize your results.

The Difference Between Rhythm and Routine

The difference between rhythm and routine is significant.

Routines tend to be mindless. Humans perform routines to save energy, whether its mental or physical effort; routines are built to conserve.

A Rhythm is adaptive and responsive. There’s no doubt that as you read this piece you noticed that it is very much about interpreting your situation, and then adapting and responding in a way that makes your business predictable.

A rhythm isn’t mindless. Routine should be reserved for low-level tasks. Building a predictable business is anything but routine.

What Does It Take?

Using this method to build a predictable business will take about 8 hours of your time every month.

Initially, this will feel like a lot. Within 3 or 4 months you should notice that the amount of time you spend putting out fires has been replaced by the time you spend looking forward and taking proactive action.

Over that time, your stress level will come down as you move into a proactive position and reduce the amount of time you spend reacting. In fact, your entire team will benefit because they’ll move from being reactive to being proactive.

It really doesn’t take any time?