11 steps to overcoming the odds and succeeding in your first years.
Clarity Of Purpose - Your 'why'
Know your 'why'. Business can be tough, very tough, so knowing why you're doing what you're doing and reinforcing that purpose will serve you well and help see you through the tough times. Remember that when your 'why' is strong enough, you'll figure out the 'how'.
Know Your Numbers
You must know and track your numbers intimately well at every stage of your business. If you don't know your expenses and your desired profit you will almost certainly be pricing incorrectly. Knowing your numbers is crucial to being able to set targets and understanding your limitations. I once asked a barber during a haircut how business was and he proceeded to tell me his business was actually struggling and he may need to close down. I asked how many cuts a day, a week etc. he would require to be profitable, he had to think and do some quick maths before giving a very general answer. They weren't generating enough revenue and were paying staff they couldn't afford to have and they were completely unaware until their finances were assessed at tax time. Great barbers, excellent at their craft, but staff were made redundant and the shop eventually closed. Know and track your numbers!
Set Goals And Targets
What do you want to achieve? How will you achieve it? That's the difference between goals and targets. A goal that has not been reverse engineered into a clear, step-by-step, systematic process is merely a dream. Those step-by-step processes will shape your targets and you must measure and track your targets to ensure you're on track to achieving your goals. The goal is not what separates those who succeed from those who don't. The systems and processes used to attain the goal do. So set clear goals and break them down into manageable targets and tasks with deadlines for their attainment.
Become Known
Obscurity will very likely be one of your biggest threats. It's great to know a lot of people, but even more people need to know you. If no one knows you exist how will they ever be able to do business with you? In the beginning of your business promotion absolutely must be a priority. This doesn't necessarily require money either. Leverage your relational capital, the people you already know and interact with, get in touch with them and make a point of mentioning your new business. Offer to help people for free or at a discount in exchange for referrals or a review. Join groups to expand your network and increase the amount of people who know you and can tell others about you. And of course, the list of options expands with the addition of capital to invest in promotion. Remember, other people have all the things you want and need but don't currently have and you need to find them and exchange with them. Meet people with a genuine attitude of service. Ask people what you could do to help them and watch how many will want to do the same for you.
Implement Systems
Systems are only for bigger organisations right? Absolutely not. What is a system? I define a system as a process of doing something. Your morning routine is a system. Identify your current processes and start seeing them as systems. What new systems could you implement to boost your business? How can your current systems be improved? Optimising the way you do things is a far too often overlooked gold mine of opportunity!
Be Consistent
Consistency is so important. There's no such thing as an overnight success, you must win and win consistently. How can you protect yourself from the downside and keep your momentum? We all have ups and downs but the goal is to trend upwards over time. Again, systems are great for ensuring consistency.
Add Value
We are paid in direct proportion to the value we provide to other people. Increase your revenue and profits by becoming more valuable. First, you need to find out what your customers or clients actually value and then think of ways that you can provide them with that. This can often be done by simply refining or improving your systems, how you do things. How you communicate, how you ensure you're reliable, how you build and maintain trust, how you present yourself, even how you answer the phone. If you want a super simple way of finding out what your customers or clients value, send us an email or text. Business is all about mutual exchange so when you add value, look for something you can get in return. It's not greedy, it's smart, all parties need to win.
Measure, Track And Adjust
Track your performance. Are you hitting you targets? Do you need to make adjustments? What systems have you put in place to ensure you're moving in the right direction? Have you set KPI's? This goes back to knowing your numbers intimately. There's a great analogy that you may have heard before about a golfer teeing off. 1 degree offline at the point of impact can result in the ball being significantly off course by the time it hits the ground. Thankfully in business we can, and must, constantly measure and track our trajectory and make any necessary adjustments. Don't be like the barber shop and find yourself in the rough at the end of the year!
Scale
There's no such thing as a stable business, you're either growing or contracting. Always be thinking in terms of growth and scalability. If you're a sole operator wanting to grow you'll want to hire as soon as you reasonably can. Why? Well for one, when your entire business depends on you, you're vulnerable. And two, you're missing out on all the opportunity that awaits you by scaling your business. Knowing when and how to scale your business can be challenging and is not without risk so you should consult with your accountant. If you want to stay a sole operator that's completely fine, you will however, still need to grow and add value if for no other reason than to keep up with inflation.
Don't Go It Alone
Nothing great is ever achieved alone. Building a team around you, a power network consisting of great people who can help you, can significantly strengthen and accelerate you your business. A common sticking point for business owners is trying to do everything themselves when they'd be better off delegating certain aspects of their business to staff, outsourcing them or hiring experts for more complex matters. Knowing when to delegate things and too whom is smart, efficient and allows you to focus your time and energy on being as effective as you can. Who can you add to your power network?
Always Be Improving
Never underestimate the power of micro-actions. You can double your results in just 70 days simply by becoming 1% better each day. Do that for a year and you'll see a 37x increase so always look for ways to improve and regularly ask yourself how things can be done better. This is the compound power of consistency!
While this isn't an exhaustive list these simplified, tried and tested principles can be applied to a multitude of businesses in multiple industries and I'd love to hear how they work for you!
Chris.
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