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The 7 Keys to Business Success
by Greg Roworth
Published on this site: July 19th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
Do you run a business that seems to run you? It does not
have to be this way. There are 7 keys that can improve your
business results and help you achieve success with much less
stress.
- Take Charge
The first key is to realise that success will not just happen,
it is up to you to make it happen. Successful people claim
to be in control. They refuse to be victims. They accept
responsibility for the results their business achieves and
take the blame themselves if things go wrong. When we are
in control we can choose what to do. We can't always control
the situation but there are two things we can control -
our attitude and our skills. We can get stronger, we can
get smarter, we can get better at all the skills we need
to run our business. We can take charge of ourselves and
our business and change the results we are achieving.
- Know Where You Are Going
Without having specific goals, business owners often find
working in the business becomes an endless drudgery. If
being in business is not exciting, enjoyable and rewarding,
then why be in it? It is exciting and rewarding for the
few who are really successful. The difference is that they
have a clear idea of where they are going and each day they
can see their business making progress towards their clearly
defined goals.
If our goals are not clearly defined it is easy to become
like the mouse on the treadmill. We can expend a lot of
effort going nowhere. All we can do is react to the pressures
the business creates. The second key is to decide where
you are going. When you know where you want your business
to go, you can determine what needs to be done to get there.
Doing these things creates excitement and enjoyment. Instead
of struggling on with meagre rewards, we can make progress
towards success in a steadily growing and entirely planned
way.
- Spread The Word
You will never succeed by keeping your business a secret.
You need to spread the word to let people know about your
unique products or services. With many small businesses,
there is a tendency to be reactive. If sales slow down,
you decide to advertise to address the situation. When work
picks up, advertising is stopped. The result of this approach
is haphazard advertising which produces haphazard results.
Rather than haphazard advertising, a planned advertising
and promotion strategy can be applied to address specific
goals.
Instead of one broad objective of "getting more sales",
strategies can be developed in three areas. Firstly strategies
should be developed to actively encourage word of mouth
and a system for generating referred leads. Secondly, planned
advertising approaches are needed to generate a steady flow
of new enquiries. Thirdly, strategies can be developed to
increase the value and frequency of purchases from existing
customers. Marketing must not be left to chance. The third
key is to spread the word, by developing planned, consistent
and effective advertising and promotional systems and strategies.
- Do What You Do So Well They'll Come Back And Bring
Their Friends
The difference between the truly successful business and
the average business is that successful business' leaders
live, breathe and preach quality, where the average business'
leader only pays lip service to it. There are many companies
that have built their reputation on the quality of the service
they provide as much as the product they sell. Even if we
haven't been, I'm sure we all know the reputation Disneyland
has for the quality of the experience of a visit there.
The title of this key is a quote (paraphrased) from Walt
Disney. This man lived and breathed this attitude and accepted
nothing less from his employees. The outworking is that
standards and procedures are established so that employees
know what is expected of them in every situation, particularly
in an interaction with a customer. Delighted customers come
back with their friends
- Train Your People To Do It Better Than You
When we start a business based on our own unique skills,
we have a difficult choice when we get too busy to cope
with all the work our expertise has created. We need to
spread the load by employing others to do some of the work.
This is the critical point in the business' development.
If the business owner gets this right, the future of the
business is assured, but if it goes wrong, the business
is doomed.
Many business owners wish they could clone themselves. They
are unable to find anyone who can work as well as they do.
Usually there has been some resistance to this move, but
eventually the need becomes obvious. Business growth is
always stifled by the owner hanging on to the work they
enjoy. Having made the choice to grow, the key to unlocking
this potential is to train the new people to be better than
yourself.
- Keep The Score
The greatest danger in a growing business is for the owner
to lose control. This fear causes many to choose to stay
small because they do not want the worries of growing too
big.
WHAT YOU MEASURE YOU CAN IMPROVE!
A business' performance needs to be managed and controlled.
So many business owners worry about getting the work done,
but they don't measure results, they don't keep score. Keeping
the score indicates how well the business is going towards
achieving its goals. If performance is behind expectations,
steps can be taken to improve. If the score was not kept,
no one would ever know that performance was substandard,
and the goals would quite likely never be reached.
- Celebrate Your Victories
Regeneration of our physical and emotional resources comes
when we celebrate victories. One of the problems we have
in small business is that we think we are too busy to take
time off to celebrate. Even if we just get away from the
business and relax, we come back rejuvenated and are usually
able to tackle our work with a renewed vigour. Imagine how
inefficient it becomes, using a battery powered machine,
if we keep on working harder and harder to get the work
done and never stop to recharge the batteries. If we don't
stop at times to recharge our batteries we keep working
hard but become totally ineffective.
When we plan our future and set goals it is easy to determine
when to celebrate. Without goals to achieve, we can keep
on working until it becomes a drudgery. Celebrations put
excitement into what we do.
Conclusion
Implementing the 7 keys to unlock the profit potential in
your business could be what you need to end the frustration
you feel from trying to build your business but seeming to
take one step forward and two steps back. These are the keys
to freedom from the daily grind of business pressure, the
keys to gaining the rewards you deserve from the efforts you
put in. It is up to you to take hold of the keys and unlock
the hidden profit and excitement that is the potential your
business holds.
Greg Roworth is a business consultant and author of
The 7 Keys to Unlock Your Business Profit Potential. Download
the first two chapters free at "www.small-business-success.ws"
or check out the free resources.
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