The 7 Keys to Business Success
) Copyright 2005 Greg Roworth
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.
1 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.
2 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.
3 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.
4 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.
5 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.
6 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.
7 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.
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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
Small Business Success or check out the free resources.
