In a couple of days, my calendar is going to ping me with a reminder. It’s going to say “One month in – how’s it going, Heather?” This reminder is for me to review the new business strategies I intended to integrate into my business this year.
Each year, I list out a bunch of strategies I want to integrate into my business. Some are marketing strategies, some are productivity strategies, some are customer service strategies; that kind of thing. I always have a really bold and vibrant vision of the year ahead and it’s easy for me to actually create so many strategies that I simply can’t implement them all effectively.
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Running a small business is all about problems!
- You’ll be more successful when you identify a problem that your target market is facing… and you solve it.
- While many of your customers will leave happy, some will return the product or express dissatisfaction with the service – that’s a problem.
- You’ll also encounter problems each and every day – whether staff issues or accounts receivables challenges or vendor concerns – all of which can hold your business back from the success you desire.
- Even working on big projects, which requires a certain amount of project management, also requires a healthy dose of problem solving to navigate complex projects through to their successful completion.
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In my reading I’ve enjoyed the writing of Duct Tape Marketing creator John Jantsch. You can read his blog over at Duct Tape Marketing.
In a recent blog, The Three Natural Phases of Successful Small Business Growth, Jantsch talks about the 3 phases that he sees small businesses progress through.
The first phase is foundation, the second phase is growth, the third stage is momentum. Jantsch describes each phase and encourages readers to identify where they are.
To recap (and to add on to what Jantsch has said):
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Business owners work hard to create a business that hopefully will become a valuable, revenue-generating asset for them. IF a business survives, that is a tribute to the entrepreneur. But IF a business thrives, that is even better.
So, how does a business get from “survive” to “thrive”? I suggest that the clue is in the title: Are you managing? Or managing? Yes, it sounds strange so let me explain:
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At a big family gathering a couple of years ago, my then-8-year-old niece saw the adults cleaning up after the meal. She was given a task to do and, not surprisingly, she dawdled. When reprimanded, she rolled her eyes and complained that adults LOVE doing the dishes and other boring things.
We laughed, of course, because no one really loves to do that kind of stuff. But it needs to get done and we know that putting away the leftovers and loading the dishwasher will take just a few minutes and will give us the entire evening to visit. And we can envision the annoyance if we didn’t do it now… later in the evening when we’re relaxed, NOBODY is going to want to load the dishwasher. Click here to read more »
Yesterday I talked about the tricky balance between the customer always being right and Henry Ford’s admission that if he had listened to people, he would have invented a faster horse.
Ford states it well and if I were to restate what he said I would put it a little more bluntly: the customer doesn’t really know what they need. I mean that customers know they need a solution to their problem or a fulfillment to their desire but they will solve that need with the best available solution. Thus, if Henry Ford had listened to the market, he would have given them a faster horse because horses were the available solution for getting around. Click here to read more »
