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HOW TO ENERGISE YOUR BUSINESS IN 2008

Feel like your business has lost its direction? Working hard but not getting the results you deserve? Robert Craven, entrepreneur guru leads the way!

 

"The best-kept secret of successfully growing a business is dead simple - take massive action'

Sometimes our business loses a bit of direction. Despite our best intentions we spend too much time in the detail of the business and we lose the plot – we forget what we are trying to achieve and suddenly everything seems a bit like hard work. The next thing we know, we’ve become addicted to this hard work and think that this is what running your own business is all about.

Wrong! It is time to step back, review where we are and set about making some changes, some resolutions.

Meek or bold; sluggish or entrepreneurial - On a scale of one to ten, how bold and entrepreneurial are you? Meekness and sluggishness are the enemies of the growing business and you need to make sure that you combat these diseases as best you can. Enjoy the journey – take (calculated) risks and challenge yourself to be bigger and better than you have been.

The best-kept secret

The best-kept secret of successfully growing a business is dead simple – take massive action: don’t take half-measures but go for it. Don’t be so timid – be proud of what you do and the results you get!

Action is everything. Without action nothing happens.  And the sooner you start to take the big decisions and get out there, the better. What have you been meaning to do but avoided doing? Make the tough decisions now!

Inaction begets even more inaction. In my opinion it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission. So, get out there and go for it.

Be proud

I am fed up with standing in front of young businesses that seem to apologise for their very existence. They look like they will crumble if you so much as look at them.  Painfully shy and embarrassed about their business aspirations, it seems like they’ve already decided for themselves that the business will fail. And to paraphrase the motivational speakers, “If you think you can’t, then you are probably right!”

Get rid of those voices inside your head

Most entrepreneurs have a voice in their head which keeps telling them things like “you’ll never make it”, “you charge too much” or “You are an impostor and don’t deserve success”. Eliminate all this negative thinking, as it is singularly unhelpful.

Sort Your Pricing

Charge what your products and services are worth – don’t be shy.  Demonstrate their value; show customers how you can help them. Stop selling yourself short. As the ad goes, “Because you’re worth it!”.

Ask for the business

If you don’t ask for the business then your competitors will.  You have a great product and you know that your customers will love it so ask for the business, now!  And always ask for referrals.

Sort your marketing

You will never grow a business if you can’t attract decent customers. Most businesses are pretty proud of what they actually do – producing the product or service that they offer.  In a recent survey of 15,000 business owners (see the book, Bright Marketing), most scored themselves as ‘high’ for their operations performance, but ‘low’ for their marketing performance. To improve your financial performance, sort your marketing: get more, better customers – they are more profitable and more pleasurable to work with.

 

'My toughest lesson in growing up was that the one thing that a business needs in order to grow is systems, process and controls.'

 

Fix the under-performers – sack the scum!

You have under-performing staff, suppliers and customers. They are scum! You spend a disproportionate amount of time trying to sort them out. Just let them go and find some better ones. Now. Get rid of them… Ideally you do this legally! The relief you will get is immense. Suddenly you can concentrate your energy on constructive things rather than dealing with these energy drainers.

 

'Find out the best way to do something and don’t keep re-inventing the wheel.  Customers want consistency and reliability'

 

You might have sown the seeds of your own destruction

We go into business to do our own thing – put two fingers up at systems, processes and controls.  My first and toughest lesson in growing up was that the one thing that a business needs in order to grow is systems, process and controls. Find out the best way to do something and don’t keep re-inventing the wheel.  Customers want consistency and reliability.  Figure out the best way to deliver it and stick with it – stop making it up as you go along – create a manual and commit all your processes to paper  - it will be this unique system that people will want to give you money for when you come to sell.

You are the bottleneck - sack yourself (as best as you can!)

As we grow our business, there is a tendency to grow it around ourself as the owner (that voice in your head says things like “You can’t trust staff with the cash”, “No-one does the job as well as I can”, “It is easier to do it myself”).  You become addicted to being the centre of attention.  But actually it is you that is holding your business back – you are the bottleneck – you are the problem. 

Take every step you can to get yourself out of the equation: create systems and processes so that others can do the work – and trust them and leave them to get on with it.

Let’s talk exit, now

Over 70% of business owners expect to be able to retire on the proceeds of the sale of their business – but less than a quarter actually make any plans as to how they will do this.  Is it any wonder that most are disappointed? Now is the time to start planning how you are going to get paid for all your hard work and effort.  Start creating a business that someone would pay you for.

Five steps to increase profits, now

To increase profits the order of priorities is as follows:

1. Put up prices
2. Decrease direct costs
3. Sort the under-performers, and only then…
4. Try to increase sales volumes, and only then…
5. Cut overheads

Four steps to grow the business

To grow the business focus on the following:

• Get more customers - very expensive so maybe you should…
• Get existing customers to buy more, and
• Get existing customers to buy more often, and, of course
• Don’t let existing customers leave you – blow them away with your wonderful service

ACTION TIPS

– A bunch of fives...

• Talk to at least five percent more existing/past clients every day
• Talk to at least five percent more potential clients every day

Find five ways:

• To improve your product/service
• To get more out of your staff
• To get more profit out of your business
  
• To get more sales
• To improve understanding of how sales and marketing works
• To improve operational efficiency and consistency
• To spread the work load and not be so dependent on you
• To use money more effectively
  
• To improve financial planning
• To spend more time ‘on’ and less time ‘in’ the business
• To communicate the vision/purpose to the team
  
  
  
• Find five tasks to finish or dump that have been hanging around
• Decide five decisions you want to make

Focus on five ways:

• To enjoy your social/private life even more
• To maximise your time
• To laugh more
• To congratulate yourself on your successes
• o spend a little more time thinking and a little less time doing, but also…
• To be a bit more spontaneous!
  
  
  
• Find five new connections you want to make
• Find five big steps you want to make
• Agree five things you are going to do in the next five hours
• Agree five of the above list that you are going to do in the next five days!

 

about the author

 Robert Craven is a keynote speaker and author of the business best-sellers 'Kick-Start Your Business' and 'Customer Is King'. He has recently been described as 'one of the UK’s leading marketing specialists' and the 'entrepreneurship guru'. He runs The Directors’ Centre, helping growing businesses to grow.
For further information, contact Robert Craven on 01225 851044. (rc@directorscentre.com) www.directorscentre.com

Robert Craven©2007

publication details

First published in Start Your Business Magazine, December, 2007