We all aspire to be better. I had started and owned a business for 20 years and had years of triple digit sales growth and solid double digit sale growth. Even while running and growing a business one tries to determine what you are doing right and wrong. Find something that is working and try to make it repetitive. Find something that is not working and try to eliminate it before it brings further undesirable results.
I have a good friend that is an attorney and we would discuss business and he accounted his success to the fact that he consistently and diligently returned phone calls. To that I say What? Something so simple as just returning a phone call made you better than your counterparts? And the answer to that is yes. Not everyone does return phone calls or emails. So you can be better than the next guy by just returning phone calls. To me this business practice is just a given, but I find to others it is more of an “optional service” that they provide. Sometimes the difference between success and failure is not some long winded algorithm or new gee-whiz technology, it is focus on the basics and do them right and do them consistently.
Currently I am a business broker based in Florida and work with small business owners in the process of buying and selling businesses. I consistently find so many of the business issues I have had as a business owner are shared by so many other business owners.
Do you want to have a better business? Do you want to improve your business.? Then review the below list. If you are wondering what may be the fast track to business failure then use the below as a guideline:
- Dont keep good track of your numbers and dont feel the need to really understand them. That job should be for others.
- Dont return emails phone calls timely
- Continue to delay your involvement with Internet marketing, social marketing and website optimization
- Dont pay attention to existing customers and clients
- Be willing to treat customers and employees improperly, as long as you the business owner benefit, and when you do something wrong to others that benefit you- assure yourself that its “just business”.
- Dont take any time to review where you are spending your advertising/marketing dollars. Assume that even though you have not been getting results from your current efforts that if you do nothing long enough results will occur… eventually.
- Dont embrace technology, continue to fight it and close your mind to “new ways”.
- As a business owner dont take any time planning for a business exit strategy
- Minimize the value of input from employees. You are the boss and because of that fact your way is the only way.
- People say “either your business grows or your business dies”- dont believe that. Believe you have enough customers right now and that is good enough.
- Dont worry about any long term planning. Long term planning is really a waste of your valuable time.
Like most list, this list as well can go on and on. Want to run a better business in 2011?