When it comes to running a business, cash is king—or is it?
It’s true that your company won’t survive if you don’t have the funds to remain operational. If you’re low on money, small business funding can fuel growth, as can selling more product. However, just because you are making plenty of money doesn’t mean your business is guaranteed to succeed. There are other things that are more important to your business than money. If you don’t have them, you could find yourself in just as much trouble than if you don’t have enough money to keep your doors open.
Passion
If you’re running a business, you’ve got a lot more invested in its success than your employees. If you’re just showing up for the paycheck, you could find yourself in serious trouble.
Passion is important as a business leader, especially when you’re first starting your business, but it’s important as your business continues to grow as well. It’s easy for passion to wane as the years go by and you get used to the grind of day-to-day life.
The good news is your passion can change and evolve, and your business can change and evolve with it. If the initial passion you had when starting your business has dissipated, you may discover that you’re more passionate about serving the community or providing a supportive, happy, and comfortable work environment for your employees.
No matter what it is, find your passion, and you’ll continue to be motivated to drive your business towards a successful future.
Great Employees
You can have all the passion and money in the world, but if you don’t have employees who are skilled and dedicated enough to make your passion a reality, you won’t get far. That’s why great entrepreneurs recognize the importance of hiring and keeping great employees.
What is a great employee? They have many qualities in common that include:
- Positive attitude towards work
- Flexibility when assigned tasks
- Willing and able to adapt to new roles
- Consistently meets deadlines
- Produces high-quality work
- Supportive and respectful of coworkers
- Good time-management skills
If you have great employees that you want to keep on your team, it’s well worth the money to increase their pay in order to encourage them to continue providing your business with their hard work.
Great Customers
Having great employees is important, but having great customers is important too. Although finding new customers is a great way to make more money, creating a dedicated following results in repeat sales, which makes those customers extremely valuable.
Serving great customers can also make your job more enjoyable, boosting your passion and increasing your drive to offer the best products and services possible. Knowing that you’re making people’s lives better by getting to know your customers and knowing how your brand helps them can provide you with the motivation to keep working, even on those long days that never seem to end.
Your Network
Networking is important to your career, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that your network only comes in handy when you’re ready to switch to a new job. An extensive network can help you when you own your own business too.
Maintaining a network of previous coworkers, mentors, others in your industry, and distributors allows you to get the support you need during a difficult time, they can help you keep on top of industry trends, they can refer high-quality employees to your business, and they can even help you get the money you need to stay operational if money truly is what’s holding you back.
Time
Everyone always says that time is money, but it’s truly something much more valuable. You can always use it to make more money, but you will never be able to buy more time. Not directly, anyway, but you can use money to buy more time indirectly, which may be well-worth it.
For example, cleaning services can free up time you would spend cleaning your home, meal kits can make it quicker for you to get a healthy meal on the table, and hiring a personal assistant can reduce the time you spend checking email. That time can then be reinvested in your business, making it even better.
There’s no arguing that money is important to your business, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only thing that’s important to your business. Take a well-rounded approach to what makes your company successful so you can continue that success for many years to come.