If a strong competitor turned up next week, targeting your clients and prospective clients with great marketing and a compelling service, what would you do?
Raising your own bar
The honest answer for most small business owners, is that you would very quickly up your game. Faced with this significant new threat, you would look to do everything possible to retain your existing clients and also, set to work on a more effective strategy for winning new clients. The game would have changed and your instinct would be to step up to the mark and rise to the new challenge.
So, here’s another question for you: Why not raise the bar right now, rather than wait for the competition to force you into it?
In my experience, having worked with thousands of small business owners, the vast majority will wait for some kind of external event, before they raise the bar. For example, they will wait until they lose a major contract or business slows down, before doing something proactive about improving their marketing. The most successful business owners don’t need that external motivation, to continuously look for ways to improve their business. They are always looking for ways to improve.
Raising the bar: Steve Jobs style
There’s a wonderful example of how Steve Jobs caused the initial Apple iPod’s development team, to raise the bar. The story may or may not be true, but it’s said that the iPod development team presented Jobs with the first build of the new device, which they had worked on, around the clock, for months.
Jobs took one look at it and said; “It’s too big!”
The team leader said; “It’s as small as possible.”
Legend has it that Steve Jobs then dropped it into a fish tank. The design team gasped in horror.
Jobs then said to the team; “You see those bubbles coming out? That’s air. Make it smaller!”
The team responded by making another version, which was significantly smaller, even though they had originally believed the previous version was as small as possible, until Steve Jobs caused them to raise the bar on what was possible. Without the external influence of Jobs, the development team would have shipped a chunkier, less attractive iPod and the resurgence of Apple may have been very different.
Taking control of your business development
Don’t wait for external influences, before you decide to up your game and redefine what’s possible for you and your business. Take time out today to review at least one element of your business and look for an opportunity to improve it in some way. Do the same tomorrow and the day after and the day after, until it becomes a habitual element of your business.
Start doing this today, taking action to put the improvements into place, and your business will be almost unrecognizable in 12 months!
Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!
Even if that story’s an urban legend, mate, it sounds exactly like something that Jobs would have done. Great example, and never fails to amaze me how long companies wait to do something. It’s like waiting a month before changing a newborn’s nappy.
Hey Danny. I love that story too and I think it’s an example of the kind of thinking, which Apple will miss now, moving forward.
Thanks for the comment and all the best to you and the gang at jugnoo.com in 2012!
Jim, I have included the story in my blog with all the credit and link to your blog. I trust it is ok. Thanks for the wonderful story.
The story isn’t mine, sir.
Feel free to use it.
Your opening question is terrific. If a Starbucks opened across the street from my coffee shop, I would be dancing with excitement, then sweat! It would have confirmed I made several right decisions in spite of the fact they think they can dominate the location. Yet, I need to get better at attracting customers through my door instead of theirs.
It is so easy to get to good enough, and then get stuck. Somehow, we always need an external force to push us out of comfort zone. We shouldn’t need a Steve Jobs to tell us to do that.
Enjoyed the article, Jim.
Thanks for the feedback, Morris.
Yes, there’s real danger in becoming too comfortable with the status quo.
Coasting is not a viable option, if you want to develop a successful business.
This is a great article, especially the story of Steve Jobs. thanks jim for sharing it.
Most business owners stay in comfort zone, thinking that they found the right formula. So raising the bar is out of the mind unless they were hit badly.
Constantly improving is too much work, therefore not many are doing it. But that’s the key to excellence.
You know Jim, I have this advertising agency going on here and everyone loves it, I cant imagine how I would feel if Ogilvy or Young were to start the war the next morning,Im raising the bar now, bye bye future threats, thats a great post by the way
[...] competing against the standards of your competitors, you set your bar extremely [...]