Why not decide right now, to make 2010 your best business year ever?
This post contains 8 common sense, buzzword-free ideas, intended to help you achieve better results for your business in 2010 and beyond. You will already be acting on some of these – You may already be acting on all 8 of them; in which case see this as a reminder and share it with your contacts and friends.
I would also like you to add to the list and make it more valuable for everyone.
So, to get the ball rolling, here are the first 8 ideas; to help a business thrive in 2010 and beyond:
1. Don’t wait for ‘it’ to just get better – It won’t
Do you know what most small businesses do when times are bad? They hunker down and hope things will just get better. Even when the economy was thriving and banks were throwing money at people and businesses, there were companies going broke every day; because they just carried on doing what didn’t work and hoped that things would magically, just get better.
Things didn’t just get better back then and they certainly won’t today – in the midst of the worst economic period in living memory.
Apple Inc produce an expensive range of premium products. They are the kind of company that was supposed to suffer most during the recession. However, during the past year, Apple Inc have posted record breaking profits; the best numbers in their history. They have achieved this through fusing great products with brilliant marketing. My business has just had it’s most successful year in our 15 year history – again, by matching a great service with highly effective marketing. Don’t wait for things to just get better in 2010. Make them better.
2. Embrace time management
Start managing your time more effectively, so you don’t waste major time doing minor things. Delegate whenever possible. Make it a habit throughout the day to ask yourself; “is this the best use of my time right now?” If the answer is no, go and do whatever it is you were just avoiding.
3. Avoid toxic commercial relationships
Look at your commercial relationships and see if you are associating with the right people for what you need to achieve. Associating in negative company does not only make good kids behave badly, it causes good businesspeople to make bad decisions too. That’s because the people with whom we habitually associate have an impact on how we think. As someone told me many years ago; “keep associating with people that are going nowhere and one day, everything they have will be yours.”
With this in mind, you can improve your thinking by listening to the right kind of influences. As our thoughts control our actions, this 1 step alone can massively improve everything for you. Start listening to people that already have whatever it is you want to achieve. Let these people be the ones that influence your thinking. Learn from them.
4. Spend less time staring at your TV
Don’t just get a year older in 2010, get a year better too! If you watch TV in the evenings, try spending less time in front of the TV screen and use that TV time to sharpen your skills. Just 1 hour less TV time each week night, will give you 20 hours of study time each month.
If you want to achieve more sales in 2010, learn how to sell and market your services during that time.
5. Set some business goals
It’s not enough to simply state on a piece of paper that you want to increase sales by X% – you need to make a plan for how this will happen. Set yourself some tangible, measurable, time-specific marketing / income goals and write up a plan on how to achieve them.
There are a million places on the Internet that will explain the simple process of goal setting. Just remember to keep it simple and back the goals up with action.
6. Sharpen up your commercial image
What does your business look like from the outside? People do business with and recommend people and organizations that they trust. If a business looks like it’s being run on the cheap, people are less inclined to use it; they want to believe that a business will still be there in 6 months or 6 years time.
These days, well over 90% of people check out a potential proider online, before they decide to do business with them. If a business operates behind an outdated website or blog – THINK about the image that’s creating in the mind of potential customers. It shows neglect and lack. It shows no commitment to quality. There’s no need for this to happen! Remember, you can get a polished, professional site or blog (like this one) using Headway for very little.
7. Develop your own unique voice
In business, it’s great to learn from others, but it’s really important to develop your own, unique voice. This means having the courage to say what you mean and mean what you say. Will you always be right? Probably not, but people will respect your honesty and your courage for voicing your own opinion.
People follow those who are courageous and trust those who are honest!
8. Measure it so you can manage it
Effective marketing comes from the process of testing and measuring. It’s impossible to know if your marketing is on track or not, unless you are able to accurately measure the feedback it generates. Most people count hits, clicks, bounce rates, followers, retweets etc – but seldom measure the impact each of these is having on their business.
What are 10 followers on Twitter or 500 Facebook fans actually worth to your business? Yes, every person is priceless, but in commercial terms, you need to know what your business networks are actually generating for you and your business. As my mentor, the late, great Jim Rohn used to say, money isn’t everything, but it’s easy to count.
So, start measuring what all your marketing is costing you (in both time and money) and what it’s generating for you in tangible, bankable results (that’s money.) Either learn how to fix what isn’t working or replace it with something that does work.