The basics of building a successful business are easy to find. There are countless business manuals that explain the process.
So, why do most small businesses slowly go broke or end up being little more than a poorly paid job for their owner?
I believe I have found the answer. And I’m going to share it with you.
The truth about business success
I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. I’ve found that time and time again, business success comes from doing the things you won’t find in a manual. Those basics are essential just to survive. To thrive, you need to do what isn’t in the book.
You need to think independently. For example.
- Turn traditional business models on their heads. Perhaps you could give away the thing that’s usually expensive and charge for something else. You get the idea.
- Create happiness in the hearts of your customers, rather than sell them a commodity.
- Build your business around a team of people with individual talents, rather than an easy to copy system.
- Make being one of your clients a unique, remarkable experience, which your clients tell their friends about. Think Tom’s Shoes or Apple.
Have you noticed something about those ideas? They sound risky. The reason they sound risky is that most small businesses prefer to follow a predictable path. They are risk-averse. So, they play follow-the-follower. This is why small businesses are almost always dull, financially challenged, stressful and going nowhere.
Building your remarkable business
Clearly, it takes courage to build a remarkable small business. This is because for some reason, many business owners feel safer following what their competitors are doing.
- Even though they can see it isn’t working, their dull, predictable business is paying the bills.
- Even though they’re settling for a lifestyle that’s not what they dreamed about, [because it’s all their average business can sustain], it feels safe.
In short: Their fear of failure stops them from succeeding.
The future belongs to those who are willing to risk being average, in order to become excellent.
Dive in, sink or swim?
As business owners, we have 3 models we can follow:
- Dive in, learn and succeed.
- Sink with fear.
- Swim.
Dive in, learn and succeed: If someone risks investing in a new business model, they could fail. However, they are then able to use what they learned from the experience, so that their next project has a massively better chance of success. This is the model I use for my business. It’s also a model I work on with lots of my clients. And it works. Beautifully.
Sink with fear: If someone carries on with an average business, which will slowly go broke or leave them with little more than a poorly paid job for the rest of their life, they will definitely sink. This is the model followed by almost all small business owners.
Swim: If they summon the courage to invest in their business idea, to work with passion and create something of huge value, they could swim. This model is what happens when you get it right first time. Rare, but wonderful.
That may not seem like much of a choice, but it’s all you have.
IMPORTANT: If you want to make more sales, boost your profits and grow an amazing business, this will help you!