A key factor behind great decision making, is to make sure you are working with accurate information.

In a marketing context:

• You can assume that your marketing copy is as good as it can be or you can split test it. By testing different versions and measuring the feedback, you can improve both your message and your sales results.
• You can assume that your clients and former clients love the service you provide, or you can ask them.
• You can assume that your products or service is still better value than your competitors, or you can do some research and see if they’ve upped their game.
• You can assume that you already get a reasonable number of word of mouth recommendations, or you can compare them to the industry average. Note: I wrote this post about how to get more word of mouth referrals that you may find useful.

You get the idea.

In short, never make a decision without first knowing the facts. Make accurate information the foundation of all your decision making.

Hard work gets a bad rap.

Sure, it’s important to work smart.

Obviously, it’s important to work with passion, professionalism and great care.

But without the commitment to do all the work required, we’re dramatically limiting our potential. All the work required, includes the hard work… the kind of work we tend to either put off or avoid completely.

I’ve met countless business owners over the years, who are great at what they do, but lack the work ethic needed for the success they desire. They either fail to work the hours required, or they do the hours, but fail to do the work required during those hours.

I’ve never met a successful person in any field, who lazy-assed their way to the top. Yes, there are some wealthy businesspeople who sometimes forget to tell us they were born rich or inherited a fortune. But those who start from square one and make it to the top, work hard.

We do well to follow their example.

Why?

They’ve cracked the success code!

By doing the hard work, as well as the smart work, soon enough they find they have the resources to hire people [or buy the technology], to do a lot of the heavy lifting. They can then adjust their workload so it suits them perfectly.

The best way I ever heard this approach explained, was by the late Zig Ziglar.

“If you will be hard on yourself, life will be easy on you. But if you insist upon being easy on yourself, life is going to be very hard on you.”

• It isn’t about over-working.
• It isn’t about working too many hours.
• It isn’t about working too many days in a row.

It’s about doing the work required, during work hours. And then enjoying our leisure time. Nothing more than that, but nothing less than that, either.

If you’d like greater clarity, more energy and dramatically improved results, you’ll find the following ideas really useful. It’s all about how to harness the power of focus.

It starts with something that seldom gets mentioned, yet is critically important.

It’s simply this: One of the fastest ways to massively improve your success rate, is to give your full focus to as few projects as possible.

Photo: Shutterstock

Why focus on fewer things?

When you are a small business owner or consultant, you have a relatively limited number of resources. You’re required to work on many tasks, which larger companies have dedicated teams for.

By focusing your valuable time on developing too many ideas or opportunities, you dilute how effective you can be with any one of them.

What follows are 2 well-known examples of the power focus, along with lesser known benefits of improving your focus.

Einstein on the power of focus

Einstein is famously quoted as saying that one of the reasons for his amazing success, was his ability to focus on each individual challenge for as long as required.

By intentionally choosing to focus on one project or plan at a time, and saying ‘no’ to the multitude of other ideas demanding your attention, you get to give your full mental resources to the development of that idea.

You also eliminate Mind Fog: The fuzzy thinking that comes from focusing on too many things simultaneously.

Steve Jobs on the power of focus

Steve Jobs shared his thoughts on the power of focus, at the Apple Worldwide Developers’ Conference in 1997:

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all.

It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”
– Steve Jobs

The lesson here is clear. In all of your planning, it pays to start by determining what’s the very best use of your focus. Then, give that project, idea or opportunity as much of your available time as required.

But that’s not all.

There’s another major benefit to channelling your focus correctly.

The ‘extra’ power of focus

As well as the benefits already mentioned, the power of focus brings with it another, highly valuable component.

I’m referring to off-the-charts energy levels!

Not convinced? Well, you’ve already seen this in action many, many times. It’s what you witness every time you’ve heard someone talking with great enthusiasm and passion about a project, idea or opportunity.

These high energy entrepreneurs and leaders do not see their energy defused by foggy thinking. Instead, their laser sharp focus brings great clarity. That clarity increases their direction and purpose. They’re then energized and ready to go!

I hope you’ve found this brief look at the power of focus useful. More importantly, I hope it inspires you to take greater control over the number of things you focus on.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a serious business problem, you might find this useful.

I had a chat recently with an old friend of mine. He told me that for the past few months, he’d been seriously struggling with what he described as an urgent, major business crisis. I gave him some advice and yesterday, he called me with an update. In short, his situation is now fully resolved.

Like everyone I have given that same advice to, he said things started to improve within minutes. Today, I’m going to share the exact same advice with you.

When my friend explained what his problem was, I told him to write a list of resources that might be able to help resolve his situation, and then to action each item on the list. The core benefit came before he started working on the listed items.

I’m not a psychologist and can’t be certain exactly why this is so effective, but here’s what I’ve seen happen, over and over again.

It seems that writing the list takes you from a passive, maybe even helpless state, to an industrious state. It improves your attitude. It improves your resourcefulness. It improves your optimism. It improves your motivation and so much more. All this combines to greatly improve your chances of success.

What I find amazing, is that you get these benefits before you take action on the list items. This equips you to be at your very best, precisely when your business needs your very best.

Predictable can be life saving: The braking system on your car is a great example. You need to know that each time you put your foot on the brake, you’re going to slow down or stop as expected.

Predictable can be reassuring: It’s reassuring to know that the quality of products or services you receive from a vendor, will be predictably excellent.

However, predictable can also hurt your business. Imagine a prospective client is looking for a new service provider. For whatever reason, their previous provider didn’t fulfil their needs. The last thing that prospective client will want, is another provider that seems too similar looking, to the one they just fired.

Conversely, they’ll be extremely attracted to providers that combine being reassuringly professional, with fresh ideas and uncommonly great service.

That’s where YOU come in my friend. At least it should be.

Don’t let predictability bite your ass

Being predictable in the wrong areas will destroy your marketing.

• It will attract fewer enquiries.
• It will motivate fewer prospects to hire you.
• It will position your business as a commodity. People buy commodities based on the lowest price or fee.
• It will camouflage your business and stop you getting noticed.

This is the total opposite of what you need in order for your business to succeed.

Make no mistake, it takes guts to build your own version of how a service provider in your niche should operate. It’s hard to zig when your competitors zag. It’s so much easier to play follow the follower. That’s why only the top few percent in any industry truly stand out.

Those of us who want our business to fly need to be smarter than that. We need to only be predictable where it matters. Because the alternative is to be invisible. And a business that lacks visibility, places a very low ceiling on its potential.

There’s a big difference between paying attention, and listening.

Yes, listening is indeed one way to pay attention.

But commercially, we learn a lot more about a person, a company culture or a company as a whole when we pay attention to what they do. Their actions reflect their motivations, beliefs and priorities with much greater accuracy than their convincing, carefully polished words.

Here’s what one of my mentors taught me when I started out in business. It’s saved me from making bad decisions countless times over the years.

What people say, is what they want us to think they will do. What people do, is what they actually do.

I’ve found that advice to be enormously valuable, before making any important, commercial decisions. I hope you find it equally useful.

If the work you’re doing right now feels comfortable, it’s almost certainly not moving your business forward. It’s not helping you make meaningful progress and not leading you toward the attainment of your goals.

Why?

Because your best work never feels comfortable. Here’s what your best work looks like.

• It’s the kind of work that forces you to grow into the person who can take your business up a level.
• It’s the kind of work that inspires you to make better decisions.
• It’s the kind of work that gives you energy and makes you feel truly alive.
• It’s the kind of work that attracts the clients or customers you want.
• It’s the kind of work that gives you a sense of real optimism.
• It’s the kind of work that causes you to make exciting plans for your future.

Look at that list. Now, ask yourself if the work you’re doing is honestly your best work. And just as importantly, if you’re not doing your best work, find out what’s blocking you.

A reader emailed me this morning, about his latest cash flow crisis. He asked me for some advice on how to overcome it. I promised I’d answer here, as it’s a very common problem for a lot of business owners right now.

My reader put his problem like this: “I need to sign-up 5 new customers by the end of December, to avoid another cash flow crisis”.

Here’s my advice, which is relevant to almost any business owner with an on-going cash flow problem.

The wrong focus blocks cash flow

In my reader’s case, if he does focus on getting those 5 new customers, there’s a reasonable chance he will make it happen. Or come pretty close to making it happen. I don’t have any details about his business. But I do know that in business, we tend to get what we focus on – good or bad.

So, whilst there’s a good chance that he will be motivated to get those 5 new customers, if he does get them, he will have also just planted the seeds of his next crisis! That’s because those 5 new customers will simply buy him some time until he’s in the same position again.

Here’s a far better way forward. It’s based around 2 adjustments that can radically improve your financial situation… and your life!

1. Fund your business correctly

Cash flow can be resolved relatively easily. But only after you understand that on-going cash flow problems are rooted in the way you feel, think and act regarding money. When you overcome this block, the cash starts to flow like never before.

Your accountant will be able to explain how successful business owners fund their businesses correctly. If you don’t have an accountant, ask your financial adviser or business banking manager. It’s extremely straightforward.

2. Set exciting, compelling sales targets

Always, always set motivating targets that correspond with a thriving business. The kind of epic targets that will lead you to a massively better quality of life. Never set targets that merely help you to scrape by.

Here’s why the right type of targets are critically important for you and your business.

• Targets that inspire you to thrive are exceptionally motivating. They also cause you to make decisions based on what you want. They bring energy, ideas and confidence. Confidence that encourages others to buy from you, hire you and believe in you. These combine to dramatically improve your results. And fast!
• Targets that are about surviving your latest cash flow crisis are motivated by fear. And even if you hit the target, you’re still in a precarious situation. You just scraped over the line. And you’re left waiting for the next cash flow crisis, because your underlying problem remains. So, you end up with anxiety and stress, regardless of whether you hit the target or miss the target. That’s a self-defeating loop, which makes it impossible to build a successful business.

In short, a poorly funded business, focused on trying to stay afloat, is guided by fearful, short-term thinking. It has an extremely limited horizon.

The answer is to resource your business correctly. And set exciting targets that motivate you to build a financially powerful company.

Photo | Pexels.com

At it’s core, business success is a decision. A decision from which everything else flows.

I was originally prompted to write this, after taking my friend to his chiropractor. As we arrived, I asked him if he was sure he had the correct appointment time, because the place wasn’t open. “Oh, it is open”, he replied. “It always looks like it’s closed”. There were no lights visible from outside, the door was closed and the ‘open’ sign was tiny. It looked to all the world (and every prospective client) as if it was closed.

I was introduced to the chiropractor and as always when I meet a business owner, I asked him how business was. He explained that business was slow. Hardly surprising. He’s paying a premium rent for a high street location. But he’s losing the vast majority of the passing trade he’s paying for… because they simply pass by unaware he’s even open!

Like the chiropractor in that example, most small business owners are genuinely unaware of the marketing mistakes, which are needlessly losing them a fortune. They wrongly assume their poor results are due to a lack of demand, a quiet period or aggressive competition. Instead of the reality: They never made the decision to succeed in their business.

What is the ‘business success decision’?

It’s the decision to do the right things, correctly.

Poorly performing businesses are not provided with the expert help they need, in order to grow and thrive in a competitive marketplace.

Instead, the business owner chooses to dabble.

Why?

• Much of the time, the reason is fear. Their fear of investing in professional help is GREATER than their fear of failure. That’s what happens when a non-entrepreneur starts a business. They’re guided by fear from day one.
• Sometimes the business owner lowered their expectations after years of sluggish growth, so slow growth or no growth is now acceptable to them.
• Other times, they have no idea what effective marketing looks like or what it does, so they suffer in ignorance.
• And in some cases they are so used to dabbling with their marketing, that they have a mental block about getting expert help.

A mental block?

Yes.

They insist on using experts to style their hair. However, they will watch their business stagnate because they insist on treating it as a DIY project.

Business success is a decision we make, to provide our business with the expert help it needs.

If your website is a sales generating machine, if your contact forms are a regular source of high quality enquiries, if your newsletter is a gold mine, if the profile of your business is rising like a star, if you’re attracting attention from all the right people and if your business is thriving… you’re good to go.

I hope that’s where you are right now.

If not, remember that business success is a decision. A decision to do the right things, correctly.

Mistakes. We all make them.

Much has been said about the need to learn from our mistakes. It’s extremely important. After all, it’s how we improve. It’s how we build better relationships and stronger businesses.

There’s something else about mistakes, which every business owner needs to understand. I’m referring to the importance of taking responsibility for our mistakes and then apologizing. The sooner the better.

Because…

• By taking responsibility, you demonstrate leadership. As a business owner, there’s a direct link between your ability to lead and your commercial success.
• By saying sorry, you switch the situation from confrontational to conciliatory. Instead of blaming one another, both sides can now focus exclusively on putting things right.

Learn from the mistake. Take responsibility. Say sorry. And then work on the resolution.

P.S. Read this » 10 leadership habits of highly successful business owners.