When was the last time you tested different pricing models?

When was the last time you were contacted by a media outlet, for your professional opinion?

When was the last time you tested a new marketing tactic or strategy?

When was the last time you did something radically different from your competitors?

When was the last time you undertook detailed competitor research, so that you know what you’re actually competing against?

When was the last time you received a great referral from one of your customers?

When was the last time you updated your marketing materials?

When was the last time you took the lead in your industry?

When was the last time you took an idea that’s common and successful in a different industry, and applied it to your business?

When was the last time you seriously challenged one of your long-held business beliefs?

When was the last time you partnered with another business on a project?

When was the last time you updated your business goals and targets?

When was the last time you added a new product or service to your portfolio?

When was the last time you looked for new ways to solve problems, for your customers and prospective customers?

When was the last time you seriously asked yourself, if your business is growing as fast and as profitably as it could be?

When was the last time you saw a significant, sustained increase in profits, and what did you learn from it?

When it’s been too long

If it has been too long since you last did, or experienced, some of the above, now would be a great time to put that right.

Make a list. Then work your way through it. Some of these will be more challenging than others, but all of them are important enough to invest the effort required.

How are your business goals coming along?

As you consider your answer to that question, I’d like you to think about the following. It’s from the genius of Michelangelo.

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.’

Michelangelo.

Puny goals fail to inspire us. And as Michelangelo suggested, even if we achieve them, we’re in danger of achieving nothing of any importance.

When a genius gives that kind of advice, we do well to take heed. Thankfully, Michelangelo provided us with the best way forward. We’re advised that it’s a lot less dangerous to aim high.

This includes.

• Setting goals that excite you.
• Setting goals that cause you to grow.
• Setting goals that are worthy of you.
• Setting goals that will lead to a meaningful improvement in your quality of life.
• Setting goals that motivate the people around you.

That’s the kind of goal setting, which fuels you with the passion, energy, direction and inspiration you need. That’s the kind of goal setting, which can lead to outstanding results.

That’s also the kind of goal setting, which is used by the most effective people in business. Because it works.

Image: Esteban Lopez

Every business owner has weaknesses.

Including you and me.

But that’s okay.

After all, even Superman has kryptonite to contend with. He knows that this mysterious substance weakens or eliminates his super powers. So, he does everything he can to avoid the problems kryptonite causes, and comes out winning.

Business owners differ in 1 important way

Business owners are also aware of their weaker areas. But unlike Superman, they’re often unaware of the serious damage caused.

For example.

• The business owner who starts too many sales presentations with an apology for being just a little late, may think it doesn’t matter. They’re unaware that every prospective client who values punctuality will feel very differently about it. The business owner will wonder why their presentation failed, and write the prospect off as a time waster. So the problem persists.
• The business owner who avoids making big decisions until the last moment, may think it doesn’t matter. They’re unaware that leaving things until the last minute means they have fewer options open to them. They lose valuable time, end up making worse decisions, and blame the outcome on bad luck. So the problem persists.
• The business owner who thinks it’s okay to develop their business as if it was a Do It Yourself hobby, may think it doesn’t matter. They’re unaware that their DIY approach to planning, systems, marketing, legals and financials etc., is making it impossible for them to succeed. The business owner thinks they’re being smart and saving money, when they’re doing the opposite and missing out on a fortune. So the problem persists.
• The business owner who does pretty-much what they’re paid for and very little extra, may think it doesn’t matter. They’re unaware that the extra is what makes all the difference. It keeps customers returning and motivates them to recommend you. The business owner who ignores the extra, assumes that their customers just aren’t the kind of people who give referrals. So the problem persists.

And these persistent problems lose them money… persistently.

I recall Jim Rohn telling us that the reason business failure is so common, is that it’s incredibly subtle. The vast majority of businesses tend not to fail overnight, the result of a single, cataclysmic event. It’s the repeated, smaller errors in judgment, which rob them of the success they want.

That’s why it’s critically important to pay attention to what you do and how you do it. Especially in the weaker areas of your business.

Here’s a very quick tip, which can dramatically improve things across your entire business.

As someone who has mentored thousands of people over the years, I’ve found that the reason a business isn’t doing great, is often because the business owner isn’t feeling great. Perhaps they don’t feel as motivated, confident or inspired as they would like to be.

The reason this matters is that our feelings guide our decisions, and our decisions guide our actions. These actions are what determine our results and therefore the success of our business.

I’ve discovered that the fastest way to genuinely become motivated, confident, inspired (or experience any positive feeling), is for you to give these feelings to others.

Allow me to explain.

My epiphany

I noticed that whenever a client or friend came to me because they were, for example, lacking motivation, and I started to build up their motivation, it always left me feeling massively more motivated.

Then I noticed the exact same thing happened when I helped people feel more confident, inspired, courageous, resourceful, optimistic, energized or anything else. I would immediately feel stronger in whatever area I’d helped them with.

I shared this idea with others and found they had identical, or very similar experiences to mine. 

Here’s what makes this so powerful.

When you give these highly-valuable feelings to others, you become a source of the very thing you give. And it’s an endless source. Because as long as you keep giving, you’ll keep receiving.

It’s a simple technique, which can strengthen the core of everything you do. And you can access it as often as you want to. I use it daily.

Interestingly, this process works regardless of how you do it; face-to-face, Zoom, phone, email, one-to-one / a group of people, social media, podcast, blog post, a handwritten note or any other form of communication.

The next time you want to think more productively and make better business decisions, identify the key feeling or feelings you’re lacking in. Then give others those same feelings. Don’t wait for motivation, energy, confidence, creativity, calmness or anything else to arrive. Make it appear, by giving it away.

It’s a wonderful way to enrich yourself, and by extension, enrich others.

In case it doesn’t go without saying, I am not a mental health professional. This is simply based on what’s worked for my clients and myself.

In no particular order.

1. Be stingy with your time, but not with your ideas.
2. Your past does not equal your future. Next level results are yours, when you take next level actions.
3. All business is personal.
4. Either do what you love or learn to love what you do. Both approaches work extremely well.
5. To develop a new service, you do not need to reinvent the wheel. A relatively small improvement to an existing way of doing business, can open up a whole new marketplace for you.
6. Outsmarting your competitors works best, when you’re outcaring them, too.
7. Optimism is highly contagious. And never more so than in times of uncertainty.
8. To be in greater demand, provide greater value. Whether a business serves the top end of the market or the bottom end, its customers always want value.
9. A business can only be as successful as the weakest link in its leadership.
10. Opportunities come with a use-by date. If something looks like it has potential, do the research and if it stacks up, get moving.
11. Be eager to take responsibility. Step forward. Especially when others step back.
12. Whenever possible, be kind. And it’s always possible.
13. Strive to give others more than they expect from you. That little extra has a big impact.

The right time, and the perfect time, are not the same time.

But many small business owners are totally unaware of it.

And it screws up everything.

The right time

The right time to take action on improving your business is the moment you know there’s a problem. It’s an easy to identify moment. And it makes zero sense to allow a problem to persist; it only gets bigger, and costs you more in time and money to fix.

This means the right time is always, always, blindingly obvious.

However, even really smart business owners totally miss it.

Why?

Because they’re not actually looking for the right time. No. They’re looking for, and waiting for, the perfect time.

The perfect time is an expensive illusion

It’s an illusion, because it exists in an impossible to identify moment.

Think about it.

• If things are going great for your business, they might get even better. Now is not the perfect time.
• If things are ‘okay’ or even if things suck, then maybe they’ll pick-up. Now is not the perfect time.

So, when is the perfect time to improve your business?

You missed it. Because we can only ever know the perfect time, after it has passed. We identify it on reflection. It’s rear view mirror stuff.

That’s why the most successful businesspeople focus on the right time. It’s clear. It’s existential. We experience it. It’s in front of us.

In short, if you have an ongoing business problem, the right time to do something about it has passed. The next best time to do something about it is right now.