Having a great idea for a business and finding funding is only the start of your journey to success: once you have your business up and running, you need to keep momentum by developing the right daily habits and putting intelligent processes in place so that the business not only runs smoothly but grows over time, too.
The TL;DR here is that you need to be organised, keep good records, know who you’re competing with, deliver great customer service, and be aware that you’ll probably work harder than you would for a boss. But it’s all for a good cause. Invest the time and effort needed to succeed and you’ll soon be living your dream.
So without further ado, here are eight tips about the things you can do to make that happen.
Be organised
Keeping up with everything that needs to be done is an important task in any business, but it must be done to succeed. It may sound trite, but making To Do lists and ticking things off as you complete them is a really effective way to ensure that the most important tasks are completed daily. Once you’ve got that down, be consistent to make sure your list of tasks never gets away from you.
Fortunately, many digital tools can help you do this and other vital tasks. Use Asana to track tasks and projects, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet to talk to your people and suppliers. Pay for them if you need their advanced features.
Record everything
Keeping track of where everything is in your business is vital to its continued survival, which is why it’s so important to keep detailed records. You need to know where you are at any given moment when it comes to your finances, equipment, renewals, leases, etc. and it’s only by keeping close track of them by recording everything that you can do this.
Regarding record-keeping, the cloud is a very handy place to keep details. If your original physical documents ever go missing or you have an unfortunate fire, you’ll still have everything you need if you have copies in the cloud.
Know who you’re competing against
As General Sun Tzu famously said, “Know thy enemy and know yourself”, and this couldn’t be more relevant in a business context. Here, it means you should really know who your competitors are, what they’re doing, and how they’re doing it, while also being aware of (and honest about) your own strengths and weaknesses.
If you can also find out if people think they are better than you, and why, you’ll gain valuable insights that can help you adjust your strategy to strengthen and improve your business.
Be aware of the worst-case scenario
Sometimes, taking a calculated risk can really pay off. To do that intelligently you need to know the worst-possible outcome so you can weigh up the risk you’re about to take against the reward. Armed with that answer, you put yourself in a very good position to go all-in on those calculated risks and potentially reap some serious rewards.
Keep an open mind
This is very easy to say but difficult to do: you need to be very creative in your approach to your business if you want to elevate yourself above the noise made by your competitors or find new revenue streams.
The key to this is keeping an open mind and not being afraid to do something new if the opportunity presents itself. Without that attitude, Ferruccio Lamborghini would never have pivoted from making tractors and air conditioners to making the world’s most beautiful supercar. And thank goodness he did, because damn, that’s one fine car.
Persevere
South Africans are really good at “hanging in there”, so this one is easy for most of us: persevering. If you put your head down, do the work, and show up every day, success is almost inevitable. It may not happen overnight (but then even “overnight success” doesn’t happen overnight), so just keep on keeping on and you’ll get to where you want to go in time.
Make sacrifices
This one is less easy: expect to make sacrifices to take your business where you want it to go. As a business owner, your life will be consumed by your business – you will keep working long after quitting almost every day, you probably won’t take as many vacations or have free weekends, and you may find your thoughts dominated by your business. You might also spend much less time with friends and family.
The point here is that you will spend a lot of time doing business-related things, at the cost of the kinds of things that regular working peeps do when they’re not at work. But see the point about perseverance: making these sacrifices will (probably) be worth it in the end.
Prioritise customer service
In many industries, the only opportunity companies have to set themselves apart from their competitors is through their customer service. Since you are doing the same things your competitors are, excellent service is how you inspire customers to come to you rather than them.
By focusing on your internal processes, customer service training, and setting and maintaining high standards for your support staff, you will almost certainly meet and exceed your customers’ expectations. Happy customers are returning customers.
It’s not a magic bullet but…
We can’t guarantee that you’ll definitely be successful if you implement these tips in your business, but there’s a reasonable chance that at least some good will come from it.
So we invite you to give it some thought and implement only the tips that work in your context. We also wish you great success and hope that you enjoy the view when you’re on top of the world.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
