Some time ago I published an article revealing top 7 reasons why businesses fail and some of our readers were asking me to reveal the other side of the equation – what helps businesses succeed.
As an entrepreneur who is eager to build a thriving business myself, I am passionately reading about this topic, learning from the best out there, trying new approaches and moving away from what doesn’t work. Following are 7 key strategies I found incredibly helpful in building a successful business.
- Do it YOUR way
I can’t strengthen this enough. Please note that as much as you like Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson or Barbara Corcoran, you are not them. One thing they have in common is that they did it THEIR way. They tapped into their skills, abilities, creativity and made things happen. You need to know your strengths and use them if you want to succeed.
The only way to success is in knowing your strengths and putting them into action.
2. Ideas are great, execution is everything
Entrepreneurs are usually known as idea people. But truth to be told, ideas don’t take you anywhere. It’s execution that moves things forward, delivers results and pays the bills. You don’t need a million dollar idea to succeed. You need to solve your customers problems, grow your customer base and profits to succeed in business.
3. Build networks
Whether you love it or hate it, relationships are everything. When people don’t know about you, they can’t buy from you. You need to be obstinate about building meaningful relationships and expanding your network to grow your client base and team. Whether you are an introvert or extrovert, it doesn’t change anything – your approach might vary, but the necessity to build your network will be the same. You don’t need to know everyone in your town to have a thriving business. But you surely need to know the right people who can support you, help you, advise you, introduce you, and more.
Relationships are everything.
4. Speed up your decision making
I know, I know… Some people need to research the data and then evaluate it before making a decision while others jump on every idea. Even though timelines will be unique to each of us, faster decisions mean less delays and faster implementation.
5. Improve your business acumen
Leaders and entrepreneur aren’t born. They are grown. You must focus on learning and improving. Know your business inside and out, improve your management skills, sales skills, financial skills, leadership skills, communication skills, problem solving skills and more. The better you understand your business, how to handle (or even better, prevent) the disasters, how to build momentum and other business critical skills, the more successful your business will become. Stop being the bottleneck on your business. Choose to be a person of growth.
6. Build teams
This goes back to my first point. Wise leaders understand their strengths and they choose to focus their best time and energy in this zone and delegate the rest. To grow your business to the next level, it’s crucial that you surround yourself with people who have strengths in the areas of your weaknesses. Find people who are brilliant, smart, better than you. Invest in your people and help them succeed. Investing in your team is money well spent. Effective teams will always outperform any individual – no matter how smart, skilled or committed you are!
7. Create consistency
Consistency builds trust. Trust is essential for your customers to do business with you. How can you bring more consistency into your business? That’s a million dollar question! Look at your policies, procedures, systems, marketing, sales, materials, social media, website… is the experience consistent? Do your people know what to do, and how to do it? What processes can you introduce to improve your current results?
What other strategies or tactics do you use to grow and improve your business?
To your success,
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