By: Arthur Cocket
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Being a small business owner comes with challenges unique to the size and function of the business. The small business owner has to handle all the challenges of selling, delivering, financing, managing and growing the business with little or no staff, while trying to make it a success. The most important of all is to retain the interest of all stakeholders like customers, vendors and team to build momentum in a short span of time.
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Know what you do and what you don't do Focus On The Customer Mind The Money Passion is contagious Stay focused on the prize Opportunities
Know What You Do and What you Don't do •
Some of the best advice I learned early on was don't try to be all things to all people, because it typically means you are not very good at any one thing. As such, I believe that it is a mistake to take on far-reaching service offerings, develop products outside your comfort zone or expand outside of your target markets just to make a few extra bucks.
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The purpose of business is not to make a profit. It’s to create and keep a customer. You want them to come the first time, then come again and finally bring their friends. How you are doing is directly related to how many satisfied customers you have. To increase customer satisfaction, you have to listen to your customers and be involved in their buying experience.
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In putting together a business strategy, business owners should always focus on sales, revenues and cash flow, and to know every day how much money is being made. Focus on your net profit, not your gross profit. This gives you a more realistic view of how the business is doing.
Passion is Contagious •
When you love what you do it shows to the people surrounding you every day in the office, facility or production plant. Showing excitement and enthusiasm cannot be underscored enough in terms of how it relates to your team working harder, being more focused, and ultimately more successful at their job. This translates to a better end-product. The opposite can be said for someone who is an unhappy person, leads through negative motivation, creates a challenging work environment or frankly doesn't love what they do.
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We have always tried to be very strategic in our approach to growth. We set three year business plans, track against those plans, and modify them when necessary. I believe that if you don't set goals you have no way of measuring yourself, your team and your company against some pre-determined objectives. When everyone understands in a very crystal clear way what the overall goals of the organization are, it allows everyone to rally together and take pride in successfully accomplishing them.
Opportunities •
With many challenges come large opportunities. The major opportunity at this stage is to acquire new customers. You’re starting from zero, so you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.
• Arthur Cocket is a successful entrepreneur who provides the useful tips of business through which you can grow your business by getting more customers.