SME Business Growth

Laziness Does Not Create Growth

Well as you can see by the massive void on this blog I’ve been lazy (well I’ve actually been very busy) but as far as this blog is concerned I’ve taken a lazy attitude to contributing towards its growth.

That got me thinking about how attitude contributes to growth in business and how that growth can in the beginning take a backwards step before moving forward.

So is a business growth attitude always a positive attitude ?

From Success Consciousness

Positive attitude helps to cope more easily with the daily affairs of life. It brings optimism into your life, and makes it easier to avoid worry and negative thinking. If you adopt it as a way of life, it will bring constructive changes into your life, and makes them happier, brighter and more successful. With a positive attitude you see the bright side of life, become optimistic and expect the best to happen. It is certainly a state of mind that is well worth developing and strengthening.

- In the face of adversity a positive attitude can be what sees you through.  However I think that being overly positive can blind you to the realities of your situation and sometimes the routes to resolving them

From shine.com

You are what your attitude is. The term “attitude” refers to our disposition or state of mind, whether to a specific event or to life in general. Is attitude the result of one’s perceptions? Yes, how we perceive an event or experience will largely determine the attitude we develop about future events and experiences. A positive attitude can help us journey through the rough patches in life. When an event affects us, it is we who give it the power to control the way we think.

- So, our experiences of business growth whether they be good or bad can affect how we perceive growth and whether its a good or bad thing.

From selfawareness

Avoid complaining and refuse to think in negative terms. Focusing on the positive things in life and business rather than going over everything that can and will go wrong is beneficial in many ways. It reduces the stress chemicals racing around in the bloodstream that wreak havoc on health and energy levels, and it also keeps the mind in a problem-solving zone rather than a problem-finding mode. Every time a complaint starts to rise to the surface of your brain or mouth, hold it back and replace it with something positive. You’ll soon discover that you’re much more efficient at work and at home.

- A mental positive attitude creates physical positive outcomes and our physical being is as equally important as our mental state in resolving a situation and creating positive growth. So if businesses created a more positive physical environment for working in, people would be more mentally and positively motivated to grow.

From gurusoftware

Each of us is made up of various physical, vital, and mental parts. There is our physical body and its organs, muscles, etc; the vital being with its sensations, emotions and feelings, and the mental part with its thoughts, memories, reasoning power, beliefs, etc. Somewhere between our emotions and our thought processing lie our attitudes — our emotional perceptions about ourselves, others, and life itself. Attitudes generally express positively and negatively. E.g., when I have good feelings towards my work or co-worker, my attitude is positive. When I feel reluctant to do certain things that are necessary, or show hostility towards certain individuals, then my attitude is negative.

- So the mental and physical states we create have a causal affect on our attitudes and therefore actions.  Maybe if I had been more positive towards this blog, it would have grown more ?

So, now I’m going to flip this on its head.  In the beginning of your personal or business growth you may have to find your place in this world, what you stand for, your voice, ideas and strategies.  This requires you to ask tough questions like Why ? How ? When ? If ? and can take you on a difficult journey along which your negative attitudes or responses to these questions can bring about positive outcomes and eventually attitudes.

Just look at some of the worlds most creative artist who have left us with a positive impression of art, or comedians who keep us laughing for years after they have gone. Digging deeper into their past you may find depression and hardship all of which brought about unbelievable and positive creativity given the right circumstances.

Sometimes you have to go backwards into negativity before you can go forwards into positivity.

I find that I am constantly dealing with problems which I may overlook or even avoid if I was overly positive and did not embrace or accept they existed or were coming.  Its the nature of being in business.  There is always some problems with a supplier, customer or piece of technology but you don’t have to make it worse by being negative either. It’s a tricky balance.

When was the last time you went backwards before you went forwards ?

5 Mistakes That Stop Business Growth FAST

BIG Mistakes Stop Growth

1) Being Boring

Sell and marketing your company along with any other personal or communication related interactions with your customers have a huge impact, not only on the growth of your business but also on the way that people perceive you and ultimately make emotional decisions about the way they deal with you right now and into the future.

Many of us are faced with things in our lives that we don’t really like or enjoy and we just don’t need more of those things in our lives and that most definitely includes being bored by a current or potential supplier.

This includes boring corporate jargon, droll sales people, stiff presentations, cold meetings, boring service personnel, uncaring customer services staff, the list goes on.

Every time the representatives “touch” (come into contact with) your customer it will reflect on you and your business.

One of the main reasons for this is the images of stuffy business people or boring corporate sales material or convoluted presentations we are faced with everyday in real life or in the media and its natural to think that well if that’s how they do it then that’s how it must be done right ?

Be Warned!

Most of these businesses tend to be much larger institutions or people that have been around for a long time and they got to where they are now by NOT being boring in the first place, but as the company grew or their career developed the key personality traits for many are slowly eroded from them and they lose sight of the simple rules that got them there in the first place. It all becomes a political, one up man ship jostle for position, no longer about the customer.

2) Wasting your sales and marketing efforts on the wrong people

This one really get my goat. I personally spent over 10 years selling in a range of different businesses seeing (mostly) the bad and some good. It amazes me how many companies are unsure who their customer really is, thinking its anybody that wants a “blah” or a “widget”, or they can just sell some “gizmo” and it’s just a numbers game. Hey it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee, ’cause the world is crammed full of products and services that are no longer totally unique anymore (there are less major technological advancements) and its more important to realise why you are different from the rest and WHO will appreciate that difference and WHERE they are.

Mass marketing with a shotgun approach does not work in the age of information.

It requires laser targeting for effectiveness whether its direct marketing, email marketing, telemarketing, pay per click, search marketing. That’s why you need to have this basic understanding right to ensure that your sales and marketing activities or effective don’t just become a big waste of time and money because you pointed your organisation in the wrong direction.

Your product or service may be great, but it won’t be appreciated nor bought if you didn’t design with a particular customer in mind and you are not talking to them right now.

3) Taking customers loyalty for granted

How many time have you bought some thing from a shop, only to be treated like a second class citizen (once they have your money) when you decided to make a complaint or needed to speak to an advisor for some assistance or looked for an exchange or refund.

With HUGE amounts of choice and enticements each of us are faced with everyday, if you are not continuing to win over your customers loyalty then somebody else will.

Earning loyalty is not about bowing and scraping to the whims of your customer it’s about again understanding them and your business well enough that you can create a marriage of the two that leaves you with profits and your customer with an itch well and truly scratched.

Just operating your business in a way that shows your customers that you know WHO they are and WHY they buy from you and to make that process enjoyable and beneficial is one of the greatest thing that you can do to put you on the first rung of the loyalty ladder.

Once there you need to continue to reinforce that because your customers are not wrapped around you and your business and have their own lives which take them away from your world. Bring them back by entertaining them, give them something useful, showing them you care and are interested in them, their business and your own business.

4) Letting customers leave angry without resolving a dispute.

Just one bad experience with your company can be enough to not only turn them off from dealing with you every again but also turn everybody else they know against you. Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool and once the word gets out, and it’s not good, it can be very damaging.
For some reason businesses or people think that once their businesses is up and running that problems are things that can be ridden over, ignored and will just go away.

Please rethink that idea FAST!.

Business is about dealing with a constant stream of problems and the more you grow the more you will be faced with or they larger they can become. It does take a while to get used to this idea having left a corporate job where I had lots of things done for me or problem dealt with by other people.

Most of us like to bury our heads in the sand because we don’t like to face the emotional turmoil of being wrong or having to correct ourselves or admit some bad things. The thing is though the faster you face them head on, the quicker they go away AND you do something amazing in the process.

Because it is so rare to see things dealt with head on, quickly, and in a fair manner you have the chance to not only resolve a problem but to “wow” your customer and amaze them because you actually understand the problem and are willing to resolve it meaning you value the relationship.

The effect can be amazing creating a deeper bond between you and your customer. Sometime though there is nothing you can do to stop them going, but by addressing the problem you limit any collateral damage that may be done by satisfying them before they leave you. Either way it’s a win-win just by facing up to your responsibilities.

5) Abdicating control

Your business is too a large extent, an extension of you. At the same time as your business grows you cannot be everywhere and do everything so you must start to delegate. You business may evolve to match its market better so some change may be necessary. Delegation though is very different to abdication.

When you delegate you give the task to somebody who you feel has the appropriate skills (not just because you like them) and somebody who you can work with and can help you with your goal of growing your business.

This does not mean that you forget about it, it just means that the day to day responsibility lies with them, meaning you can focus on other things. But the overall and pen ultimate responsibility will always be with you.

Regular, purposeful meetings will ensure that you are kept aware of progress and gives your delegate the opportunity to bring forward any ideas, suggestions or problems as they happen or may be forthcoming. This gives you the chance to ensure that the task(s) are being dealt with correctly and to allow you to continue to steer their activity in line with your growth plans.

When you abdicate though you give total responsibility to somebody else and that’s when things go wrong.

We are all human at the end of the day and as such we make mistakes even when we have a pretty good idea of what we are doing, but when those mistakes don’t even fall within your plan or growth strategy because that individual did not understand their responsibility or does not understand the business they are in, it can be devastating, and totally and utterly avoidable.

If these people are not faced with the same understanding, don’t share a similar risk or investment in the business or don’t care about what they do or are doing in a way that matters then you may as well have abdicated control of your business to a slow worm.

Maybe you feel that you don’t have the skills to run the show so you recruit an MD or an investor steps into the business, ultimately if you know what your business is about, what makes it different, what your responsibilities are then it is you, not anybody else, that must ensure that the right decisions are made and that your companies obligations are met.

However, don’t substitute blind belief with real know how. Just because you think something is right does not make it right. Gut instinct, is just that, gut instinct, it will need testing to or you must also be able prove or demonstrate that belief, which should by the way part of the building blocks of your business growth plan.

Be open to ideas, new ways of doing things, but don’t cloud your decisions with personal beliefs. Instead become a truth seeker and work on the reality of the situation at hand and if that means that somebody else can do things better than you that will assist the business to grown, then so be it. But remember if it all goes wrong it’s you that is the ultimate loser.

7 unwritten business growth rules

Favourable Market Conditions

1 – Supply V Demand

Understanding who you are and what you do is absolutely crucial to establishing yourself in any given market.

Being all things to all men (and women) only creates uncertainty as to what you stand for and the problems you can help your customers solve.

Carving out a niche by narrowing your focus is essential, and one of the best places to start is with your existing customers.

Look at what types of customers you have and what generates the most profit.  That’s your niche.

If you don’t have a niche then look at what interests you and what experiences you have.

Why Should I Buy From You ?

2 – Why Your Business

The question that most buyers are unconsciously asking is “Why should I buy from you”.

If it isn’t clear from the beginning then it will come down to one thing and one thing alone, PRICE.

What you do and how you do it could be a reason why people buy from you.  The product or service itself maybe the reason or how you position yourself and interact with your customers could be another.

Again, asking your current clients is a great place to start and often the best source of understanding why customers choose you from the customers view point.

It was coined in the title of a famous book called Differentiate or DIE by Jack Trout and that about sums it up in the world of business.

Information That Sells 24/7/365

3 – Information Widgets

Most people want to do one of two things.  Learn something that can empower them or just buy something.  A lot of the time the sales process gets in the way by inappropriately selling or pushing people unnecessarily and at the wrong time.

Structuring your sales and marketing in such a way that it educates and shows your customers that you understand clearly their situation and problem and have an ideal solution is essential.

Often, it’s not what you say, but what others say about you that are most important so use testimonials and examples to show how you can help your prospects and clients.

The Law Of Business Attraction

4 – Attract Or Polarise

Having an idea of who you are targeting with your product or service is only the beginning.  You must now find a way to attract and polarise that audience to you, turning suspects into real prospects.

Getting people to identify themselves, sometimes shyly, is a great way of focusing your efforts on what/who should become customers.

Offer information as one way of letting prospects raise their hands and then take them on a journey to becoming a customer.

Jumping in straight away and selling, may not be the best way to get them on your side so you may need to draw them closer to you before selling.

Once they have identified themselves though, your communication should continue to address their interest or need more closely.

Test, Test, Test

5 – Never Assume

Sales and marketing is a science, there are rules, laws, principals or fundamentals that give a predictable outcome.  However the details require in many cases some trial and error to get them right.  Testing.

By testing what you do and measuring the results you can begin to understand what really works or does not and then modify it to get the desired results.

Running similar adverts or marketing pieces in split tests or showing people different headlines to your marketing piece and measuring how they react will guide you in the right direction.

Smart marketing people test and measure everything they do until they get it right.  It is also the safest way of avoiding wasting a ton of money in sales and marketing by committing to an assumption.

Business Leverage

6 – The Fulcrum Point

To move a massive weight or achieve great things you need a leaver and in business we can do the same thing using leverage.

Many businesses keep harvesting for new customers and forget about their valuable and existing customers which are usually the source of their existing profit and most likely the source of much more.

Finding ways to serve them better and tap into the trust and open door you already have with them is one of the simplest ways to grow and they will continue to rely on you as you grow your business with them.

Create A Growth Formula

7 – Formulation

Create a formula for getting your customers to spread the word like a virus is a low cost and rapid way of growing your sales.

Make sure that they understand it’s a condition of doing business with you so that you can keep servicing customers and avoid wasting time prospecting all the time.

Set the expectations correctly so they understand that you help them to get what they want and in return your customers give you referrals.