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The
Top Ten Tips for Small Business Success
©1997-2004 Edie Pereira Hulbert
and Spirit of Small Business. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
1.
Mindshare leads to marketshare.
When a buyer thinks of the type of product or service that you offer,
you want YOURS to occur to them FIRST; this is called mindshare. With
a coach, you'll create/increase your mindshare!
2. Seek to remove as many consequences and risks as possible.
Errors in judgment and changing trends are what bring down most businesses.
With a coach, you will identify all of the events, people, trends, and
other elements that may negatively affect the business profit-stream.
This exercise alone will strengthen your integrity and expand your awareness.
3. Identify the 10 key things worth managing in the business.
There is SO much to work on and worry about when running a business
that you can get distracted or diverted. However, with a coach you can
more easily focus on what matters most. There are probably over 100
things that a business owner might manage/track, but together, you and
your coach will focus on the priorities.
4. Forge a learning relationship between you and your customers,
not just a selling relationship.
If it's true that much of what you'll be offering/selling to customers
in five years will be different in form or substance to what you're
offering now, doesn't it make sense to learn from your clients vs. just
sell to them? Clients/customers LOVE to share their views and needs
with anyone who will listen, but most companies do not listen, or they
only conduct surveys. With a coach, you can develop learning systems
to obtain information from your customers.
5. Prices in many information service-oriented fields are dropping.
Thanks to the Internet and automation, MANY information/service type
fields/companies are being forced to lower prices or even give away
segments of what they used to charge for. Why? Because well-financed
firms find that giving discounts and incentives is a great way to attract
new customers for perhaps an unrelated product or service! And, given
information distribution is virtually free today, it's a high value-added
benefit to the consumer with minimal out of pocket to the sponsoring
company. This is the new information economics and every accountant,
attorney, publisher, writer, coach, consultant and educator will be
significantly affected. A coach will educate and challenge you to take
advantage of the possibilities vs. lose business because of it.
6. Know what's going on in your business and personal lives.
A coach helps by explaining, educating and offering perspective and
context to clients running their own business. Small business owners
are SO BUSY running their business that they can't see/forget what the
bigger picture is or what's going on. Your coach will point out what
s/he see -- even common-sense stuff. Remember-your coach can see clearly
what you take for granted.
7. Work ON your business, not just IN your business.
This is a key distinction. Most owners work mostly IN their business
and thus are too close to it. Smarter owners work ON their business,
leaving time and space for keeping a broader perspective and acting
on other opportunities. It requires new management and bandwidth skills
to work ON vs. IN, but these are skills that a coach will assist you
to master.
8. Understanding the sources of small business failure and recognizing
the early warning signs is important.
A coach will be able to be the objective party and will point out where
you may need work. The coach's experience with other clients and years
of study will assist you with creativity and perspective.
9. You will want to grow the business, and you will want to grow
yourself.
It is your business, not your coach's. So your efforts with your coach
are best spent developing your skills.
10. Small Business Success Strategies:
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Substance
increases your net profit.
-
Spend
10% of your time with your top 7 customers.
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Get
all the information you need to run the company perfectly.
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Invest
2-10% of sales to stay ahead of the market.
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Expect
& demand a lot from everyone. (vendors, staff, management, customers,
yourself)
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Upgrade
who you are.
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Know
why your company is in business.
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