Small Business Times:
1. Do it now. For small business owners, paperwork and ‘to-do’s’ pile up like snowdrifts on a desk, and eventually can overwhelm you. I remember hearing a colleague of Walt Disney say that one of Disney’s strengths was tending to things immediately. It’s a great habit to develop and frees up your creativity.
2. Keep tuned in to the competition. Even long-time customers will bounce away to where they can find the best products and services. So keep an eye on your competitors, copy and improve on their ideas, as long as you’re not violating patent law. Better yet, keep your firm unique by using that freed-up creativity to devise new products or services.
3. Market your products or services well. If you don’t have the time or the talent for doing this, hire the best person you can find to do it for you. Few things really sell themselves. Marketing keeps oxygen flowing into your business.
4. Provide extreme customer service. Treat customers so well that they talk about your over-the-top service when they’re having dinner with friends. As they say, under-promise and over-deliver, or the customers will find someone who does.
5. Hire stars and give them star treatment. Employ only people essential to your business who want to learn. Train them painstakingly and keep them inspired and growing. Make sure they’re having fun and feeling appreciated.
6. Work on your business, not just in your business. No matter how great you are at fixing computers or whatever, you will ratchet up your chance of success by being adept at multiple tasks from accounting to marketing to hiring.
7. Location, location, location. Customers like convenience. An enthusiastic retailer I knew had to close her shop full of wonderful shoes after a year. I’m pretty sure that was because her store was located on the second floor of a professional building. Even if your business doesn’t depend on traffic, customers will want to see your headquarters at some time or another. and you don’t want to feel apologetic. That goes for clutter too.
8. Track the cash. You need to know how to keep track of the money and make cash flow projections. Profitable or not, you can get into trouble if you overspend and run short of cash.
9. Open your mind before you open your doors. We all have preconceptions. Take the necessary steps so that your wrong preconceptions don’t break your heart. Open your mind to advice from mentors, read about small business online and in print and network like crazy. Set your own beliefs aside long enough to give serious consideration to data you glean from all these resources. Listen to the words of The Sutra of Hui Neng, ‘by defending our faults, we betray an unsound mind.’
10. Plan, plan, plan. Start with goals, including action steps as part of your strategic plan, and consult your plan every day to make sure you are doing what needs to be done to meet your objectives. Revise the plan to keep it alive through the many changes that will be part of your reality, inside and outside of your business.
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