In reading through our courses, I noticed that we don’t have a short ‘cookbook’ of things to do to achieve success if you’re just starting a business or if you’re running one.
So, here are what I think are the essentials:
- Have approval from your spouse or partner to start or buy a business. Your kids, too; I’ve got one divorce on my record as a result of not getting buy in from my spouse about a move to a new city with a new business.
- Have a unique business position, so that customers will be inclined to buy from you rather than your competitors. There are a variety of ways to be unique: promotion, price, service. Reevaluate this position often, because competitors will creep up on you.
- Set your goals for what you want to achieve every day until it becomes second nature (there is a natural tendency to goof off).
- Also set goals for the week and the month and be ruthless in examining why you missed a goal (again, there is a tendency to let things slide).
- Hire self-starters so they know what to do every day…. you don’t want to do morning motivational meetings, or at least I didn’t. Not even in the Navy.
- Make it a habit to examine what your competitors are doing. They’re watching you, and will copy what you’re doing that they’re not (in most cases).
- Try to hire the right people the first time; it’s expensive and loses productivity to fire people. Don’t use your gut to hire people, because it’s usually wrong.
- Hire the right supervisors the first time, because many people quit because they don’t like their boss.
- If you’ve got more than 10 employees, manage by walking around. You get good ideas, and your people like to see you. Don’t hide in your office.
- Be accessible. It might drive you nuts at times, but your people will respect you for it. People will respect your time, too.
- If you’re new to running things, your judgement will improve. Keep track of how your decisions, especially the ones discussed, work out. Spend an appropriate amount of time discussing a decision with your team.
- Spend at least an hour a day talking to customers, somewhere. Split it up between new and existing customers. They’ll appreciate it and you’ll find out how your customer service is and get ideas for new products and services.