Welcome to the decade of the New Twenties. Time for small businesses to focus on growth. But how, with all the recent innovation and push for digitalization? It is easy to feel overwhelmed as a small business owner. Minimalism is a new lifestyle. This trend should serve as an example for the business world too. Let's start to focus on value and what is necessary. This approach has the potential to boost your business to a new level. Oh, by the way, of course it goes without mentioning that a business is only poised for long-term growth if it is profitable.
3 Must-Have Focus Points For Your Business Plan
Businesses of every type need a business plan. Don’t think you can skip by on this important step just because you maybe offer a service instead of a physical product. Every business can benefit from a business plan. A business plan will help you do one majorly important thing: focus!
First Step, Your Dream. Focus Like a Small Beam!
When you create a business plan you need to focus on the reasons for the business: Who do you want to serve? What do you want to provide? When do you want to start? Where will you set up a shop? Why do you want to start such an endeavor? How will you meld all these things together to create a prosperous business?
These are the primary reasons why you’re going into business and they should always be at the forefront of your mind when making decisions.
Something else to focus on is your big dream. How much money do you want to make over the next 5 years? Do you want to sell multiple products or have several locations? Everyone’s big dream will be different but you should write it down as part of the plan.
Second Step, A Plan.
Think of your business plan as a mountain. Your mission statement is at the base of the mountain while your big dream is at the peak. Everything in between is what you need to plan and these steps should also be incorporated into a business plan.
What products do you want to create? How often do you want to produce a product? How can you implement some passive income or affiliate income into your business? Are there any speaking engagements or online summit opportunities that will expand your reach and your followers? What can you add to your sales funnel for those not yet ready to commit to your main service offering?
Third Step, Action Steps.
This is where your planning steps are broken down into smaller, actionable steps. Instead of just saying I want to write a book, break the process down further. How much time can you dedicate each day to writing? Do you want to self-publish or find a publisher? You’ll need to hire an editor and someone to design the cover. These are actionable steps that can easily be crossed off your to do list once completed.
Don’t be thrown off here. You cannot plan 5 years’ worth of action steps at one time. Even large corporations no longer operate on a 5-year plan, since the speed of change in today’s world makes that impossible. The idea is to plan a year at a time and think in sprints during the year, keeping your focus in mind, so that the action steps become a pathway or a blueprint to your big dreams.
If this seems like a daunting task, look for a coach or mentor that can help you. You need a million-dollar plan for a million-dollar business. Talk to your coach and discuss the importance of breaking down your tasks for more effective productivity as well as how to take ACTION, which is imperative to reach any goal. If you don’t have a coach or mentor, why not? Business is not much different than sports in that regard. To become top-performers, each of us needs to be coached.
A Coach without a Coach?
Just because person A is fulfilling the role of a coach for person B doesn't mean that person A would never have a need for a coach of their own. Seems like a funny thing to think about. But it's true. Even the best coaches could use some help sometimes. Either with streamlining their businesses or having an objective third party to talk to about personal or family matters. Heck, even psychiatrists are required to speak to other psychiatrists on a regular basis!
Business coaches can assist anyone with their businesses and often will find things to fix or change simply because they have an objective, outside viewpoint. Everything from billing inefficiencies to brainstorming product ideas, a business coach can be a non-judgmental sounding board who offers clarity and perspective. But my advice: make sure the person you choose as a coach is coachable as well.
Your Coach as Your Accountability Partner
If you have a plan in place for creating a signature program, utilizing a coach as an accountability partner is a wise investment. We all tend to work more efficiently when we know there’s a deadline looming but it’s also easy to ignore that deadline because we are the ones who set it. Rather than moving your deadline further and further away, use this accountability partner to keep your productivity on track.
Accountability is necessary in many instances, though, not just in product creation. Whatever goals you have set for yourself, your coach will hold you solely responsible for meeting those deadlines and goals.
Your Coach as Your Guide
A good business coach will have the ability to challenge your thinking and your goals in a non-threatening, non-judgmental way. Instead of staying inside our comfort zones, a coach will encourage us to explore what we fear in an effort to fight that fear and try something new. Coaches also have the skill to break down large tasks into smaller tasks that don’t seem so intimidating. They can also guide us with instructions for how to do or implement something in our business.
Your Coach as Your Mentor
When it comes to hiring a business coach, always hire someone you consider to be at a higher income level or level of success than you. After all, those who have already reached a level of success will have the best experience to share about how you can reach that same level. Your coach is one who will teach you the skills you need to be successful based on real life experiences.
Get Your Plan Started Ahead of Time
Before you spend good money on a coach, create a business plan with your goals and your action steps spelled out. You want to provide your coach with a starting point and chances are that would be your first assignment anyway with a new coach.
If setting up a business plan sounds daunting or you don’t know where to start, don't hesitate to get help. After all, a million-dollar business will need a million-dollar plan. Discuss with your coach how planning will keep you focused on your next action steps, why taking action is so vitally important if you want to reach serious goals, and how to break down your overwhelming tasks into doable action steps that will improve your productivity.
3 Reasons Why a Support Team Helps You Focus
A common piece of advice from business coaches to those who want to grow their business is to hire team members who can do the support work so you can focus your efforts on money-making tasks. In other words, don’t waste your time doing bookkeeping or answering emails because you’ll make more money selling your signature program or service.
So how’s a business supposed to run smoothly when you’re not doing those necessary support tasks? Simple…you hire people to do those tasks for you. There are expert Virtual Assistants who can create an organized inbox with filters, folders and labels in mere minutes. There are expert Bookkeepers who find joy in numbers and live for balancing your books each month. And there are still others who adore creating online content and helping customers with their questions and problems. This is the team you need to create.
There’s Not Enough Time in Your Day
If this is your excuse for not getting tasks done, then it’s time to hire at least one team member. Make a list of your most pressing tasks that need doing and hire the appropriate person for the job. Start small if necessary, paying a Virtual Assistant for 5 hours a month, for instance, and then work up from there as you become more comfortable delegating tasks to her. You’ve just gained 5 hours in your month so use it wisely.
You Can’t Clone Yourself
How on earth can you fulfill your core service while also getting prospects into your sales funnel and creating marketing material or other signature programs? You can’t, plain and simple, because there is only ONE of you! This leads back to you doing the money-making tasks. Hire a ghostwriter to write your book or programs if that is one of your tasks; contract a Virtual Assistant to help with administrative tasks; get a Customer Service Specialist to answer your phones and client questions. While they work, you work on building relationships with your clients and prospects.
You Don’t Have Time to Learn the Latest Technology
Technology is wonderful and keeps improving every day but who has the time to learn all these programs and apps? Canva is certainly a cool tool for designing graphics but instead of fooling around for hours to design your book covers or social media graphics, hire a graphic designer who already knows about design and color principles and likely has the latest and greatest design program. There’s no learning curve here. You only have to explain your vision to the designer and let that lovely person take over. Again, focus on your money-making activities.
I Don’t Know What Tasks to Give Up
Giving up control can be intimidating but if you have a business plan and know exactly what tasks YOU want to handle, the art of delegation becomes much easier. If you need help planning these next steps in your business, contact us and let's have a chat about your 12-month marketing calendar. It can be very valuable to plan your programs, content, and promotions for an entire year!
Start off with making a business plan and creating action steps. Make use of productivity tips and tools to plan your offerings and your promotional offers. After you get a plan in place, it will become more obvious what type of service providers you’ll need and for which tasks.
Focus With These 3 Productivity Hacks Today
Productivity and efficiency are the popular buzz words lately as more and more business owners try to make the most of their time during a busy day. No matter how hard you try, you simply cannot do everything yourself when it comes to running your business. Investing in your business not only decreases stress but it makes your business run more smoothly, therefore increasing profits.
If you need to improve your productivity, try these three tips:
Focus on What You Do Best. Outsource the Rest.
Rather than being saddled with monotonous tasks and expensive software they may have to learn, many smart business owners are accepting their limitations and finding expert service providers to take over these tasks. What takes one expert an hour to do can easily take a non-savvy business owner 5 hours to complete. Is that really a good use of your time?
Start off by asking your business associates for referrals and conduct regular interviews, as though you were hiring an employee. Just because they are a virtual service provider doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have the same high standards you would expect from an employee.
Kick the Bad Habits
Are you stuck in the dark ages, doing things just because you’ve always done it that way? Analyze your business during the last year. Did you launch any programs? Were the results better or worse than you expected? Are there any new software programs or apps that will make your work more efficient? Are you still keeping your books in a handwritten ledger or are you ready to convert to a computer software program? Delegate tasks; find a new software; plan out new programs or updates; these are all things you can start doing today, not to spend money unnecessarily but to innovate your business.
Create an Actual Plan
Use a project management program or an old-fashioned paper planner but put your projects onto a calendar and work towards achieving those goals. Without a plan, your actions are meaningless. You might decide to work on something unrelated to your goals or you might delay your own deadlines in order to put client business ahead of your own work. A business plan is your blueprint to reaching your goals, no matter how lofty they may seem. Seeing this plan daily will give you something to focus on, therefore increasing your daily productivity.
Overwhelmed at the Idea of Planning? Have No Fear!
You need a million-dollar plan if you want a million-dollar business. Discuss exactly how to set your goals and how to break those goals down into doable action steps with your coach or mentor. While everyone’s goals will be different, we all have to create a roadmap and learn how to take real action. There’s no excuse not to grow your business this year!
5 Money-Making Action Tasks to Focus on Growing Your Business
Inaction is the death of any business. Without taking regular action every single day to grow your business, inaction will cause your business to become stagnant. Clients will disappear, your sales funnel will be empty, and your revenue will dip to zero in a heartbeat.
Let’s avoid this scenario! Here are five action tasks that will lead to increased income and business growth.
1. Email Your Customers Regularly.
Contrary to popular belief, email marketing is NOT dead. Email is the easiest way to stay in touch with customers and prospects to let them know about your new offerings - be it a product or service - or to recommend an affiliate product which pays you a commission.
2. Focus on Customer Service.
You will never please everyone but you may as well try your best. Inevitably customers will contact you with questions or refund requests so be prepared to answer these requests in a timely manner. Stick to your rules about refunds but never disregard or disrespect a customer. Negative online reviews are easier to find than positive ones.
3. Raise Your Rates.
When was your last rate increase? Are your prices competitive with the current market of businesses of your caliber? Can your ideal client still afford your new rates? Be confident that your expertise is worth that new rate. Take care of your current customers during that process.
4. Repackage Your Offerings.
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Simply take your older content or products and create new bundles or create an entirely new product. The information or products should obviously be related in topic to appeal to most people and be sure to price it accordingly.
5. Focus on a New Offering for Old Clients.
People buy from those they know, like, and trust, so open up that old client list and create an exclusive offer just for them. Make the offer sexy, exclusive, and time-sensitive to get quick action results.
How Do I Know What to Offer? Focus on Your Audience.
This is an age-old question of many business owners and it boils down to knowing your target audience. How do they want their information presented? What are the hot topics in their industry? What struggles do they have every day? The simplest way to know what they want is to simply ask them.
Another reason some business owners don’t know what to offer is because they don’t have a plan, either for their business or who they want to help. Writing a business plan with action steps is imperative for business growth.
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