Get Grounded!!
What happened? You started your business with a great vision of what you wanted to do and a rough idea of how you would do it. You got a plan or direction for how you would get into business, who your customers would be, the amount of money you would make and how things would be. Six months later, your reality isn't what you envisioned: you aren't getting neither the business you wanted nor the customers you hoped for. Somehow the vision you had has gone by the wayside.
What do you do now?
Think about this, for a moment. When you buy a car, what happens when you use it as a bull dozer? If you buy a flower pot, does it make a very effective computer desk? Your cell phone...how often can you use it as a theft deterrent device? Now, look at your business. How long can your business survive without being fully defined and functioning the way that you designed it to?
Just like anything else that you expect to last, your business must have some defined parameters within to operate. How does this help?
1. Your stakeholders fully understand your business - the types of products and services you produce or offer, and the right kinds of customers and vendors for your company.
2. When you make decisions within the business, you can look at the parameters and narrow down or expand your options based on them.
3. You help the business by focusing on doing one thing and serving one purpose really well.
4. When you create systems and strategies for your business, as you review them, you can look to see what parts of the system lay within your expertise, and what items you might consider outsourcing in order to run as efficiently as possible.
5. When you seek talent, you will look at your recruits. along the lines of how their interests, need and experience align with those of the business.
6. When you look at new opportunities, or get special requests, you can look at them in terms of how they align (or don't) with your business.
So, six reasons to start with. Although there are more, these are the most practical and scenarios things you will have to deal with. No, they won't be the items that put you in the black overnight, but they are the things that will help you develop your niche.
Helping you get your business grounded is one of the things we do to help your company be there for the long haul. At Aepiphanni Business Solutions, we help you create great ideas and show you how to bring those ideas to fruition by helping you to leverage what you do best and exploiting it for everything its worth.
At Aepiphanni Business Solutions, we are dedicated to serving the needs of small business owners. We specialize in helping you develop strategies for your organization, and are committed to your success. If you have further questions about creating your strategy or developing your vision, please give me, Rick Meekins, a call at 678-265-3908, or email us at info@aepiphanni.com.
Labels: Business Growth Strategies
Take a Vacation!! - From IMC USA
Taking a vacation can do wonders for you and your consulting practice.
Consultants often get so caught up in the day to day responsibilities of maintaining and building of a successful practice that they forget to take the much- needed opportunity to relax, recharge and regroup. Taking regularly scheduled vacations can help us to avoid burn-out and reduce stress, get reconnected with our family and friends, and get back in touch with ourselves. The time away gives us a much needed break from the pressures of work so that we are able to return refreshed, re-focused and re-invigorated.
Tip: Schedule your vacation in advance and stick to the dates you have put aside for this extremely important activity. Work hard to "clear the decks" before you leave and plan to limit (or disconnect completely from) work-related communication (i.e., phone calls and e-mails), so that you can spend your vacation focusing exclusively on the "recharging of your batteries".
P.S. - Don't forget to provide yourself adequate "re-entry" time when you return from your vacation in order to get caught up. Refrain from scheduling any important commitments for the first few days after return. You'll need time to catch up on e- mails, call backs, etc.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Institute of Management Consultants USA
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At Aepiphanni Business Solutions, we are dedicated to serving the needs of small business owners. We specialize in helping you develop strategies for your organization, and are committed to your success. If you have further questions about creating your strategy or developing your vision, please give me, Rick Meekins, a call at 678-265-3908, or email us at info@aepiphanni.com.
Labels: Business Growth Strategies, Business Path, Management and Leadership
A New Year is Approaching. Do You Know Where Your Business Is?
What is your business strategy? For that matter, what is a strategy? How often do you go back and look at it? How often do you work on the goals that are going to help you achieve that strategy?
Your strategy is your plan for accomplishing a particular goal vision. If you have a restaurant, for example, a particular strategy you might work on is how to increase revenue. You might try to increase table turns or raise prices or start any number of marketing endeavors.
The question is: "As a small business owner, how do I get time to create or even work on a strategy?" As a small business owner, it is VITAL that you put aside time for this every week. Strategy is the lifeblood of your business that keeps it going every day. While making time is impossible, taking time to work on your strategy is like taking time to eat.
Here is a tip –
- Make yourself a weekly schedule of different activities you will do centered around growing your business – for example, we take two hours of “off-line” time – time when aren’t actively involved in the business, and dedicate it as “strategy time,” and have it set up as an appointment in our calendar software – in this case Microsoft Outlook. What you would do during this time is Review your company vision. Review your strategies. Review your plan. Work your plan.
- Give yourself a timeline so that you don’t get stuck in any particular area, especially the planning area (you need to WORK the plan!).
- Make goals and make them BOLD!! – Keep yourself engaged and challenged to do what you do every day.
- Make your goals MANAGEABLE! – while your goals should be bold, they should be those that you can reasonably accomplish so that you don’t get discouraged
- Use your resources! – Friends, business associates, outsourcing, etc.
- Give yourself a timeframe - starting and ending dates for each milestone will help keep things in perspective.
- Make sure you can look at every milestone and say to yourself, “this is what it looked like before, and this is what it will look like when it is done” and be able to note the difference.
- Be accountable to yourself – share your goals/plans with a business associate, mentor, or with your group.
At Aepiphanni Business Solutions, we are dedicated to serving the needs of small business owners. We specialize in helping you develop strategies for your organization, and are committed to your success. If you have further questions about creating your strategy or developing your vision, please give me, Rick Meekins, a call at 678-265-3908, or email us at info@aepiphanni.com.
Labels: Business Growth Strategies
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