Many small business owners find themselves exhausted at the end of each day, and sometimes even lament the fact that they ever went into business in the first place. These owners have trouble making time to do everything it takes to run a successful business, and they definitely don't have time to grow their business beyond where it is today.
These owners are allowing their business to run them, rather than learning how to run their business. By failing to take control and drive their business - also defined as setting and accomplishing specific goals - they lose focus and burn out.
Owning a business usually starts out with a great idea; an entrepreneur gets "the bug" and stays up all night planning his launch. However, running a business is often unexpectedly complicated, involving skills in accounting and finance, strategic planning, marketing, and employee management.
These are not exciting, fun details, but they do keep small business owners up at night. The key to managing these details is to set goals and completely reorganize your to-do list, and to create a not-to-do list. Sound impossible? It's easier than you think.
Here's what you need to do:
1. Define exactly what you want to do with your business (AKA: your goal): Your business should enrich your bank account and your personal life; otherwise it's easier to just work for someone else. In order to do this, you need to define exactly what it is that you want out of life ...and out of your business.
Major things to think about include:
How many hours per week are you willing to work? Now rethink that into how many hours per week you want to work. There is a big difference.
How much money do you need to get by? Now think about how much money you need to do all of the things that would make you happy in life.
When you start to flip your expectations from those that just barely get you by (which will eventually make you tired and miserable), to those that will make you happy and fulfilled, you are on the path to redesigning your business into something that works hard for you, rather than the other way around.
2. Establish milestones that will let you know whether you're achieving your goal: A goal simply cannot be achieved unless you know what "success" means. Define the metrics that will tell you that you have achieved your goal.
Break your milestones down into at least three categories: this quarter, this year and three years from now. This will allow you to plan both short and long term goals, which is important for both keeping you focused and motivated.
3. Determine what you need in order to accomplish your goal: Within your milestone timeline, you can now start to layer in how your business will grow and what it will need to thrive through each stage. For example, if you intend to increase revenue, you will also need to increase production and possibly increase the number of employees that you have.
Defining exactly what this will mean - how many employees? What will you need those employees to do? Avoid making overly-broad generalizations here, and think through exactly what each of your people will do and how they will enhance your business. Employees can be a real drag unless you take this critical step.
4. Put programs in place that support your goal: Be ruthless here - do not launch programs that do not directly support your goal, otherwise they will distract you from its achievement. For example, if you have decided that you need to increase traffic to your website, then you may need to do a site redesign and launch some online promotional campaigns. Now is the time to get detailed - answer these questions for each of your programs:
What do we need?
How much will it cost?
Who will do it?
When will we get started?
When will we be finished?
Once you have defined each of your programs in this manner, you can put together a budget and a timeline, and get started on accomplishing multiple projects that will get you closer to your goal.
Copyright (c) 2008 Virginia Ginsburg
To Set Up Small Business
While there are many opinions on the topic of how to make a small business grow and just as many view points on what to do first, there is a common thread that runs through the center of all of the conversations. That common thread is advertising. So, the three ways are have to do with advertising. They are;
(1.) Advertise (2.) Advertise Smartly (3.) Take Advantage Of New Advertising Opportunities.
(1.) You have to advertise. I wont bore you with the same beaten down thoughts that most articles seem to harp on. We all know that we should make a banner and put it on as many websites as we can. Truth be told, that is a very vague approach to something that has grown to be known as a technique driven operation.
For a bit of clarity, advertising works best when used as a finesse game. Get your products into the consumers head without them feeling that that is what you are trying to do. Make them feel that knowing about your product is a good thing. More on this later.
(2.) Lets get something out of the way right now. This may come as a shock to some but there is a truth that will set you free to market like a champ, if you will only accept it. Are you ready? You had better sit down. OK, here goes.
The powerful truth isthose millions of customers that are just surfing all over the internet dont give a fat rats butt about you are your product. They are only interested in one thing. What are the ways that they can solve a problem or fulfill a need they have.
Your mission is not to tell them that you have a great product or even how great your product is. It is to inform them that they have a problem or need and that your product can solve it.
Grasp this and allow your mind to envelope it because if you do, youve got it. OK, Lets play this out. If one day a man walks up to you out of the blue and says Hey, I have two spare tires in the trunk of my car. That statement coming at you just out of the blue, usually commands the need for the answer So what? to be given.
O.K., imagine the difference in reception if the man says, Hey, I see that you already have a temporary emergency tire on your car but it is flat too. I have two spare tires in the trunk of my car. The person that says this has looked at the car and noticed that an emergency tire is being used but it is flat. They assessed the situation and came to the conclusion that the person must not have a backup tire. The item being pitched appears to fulfill a need. Bam! An interaction has started with the person in need.
Much like that analogy, If you just come out of he blue with a declaration about your products existence, you are only impressing yourself. Your solution is like a spare tire, it means nothing without a need to use it.. In fact, when was the last time you thought about your vehicles spare tire?
(3.) You have to be ready to exploit the latest and greatest advertising and marketing techniques when they are first emerging. If you wait for everyone else to prove to you that a marketing strategy works great, you will always be one step behind. One of the greatest plays from the super marketer handbook is to jump on new marketing techniques as soon as they emerge.
Remember, I said that there would be more about getting your product into the consumers head without them feeling like that is what you are trying to do? Well, here goes.
One new way of advertising is called Error Marketing. Simply stated, error marketing is placing a small bounty or cash reward for any errors that can be found on your website. TypoBounty dot com is the website that provides all of the necessary features to make this happen. When you advertise on TypoBounty dot com you clean up your website as well as gain large numbers of visitors for a fraction of the cost of other marketing campaigns. When you use error marketing, potential customers slow down and read all of your content. Thus, they catch the full impact of your sales pitch. This gives you the best opportunity to sell your products without annoying the people that you are marketing your products to.
Remember, if it is true advertising that you want, you need to be smart about your advertising presentation and your choices of advertising venues. The answer to getting the responses you seek is not to throw money at the problem. It is not just to advertise, but also to advertise smartly and take advantage of emerging marketing techniques early in the game.
Both Virginia Ginsburg & John Reed are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Virginia Ginsburg has sinced written about articles on various topics from Family, Health and Pets. Virginia Ginsburg, MBA, owns a consulting firm specializing in helping small and entrepreneurial businesses grow (