7 Business Lessons for 2007

"Progress only happens when you take action."

Seeking inspiration? Here are seven business lessons to assist you in taking your business up a gear in 2007.

1 Keep it fresh
If one phrase has summed up why many businesses struggle, it is ‘if it is not broken, why fix it?’ The way you have run your business up to now may not be sufficient for the future. No business is perfect and no firm can remain profitable indefinitely without making changes. You either proactively lead the industry (or at least follow what the industry is doing) or you fail.
Now, at the start of 2007, ask yourself ‘What has been working well?’ ‘What needs to change?’ ‘What can no longer be tolerated?’ Replace the ‘if it’s not broken’ mindset, with ‘how can we ensure constant and consistent improvement?’

2 Keep your customer at the heart of your business
Your customers have made your business what it is today. Whatever you do in the future ensure you keep the customer at the centre of your business. Who are your key customers? You have to know your customer both quantitatively and qualitatively. Unless you can connect with your key customers and understand what they hope to get from you, then no matter how much you communicate with them (flyers, promotions etc.) they’ll never hear you. If you don’t listen to customers and learn to understand their needs, not only will you struggle to give them what they really want, but you are also not valuing them and customers instinctively know when they are not valued.

Listening to customers is powerful, responding to customers is dynamite

3 Be your own Public Relations (PR) Consultant
There is little point in being excellent at what you do unless your customers know about it. You may think customers should know what you are good at, but there is no harm in subtly reminding them. Refresh their memory about how you add value.
Your brand is essentially the experience you are promising your customers when they interact with any aspect of your business. So, what are you promising your customers? There is always a balance between image and substance and great businesses manage this balance well.

4 Make your strengths even stronger
Businesses (and individuals) often think that the best way to become better at what they do is to transform current weaknesses into strengths. However, it is often easier to gain a competitive advantage by making an existing strength even stronger. For example, you have a reputation for great customer service, how could you take this up a notch?

5 Understand your people
If the person at the top cares about the person cleaning the floor or answering the phones, then the business comes alive. Everyone likes to be valued. Everyone likes to know that their work is appreciated. If the manager treats staff poorly it ricochets throughout the business. Staff will duplicate this behaviour with customers and before long an atmosphere of resentment and begrudgery pervades. It’s the people who make a business successful, not the product, not the service and not the new idea.

6 Think laterally
Lateral thinking will create opportunities, insightful ways of attracting customers. For example, what additional needs do your customers have? What else could you do to stimulate interest in your product or service? Don’t just wait for opportunities to appear, create them.

7 Effective not just efficient
You can have a wonderfully efficient day ensuring your business runs smoothly, but as a manager you need to be out there developing contacts and generating a pipeline of future business. Not all new ideas will work, but perhaps one will transform your business, and you will never know in advance which one it will be.

8 Exceed Expectations
Surprise your customers with something new that is of value to them. What could create a ‘wow’ factor that will have people speaking about your business? Perhaps it is having a policy of knocking a few pence off the price to save the customer searching for change. Perhaps it is offering eight business lessons for 2007 when the expectation was only set for seven! Good businesses will always deliver what it promises, but a great business will deliver more.

What to kick-start your business in 2007. Contact James Sweetman at 087 2492774 or via e-mail today.