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Other Added - Starting a Small Business: Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
If yours is a business with several departments, at one point you start to realize that in order to stay competitive, increase productivity and bring efficiency to your business, you need to optimize and automate some of your business processes. To identify which parts of your business activities are required to be optimized, first you need to have a clear understanding of the processes involved in your particular business. What is a Business Process? A business process is a series of specific, measured tasks performed by people and systems and design
The problem with starting a business this way is that to grow the business we need to create clones of ourselves or work sixteen hours a day or hire someone who has the same skills and knowledge that we do.
My observation of small businesses caught in this trap of wanting to expand their business but having limited availability of the saleable resource i.e. themselves, is that the founder cannot let go.
There are almost as many ways to sell as there are things to sell. But regardless of what you are selling, some techniques should be in your arsenal. The fine art of listening should be at the top of your list. As a young salesman for the Yellow Pages, I often talked right past the sale. It’s because I was so intent upon delivering my preset sales pitch, I ignored what my client was telling me. There’s a time to shut up and listen. You can help control this part of the sales call by doing your fact-finding right up front.If your get the Q & A out of the way, the call wil
Despite all of these barriers to setting off in a small business we set sail, like a ship without adequate navigation, in search of something we want.
It is the nature of what we want that drives our motivation. If the nature of what we want is to earn a little money to supplement our existing income or indeed to provide our only income then most people can start a small business and meet their measure of success.
It is when our want becomes something more, perhaps to provide for our children an education and a chance for a better life than we had that the measure of success becomes more difficult to attain.
When we want to change a small piece of the world to make something better than it was and to earn money by doing so then the stakes on achieving our measures of success are raised a further notch.
In any of the three aspiration examples, starting a small business and being successful at it almost always requires of us to leave our comfort zone.
In large organisations, people are able to pretty much decide whether they want to or do not want to leave their comfort zone. Large organisations usually have enough resources to provide another person to cover for others wanting to stay in their comfort zone. The comfort zone is often technical or personal skills.
Whilst I could argue that this is inefficient in a large organisation, in a small organisation it is often fatal.
Comfort zones come in many guises in small business.
If the motivation for starting a small business is somehow related to our knowledge of a particular industry, technology or methodology we will be starting a business where what people exchange their money for is our personal skills and knowledge. This is most often how small businesses start.
The problem with starting a business this way is that to grow the business we need to create clones of ourselves or work sixteen hours a day or hire someone who has the same skills and knowledge that we do.
My observation of small businesses caught in this trap of wanting to expand their business but having limited availability of the saleable resource i.e. themselves, is that the founder cannot let go.
Strong brands prompt strong brain reactions. Radiologists are proving what marketers have been preaching for decades.Dr. Christine Born, a radiologist at the Ludwig-Maximillians University in Munich conducted a series of MRIs exposing 20 adults (upscale for income and education) to logos of strong and weak German brands. The results, reported in the Wall Street Journal, were that bigger brands make bigger brain waves. This comes on top of previous data indicating that shopping can alter blood pressure, heart rate and respiratory rates.Apparently well-known brands
It is when our want becomes something more, perhaps to provide for our children an education and a chance for a better life than we had that the measure of success becomes more difficult to attain.
When we want to change a small piece of the world to make something better than it was and to earn money by doing so then the stakes on achieving our measures of success are raised a further notch.
In any of the three aspiration examples, starting a small business and being successful at it almost always requires of us to leave our comfort zone.
In large organisations, people are able to pretty much decide whether they want to or do not want to leave their comfort zone. Large organisations usually have enough resources to provide another person to cover for others wanting to stay in their comfort zone. The comfort zone is often technical or personal skills.
Whilst I could argue that this is inefficient in a large organisation, in a small organisation it is often fatal.
Comfort zones come in many guises in small business.
If the motivation for starting a small business is somehow related to our knowledge of a particular industry, technology or methodology we will be starting a business where what people exchange their money for is our personal skills and knowledge. This is most often how small businesses start.
The problem with starting a business this way is that to grow the business we need to create clones of ourselves or work sixteen hours a day or hire someone who has the same skills and knowledge that we do.
My observation of small businesses caught in this trap of wanting to expand their business but having limited availability of the saleable resource i.e. themselves, is that the founder cannot let go.
Are you opening a dollar store? There are many components that all come together to create a profit. However one of the most important keys to success is in the buying of merchandise to sell in your dollar store. In fact the more effective you are at buying the merchandise for you store the more profitable your store is likely to become.The largest single cost associated with opening a dollar store and running that same store is the purchasing of merchandise for resale. In fact some of the most successful dollar stores are those that are filled with popular merchandise. d to earn money by doing so then the stakes on achieving our measures of success are raised a further notch.
In any of the three aspiration examples, starting a small business and being successful at it almost always requires of us to leave our comfort zone.
In large organisations, people are able to pretty much decide whether they want to or do not want to leave their comfort zone. Large organisations usually have enough resources to provide another person to cover for others wanting to stay in their comfort zone. The comfort zone is often technical or personal skills.
Whilst I could argue that this is inefficient in a large organisation, in a small organisation it is often fatal.
Comfort zones come in many guises in small business.
If the motivation for starting a small business is somehow related to our knowledge of a particular industry, technology or methodology we will be starting a business where what people exchange their money for is our personal skills and knowledge. This is most often how small businesses start.
The problem with starting a business this way is that to grow the business we need to create clones of ourselves or work sixteen hours a day or hire someone who has the same skills and knowledge that we do.
My observation of small businesses caught in this trap of wanting to expand their business but having limited availability of the saleable resource i.e. themselves, is that the founder cannot let go.
To maintain the quality and control of a franchise system each franchise Outlet must receive the same training. A franchisor’s job is to make sure that the training is the same, keeps the franchisees efficient and maintains the consistency of the overall franchise system.It is for this reason that I added a clause in our companies franchise agreements, which addressed general training and ongoing training requirements. Below is a copy of one of the renditions about clause;4.3.2 General TrainingFranchisor may provide ongoing general training on an annual bing to stay in their comfort zone. The comfort zone is often technical or personal skills.
Whilst I could argue that this is inefficient in a large organisation, in a small organisation it is often fatal.
Comfort zones come in many guises in small business.
If the motivation for starting a small business is somehow related to our knowledge of a particular industry, technology or methodology we will be starting a business where what people exchange their money for is our personal skills and knowledge. This is most often how small businesses start.
The problem with starting a business this way is that to grow the business we need to create clones of ourselves or work sixteen hours a day or hire someone who has the same skills and knowledge that we do.
My observation of small businesses caught in this trap of wanting to expand their business but having limited availability of the saleable resource i.e. themselves, is that the founder cannot let go.
Do you ever wonder if you could be doing a better job marketing your small business or professional service firm? Successfully marketing a small business is hard work. There are several key skills required to consistently develop new business that you, as a small business owner, must master in order to succeed.The first skill you need to have is the ability to regularly generate qualified leads. You must consistently build your list of prospects if you are to grow your business. Your business will not grow if you market to the same, stagnant population over and over nal skills and knowledge. This is most often how small businesses start.
The problem with starting a business this way is that to grow the business we need to create clones of ourselves or work sixteen hours a day or hire someone who has the same skills and knowledge that we do.
My observation of small businesses caught in this trap of wanting to expand their business but having limited availability of the saleable resource i.e. themselves, is that the founder cannot let go.
They do become locked in a comfort zone of control where everything that is done is controlled for quality, timing, quantity and recording by the principal. To actually free up time to grow the business, the principal needs to hire someone to take on a role and manages their performance using coaching techniques instead of micromanagement.
Small businesses set up with a clear view of what will generate income sometimes are disappointed with what customers actually value. It is easy to mistake value in our terms for what customers will really value.
Letting go of what you think will make money immediately takes small business people out of their comfort zone into a new market, a new product and sometimes a point where they are not the source of the skills and knowledge that provide the income opportunity.
Small businesses which rely on marketing to generate sales and do not have the funds to extensively research opportunities or communicate their goods and services will have to learn to network and use electronic means of reaching their prospect base.
Some people find networking easy. They are gregarious by nature and are the centre of attention whenever they enter a room. The rest of us find it a bit of a problem. This may be because small talk is not our thing or because we do not want to be seen to be "selling" all the time.
The desire not to "sell" all the time is natural and is part of the answer to getting out of this comfort zone. Selling is not what it is about. What networking is about is having many conversations with many people about problems, issues and opportunities. The act of having conversations will naturally deliver opportunities. It is not necessary and not advantageous to have a sales pitch ready for every occasion.
Small business owners need to continually focus on what they want to achieve by starting a small business. They must use their social skills, their insight and develop a clear perception of
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