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How do you turn your idea into small business success? How helpful would it be to have guidelines created by a billionaire and small business expert? Marcus Lemonis reveals his ten rules for succeeding in growing a small business. If you build your business upon these fundamentals, you will be unstoppable.
10 Keys To Small Business Success
Trust the Process Course
Provide a great product or service that will surpass the customer's expectations and generate word of mouth. Happy clients are still the best and most cost-effective method for growing your business from the ground up. When you solve problems for your clients, they become megaphones for your company.
Do your research. Business is always personal, but even if something works for you, people will still buy it. The only way to know what motivates your ideal customer is to do research. You also need to know your competition just as intimately. It's easy to take feedback personally, but realize that your clients are not trying to attack you but to help you create a better product or service; you must learn to listen.
Keep things organized. Quick access to your information is the only way to have smooth day-to-day operations. Keep essential files backed up and secure. Time and attention to detail can be your best selling point over the competition. If you need to, bring someone on your team who is good at organizing all the company's information and storage.
Keep Detailed Record Keeping. If you don't know your numbers, you don't know your business. Bookkeeping may be tedious, but it is the difference between success and failure. Even if you hire accountants and CPAs, you must know enough to understand what they tell you and to fact-check them if necessary. You need to know your numbers well enough to make good decisions before it's too late.
Keep Focus and Have Patience. You know how important goal setting is. The hard part is keeping your focus and calm while pursuing your goal. Building a successful business is a marathon on the road full of dead ends, loops, and one-way streets. Once you have a plan, you must see it to its end.
Be Prepared to Make Tough Decisions. You will sacrifice a lot for your business, including your ego and pride. You must listen to paying customers and experienced mentors and take advice even if you disagree. You can only make sound business decisions when you approach each situation with an open mind. Change is inevitable. Your business today may be drastically different in the future because you continue to innovate.
Keep Your Overhead to a Minimum. Having cash on hand is the biggest asset to overcome unforeseen challenges. Unfortunately, many businesses couldn't survive COVID because they could not keep up the overhead with no income for months. A good rule of thumb is to keep your overhead cost from growing past your cash reserves. If your cash reserves are used often or running low, then it's an early warning system that something needs to change with your revenue or expenses.
Know the Operational Needs. You need to know everything about your business, including how it works and what could break it. Knowing every essential aspect of the company will help you make crucial decisions. You should also regularly research your industry to find best practices to implement and warning signs within your current operations. The more operational foresight you can gain, the more lasting success you will have.
Hire the Right People and Treat Them Well. Your employees must be essential, fruitful, and trustworthy in a small business. They must be able to manage their responsibilities with minimum oversight. Labor is often the highest expense, but if good people are cared for, they will pay for themselves ten times over. If you grow your team, they will grow your business. Employees should have technical skills and be resourceful, but more importantly, they must mesh with the company culture and mission. Everyone can recognize when someone is working to receive a paycheck.
Always Look to Improve. Once things start working well, start looking for ways to improve. Can you automate part of your process? A change may make your product or service unique or solve the problem better. Is there a solution that your competitors can not provide? Businesses that innovate will survive the ever-changing market. All improvements must be based on paying clients' feedback, meaning you must listen. Innovative ideas will not just happen; it requires an active search and observation.
Once you are on the trail of a successful strategy for operating and innovating your business, you must trust the process. Trust is vital because you will be tested to question every decision. The pressure can build so high that it will make you want to stop and figure out the perfect path forward. That is a trap because there is no such thing. You can only make the best decision based on a complete understanding of the facts you have at the time, your education, and prior experience.
Works Cited
Trust The Process Course "10 Keys To Small Business Success" Business Learning: Marcus for Business - Ideas, Information, & Inspiration, Section Four
