When owning your own business one focus is more small business growth. In an earlier post I talked about the first rule of exceptional customer service, which is to have a good attitude.  A good attitude means having your customer service set up to provide for the needs of your customers, not your needs.  For many that would seem to be obvious.

Rule #2 has to do with your employees or independent contractors if they are to be involved in customer service.  One of the biggest mistakes I see in small business coaching is not giving the very people who can help you with the process of providing exceptional customer service, ownership of how to provide good customer service.

As a result, the customer service department or area bumps along and becomes your negative marketing department. Of course this doesn’t help any one’s attitude or morale.  To get others and you, the small busines owner,  truly involved in providing exceptional customer service you can start practicing with your employees or contractors.

When you do you will have a small business running well and a successful small business for you, your employees and your customers.  And, the satisfaction you will feel from a growing small business will be great.

Instruct them that when they bring you a problem that you also want them to bring three solutions.  If they have two or one, that is okay.  But, ask for three.  Listen to these solutions.  And, more importantly, look for ways to incorporate anything good you hear into the customer service process.  Not only do you start building a sense of ownership but also a sense of team.  Your employees know and feel that we are all in this together.

If you practice having them offer solutions to problems and giving them ownership in the outcome you will start building a customer service department that is on the way to being exceptional and part of your positive marketing department.  When you sow these seeds you will reap small business success and small business growth.

In owning your own business one of the most important things to help you grow is to provide exceptional customer service.  Yet, we get engrossed in delivering the product or service and do a poor job of handling problems and questions. 

Ultimately, this will kill most small businesses.  Small business growth and running small business successfully is not something you do by chance but by design.

How often have we heard about or had direct experience with a company where we paid our money and then there was a problem.  I am sure all of you have had this happen to you at one time or another.  And, when we have a problem the worst part is not be able to reach someone who can give us some immediate direction to resolve our problem. 

Too often, companies today and many small businesses look at customer service as an expense.  When done right, customer service can become a profit center.  There are many components to having successful customer service.  More than we can discuss here.  In fact there are small business books, small business ebooks and small business courses that address customer service.

Let’s take a look at one component.  Successful small business is in larger part about having a good attitude.  A good attitude in this instance means validating the customers thoughts and feelings.  Rule number one to exceptional customer service and having a successful small business is that it is all about them and their perception.  That is a good attitude.  It is not about you. 

In working with small business and small business coaching some of the deadly phrases I hear go along these lines….”I’m sorry but I got busy or I would have called you back.”  Another is: ” I had a crisis or the employee was sick and that’s why no one got back to you.”  I could go on and on but you get the point. 

All of these responses are deadly because it becomes all about you and not about them.  What you are saying to them is that you don’t run your business well enough to take care of them.  In essence when they are calling you with a problem and you don’t respond properly or in a reasonable amount of time you are subconsciously telling them that they now have to run this part of your business since you aren’t capable of it. 

Think about it.  When you have to call someone more than once to get a response then you are having to solve the problem you have but now you are having to solve another problem which is poor customer service. Now you are asking or telling the customer by your actions to manage this part of your business since you can’t.  This will kill a small business if the customers start having to manage your customer service department. 

Rule number one is to have a good attitude where you put yourself in your customer’s position.  Then, and this is the key, design your customer service to meet the customer’s needs.  When you do, you will be amazed at the growth your business will experience when you handle problems well.

Too often when we are self-employed we focus on outside circumstances and things.  In a way, we let them lead our lives.  One of the steps to business success is to be a business owner who knows how to filter the good from the bad.  What I am referring to is your ability to let the good stuff in and to keep the bad stuff out.

Think about it.  Most of the information you receive is because you allow yourself to receive it.  One of the keys to leading yourself to have small business growth and to growth in  life is to look at what you are allowing into your mind.  I have worked with many business owners who see remarkable improvement when they start filtering out the negative information that comes to them.

After all, if you have no control over something there is very little need to keep being informed about it.  Certainly, it is okay to know that it exists.  But, to continually focus on something that you can’t control creates two negatives.

1.  You feel a sense that you are powerless.  This will actually keep you from leading yourself and your business forward. 

2.  The second thing is that once you receive negative information and keep bringing it up it is like bringing up something from the past that you can’t change.  When you can’t change something it will rob you of the initiative to move forward in your business and your life.

You may ask why is developing this filtering mechanism important to your well being.  Remember two things. 

1.  In small business coaching and coaching success I have business owners focus on the fact that their mind is a muscle.  You can lead yourself well by feeding your mind with good positive thoughts. 

2.  Secondly, owning your own businesss andleading yourself in your business and life is not as much about managing time as it is about managing energy.  Time management work is important.  But, the results of time management will be reflected in the level of energy you maintain.

When you are focusing on the present and the future, and the positive they can bring, then you will have the energy.  More importantly, when you have the energy you can carve out the time to do those things that will allow you to design the business and life of freedom and abundance you desire.

Follow the steps to business success and you will lead yourself to the business and life you desire.

Think about this.  The four or five most dangerous words in the English language are:

• “It’s different here.”

• “It’s different this time.”

Somehow when we see or hear these words we are moved, without even realizing it, to thinking that the information, product or service that is being discussed is somehow better.

Those few words can move us to make a decision to be involved with something that is different.  And, we don’t take the time to pause and reflect on whether or not different is truly better.  As a business and life coach I work at being better because that makes me different.  And, it makes me different in a positive way.

For all of us we should be striving to be better.  Growing small business and small business growth is about being better.  But to make our businesses better the first step to business success we must take is to grow ourselves.  To be better we must grow.  How do we grow?  We must develop new disciplines.  After all, if we keep doing things the same way over and over again nothing is going to change.

You may say that’s obvious and you are right.  What is not obvious is how to go about affecting the change you desire.  Personally, I have faced this challenge myself.  And, the good news is that I have overcome it.  I have made myself better.  And that is what makes me different.  I am a firm believer in small business books, small business ebooks and small business courses.

They have helped me greatly.  Yet, for the most part, they did not specifically address the challenges of owning your own business.  After 30 years of owning several businesses and coaching hundreds of business owners, I have put together an ebook and home study course to help you create pathways to upgrade your business and your life

If you are committed to being better in your business and your life I have a couple of suggestions as to where to start.  For the self-employed there is the Progress Set Free Ebook.  The little acknowledged truth about self-employment is that we seek greater freedom and abundance yet we very often end up putting ourselves in bondage to our own creation.  The Progress Set Free Ebook will start you on the road to creating pathways to upgrade your business and your life.

And, if you really wish to have the business, life, freedom and abundance you desire then the Progress Set Free Home Study Course .  It can help accelerate moving you to becoming more and having the business and life you desire.

Unfortunately, most people wait for something to happen to them.  In coaching success, it reminds me of a story back in another time when homes were heated by wood stoves.  There was a man who was freezing and very unhappy with his life.  He started having an arguement with his stove because it wasn’t giving him any heat.  He said, “Give me the heat.  Then I’ll give you the wood.”

And that’s the challenge for many people.  They want something yet they won’t commit to putting something in.  As a result, you have the perfect formula for the result “nothing much happens here.” For the few who choose to be better we are willing to first put something in.  And that’s what makes them different.

Check out and get involved in the Progress Set Free Ebook or the Progress Set Free Home Study Course.  When you do you will committing yourself to being better, being different and having your Progress Set Free.

In owning your own business you may have experienced or are experiencing the treadmill.  The treadmill is where every day appears to be the same.  Yes, there are some minor changes.  Yes, there may be some progress.  Yet, overall the pervasive feeling in our business and life is one of deadening uniformity.  If this is the case, you are stuck on the treadmill.

How do you know you are on the treadmill?  For most of us, it is difficult to see ourselves and our situations realistically.  Here are three components, and there are others, that let you know that you are on the treadmill.

1.  Your enthusiasm is generally low when it comes to work and your business.

2.  Your work or your business don’t positively energize you.

3.  You feel overwhelmed or stuck about the possibility of change or your ability to change.

To have small business growth and to have your small business successful you must get off of the treadmill.  Sometimes the answer to change and getting off the treadmill may be something as simple as time management work.  When you manage your time better you will have more energy and enthusiasm.

Yet, very often we try to effect this change ourselves and are not successful.  This makes things worse.  Deep down we know we are defeating ourselves.

Small business books or small business ebooks can start giving you a new perspective and move you toward the change you desire.  There are also small business courses or home study courses that can help.

And, if you truly want to accelerate the process of getting off the treadmill and having the successful performance you desire then small business coaching may be the best solution.

Regardless, in order to have the business and life you want you must change.  Without change you will be doing the same thing over and over again and get the same results.