For most of us who are self-employed one of the most crucial measuring sticks for success is sales.  A good marketing business plan is a must to support consistent sales and small business growth. 

And, if you don’t address some of the other topics in the previous posts then you are more likely to have a more difficult time with sales.  A successful performance strategy in marketing is about finding prospects who are interested and keeping the pipeline full. 

In sales you must have a sound conversion strategy.  Obviously, when there are no conversions there are no sales. 

Successful sales and marketing is built first and foremost around identifying a pain or need of your market. 

After you have identified the pain or need then you want to show your market how you can be the solution.

Next, you want to show them the benefit of you as the solution. 

Then you want to add features. 

Let’s say, for example, that you are selling a particular type of car.  Benefits to this car may be safety, good acceleration and good gas mileage.  Features may be reinforced steel frame, a responsive engine type and low body weight to increase gas mileage. 

I think you get the picture.  Too often people try to sell features instead of benefits.  In the process, the customer gets disinterested.  Find out the benefits and solutions your customers want.  When you do, you will be on the way to having more sales and your small business successful.

What is marketing?  Marketing is the process that you will use to bring in prospects for your product or service.  Once you have the prospect’s attention then you can focus on sales. 

But, how do you plan to market your business to keep the pipeline full?  Before you get started in a business be sure of two things:

1. How to successfully market your business?
2. How that marketing strategy will be implemented consistently?

These two components will be part of any good marketing business plan.

Small business growth is about having a good marketing plan and executing it consistently.  Interestingly, the creation of the marketing plan is not as big a challenge as is the consistent execution. 

And, it is lack of consistent marketing that can doom a business to failure. Why does this happen?  It happens because the entrepreneur, business owner or solo professional does not have the skills to execute the marketing plan.  And, because the budget is tight they will not pay to have it executed. 

Making your own business the success you envision requires, in most instances when starting out, that you wear most, if not all the marketing hats.  It must be part of your performance strategy for success.

For example, for some businesses to be successful it may require consistent phone calling with a script from a targeted list.  If you are not good on the phone or don’t like it then it won’t happen. 

Maybe your business requires a great deal of face to face contact and networking.  If you aren’t comfortable with that then it won’t happen. 

Know what type of marketing your business needs.  Either be ready to develop the necessary skills to be successful or look for another business that caters to your strengths. 

I have observed many small businesses fail, not because the owner wasn’t a good person, but because the owner didn’t have or wouldn’t develop the marketing skills necessary to make his small business successful.

Need information on starting up your own business?  You can find more than enough on the internet, in books and classes to take up all your time.  Since time is finite the goal should be to cut down the cycle time to getting the business going to where you are focusing on running your own business. 

How do you do that?  Find the right relationships.  It’s that simple.  Keep a list of your questions.  Then go about seeking the appropriate person to answer them.  Here’s what will happen.

• You will get to establish a new relationship that could be helpful.  That’s a pretty good benefit.
• You will receive an answer that is much more likely to be on target because there is no substitute for verbal communication to establish the context for a good answer. That’s helpful.
• You will receive encouragement (not always, but most of the time) to continue your search and grow your small business.  A boost for you and your enthusiasm–you’ll like it.

Think about it.  You get the personal attention to your questions.  You receive the support and encouragement of others.  And, you build relationships that will help you and your business. 

When you are dependent on the right people you will be amazed at the good things that will start to come your way.

Whether you are starting up your own business, running your own business or just seeking small business growth the quality of your relationships can accelerate and simplify the path to designing the business and life you desire.

In the first two posts we have looked at two components that are often overlooked in a successful small business startup.

1.  Build the business around you and your passions

2.  Act as though you cannot fail.

You may not think these are important.  After all, where’s the focus on sales, marketing, cash flow, business planning or hiring?  Truthfully, you can get all the information you need on these subjects from the internet, books, government agencies and schools. 

I think you would agree that there is plenty of education in these areas.  How come in today’s world, with an abundance of information like never before, that starting up your own business or running your own business doesn’t seem to be any easier?

The short answer is that people are not building businesses around their passions and around who they are.  As a result, they get into a business and end up creating a job they don’t like.  Last time I checked, when you don’t like something you either get out of it or end up performing at less than an optimum level. 

The third piece to successfully creating your own business is create a job you like.  To do this you must truly understand and appreciate “Who” you are.  This is what I call a “soft skill.” 

Understand what you are motivated to do.  And, understand what you are not motivated to do.  Make sure that somehow you cover what you are not motivated to do. 

You can do this through other people or create a system that takes care of it for you.  The goal is to create a business, and more importantly, a job for yourself that you love.  One of the key steps to small business success is enthusiasm. 

Be enthusiastic about what you are creating.  If you aren’t enthusiastic, neither will any one else.

How would you act if you knew you could not fail? 

Too often, I see good, well intentioned people go into business for themselves only to fail for any number of reasons.  The second puzzle piece for starting your own business and being successful is:

• Act as though you cannot fail
• Fake it until you make it

Ask yourself this question.  Do you find people who act successful more or less attractive?  Of course, you find them more attractive.  And, if they have a product or service that is of value to you then you are much more likely to do business with them. 

When you act as though you cannot fail you are focusing on success.  Focusing on success is a positive marketing business plan.   And, when you are positive you are more likely to attract the things you need to be successful. 

The worst thing I see business owners do to themselves is complain to others outside of their immediate business about some aspect of their business that isn’t right. 

Think about it.  That’s not attractive.  It isn’t that the complaints aren’t legitimate because they are.  Others don’t need to hear about them since a complaint very often is about a failure or failing in business. 

Here’s another thought.  If you are talking about failure and what is not working with others outside your business it confirms to them and to you that you are failing.  Your words are the clothes you dress yourself with each day. 

Dress yourself with positive words and actions.  Act as though you cannot fail.  In running your own business you must fake it until you make it.  When you do you will….make it!

Deciding to start your own business represents a big change in your thinking.  That’s the first step.  The second step, which is the bigger challenge,  is taking the action.  Before you do that I want you to think about this. 

No amount of money spent on education, systems, equipment and personnel will enable you to successfully create your own business, let alone run it profitably, unless you truly build the business around you.  Small business growth is about growing you, the owner.

Building the business around you, your strengths and your passions is the first puzzle piece to successfully running your own business.

That’s right.  You must build your business around who you are.  If you don’t you won’t enjoy it.  If you don’t enjoy it you will, more likely than not, fail.  The path to failure is paved with good intentions spent on trying to build a business around the founder’s weaknesses and other people’s well intentioned perceptions of how you should do it. 

The key is take all the advice and education you are receiving and tailor it around you and what works for you. 

Step back before you start your small business and make an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses.  For your weaknesses figure out how you are going to cover for them.  The successful entrepreneur has figured this out in advance.  He does not spend a great deal of lost time and energy later on trying to fill the holes.   

Everyone can do things they don’t like for a while.  Some of this is unavoidable.  Invest your time in the beginning to acknowledge your gifts and talents.  Figure out how to cover the things you will not do as readily. 

To cut the first puzzle piece successfully you must honor “who” you are and in the process create a job for yourself that you like.  Create a job that you want to go to every day.  

After all, isn’t that why most of you become self-employed.  You want something different.  You want something better.   And, you want the control to make it happen.   Starting your own business is all about you.  And, that is good.

Talking about your goals should inspire you.  If your goals don’t inspire you, then don’t expect any one else to get excited, let alone support you.  Whether your goal is small business growth, losing weight or earning more money you must be inspired to increase the probability of achieving your goals.

To create a vision of the future you want, whether it be in owning your own business or your life follow these simple steps when it comes to goals setting.

1.  You must be excited and inspired by a majority of your goals.  If you aren’t then you are not headed in a good direction.

2.  Write down your goals.  This increases your chances of attaining them by 60%. 

3.  Prioritize which ones are most important and simplify your list.  If you have too many goals, your chances of overwhelm and not being successful increase.

4.  Write goals that are more attached to a process rather than an outcome.  For example, if you want to lose 10 pounds, you want to include in your goal the process of how you are going to go about doing it.

5.  Read your goals at least three times per week.  Get them fixed in your mind.  Each time visualize yourself achieving them. 

6.  Accountability.  This is the most important step.  Share your goals with someone.  It can be a friend, a coach or a trusted worker.  Regardless, when you are held accountable by others you greatly increase your odds of success.

The formula for growth and success in owning your own business is writing down your goals and then having your priorities and accountability in place to implement them.

Have you ever heard someone say or said it your self, “It’s just not a priority.”  In and of itself, this statement is not bad.  But, when it is referring to something that you know you should do either to help you or your small business, then it becomes a negative. 

Very often people set goals and somehow not much happens.  Maybe, if you own your own business you have goals for growing your small business.  Whatever your goals are, you are much more likely to achieve them if you set priorities. 

In owning your own business, there can be a great number of things coming at you to the point where you have many goals but you don’t have an order for them to be accomplished.  I know this may sound dry but it is critical to know your priorities. 

Without priorities you may accomplish a goal that could actually cause more work in accomplishing another goal.  Yes, for small business growth and personal growth, order is important. 

In owning your own business, when you establish priorities and stick to them it becomes easier on you and everyone associated with your business to perform to a higher level.  With priorities you have direction.  Direction provides focus.  And, it increases your odds of having the success you desire.

Napoleon Hill in Think And Grow Rich said, “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Everything that we have today is because someone first had a vision in their mind.  Somebody had to visualize an airplane, the internet and many other things.

You have the power to create the future you want. Are you looking for small business growth?  Then visualize it.  Are you seeking a successful performance strategy, then visualize it.

The key to success is first visualizing what you want and then, and this is critical, believing you can have it.  Belief is the inspiration that is the fuel to make it happen.  Belief and the enthusiasm that goes with it makes things 1,000% better.

In owning your own business and being successful a large ingredient is inspiration.  Be inspired.  Stretch yourself to be all that you can be.  Remember, you have a choice.

You can choose to be more.  Or, you can choose to be less.  Why not strive to be all that you can be?  Only then will the possibilities for the goals you want to achieve start to become the reality you seek.

To have success in growing your small business you must have movement by design.  I believe that this concept is best summed up by Zig Ziglar when he asks if you are leading your life as a “wandering generality” or as “a meaningful specific. ”

Small business growth and personal growth are not accidents.  They are intentional.  You may say, wait a minute.  Things just happen.  Think about it.  Things happen to all of us.  Yet, you choose how you are going to respond.  You are subjected to opportunities.  Sometimes they come clothed as problems.

Regardless, if you are a meaningful specific, or a person who has goals, then you will make your decisions about what comes your way on whether or not it fits with your goals.

To be successful in owning your own business you must have a design.  You must have vibrant, exciting goals.  You must have a vision of the future that excites you.

Think about this.  Goals are dreams with deadlines.  And, if they are written down, you are much more likely to attain them.

Dream about your goals for a moment.  Do you want small business growth?  Do you want more money?  Whatever it is you want, if you set goals you will start a process that will increase the odds of you attaining the outcome you want.

Create movement by design. Dream and visualize what you want.  And, even better write down your vision of the future you want.  When you do, your odds of success have increased by over 50%. Be a “meaningful specific” and increase the probability of your success.