Do you get tired of reading another ad or enticing offer telling you that you are a couple of mouse clicks away from making a fortune?  Personally, I find it very frustrating.  I have had numerous clients who have invested their time, which can’t be replaced, and their money, which most cases can be replaced, getting caught in the maze of finding the right business for them. 

Small business growth and success are about one thing:  Honoring Who You Are.  Let’s say that you are in a business that demands that you show up at a particular place every day.  It could be a retail business.  Yet, you thrive in an environment where you can get out and visit people.   The odds of being successful in that business are low. 

Why?  You are going to be unhappy.  You may earn good money for a while and enjoy it.  But, ultimately not doing something you truly enjoy will drain you and your relationships.  And, when you crash, in most cases so will the business. 

The business mortality rate is the same as it was 20 years ago.  If you want your small business successful, if you want more small business growth there is more education available than ever before.  Education from books is not the problem. 

I have observed that education about yourself is the challenge.  To often people pick a business where they are the round peg and they are trying to fit it into a square hole.  My wish for you is to increase the odds of your success.  Discover “who” you are.  Don’t jump into the maze that is the next golden opportunity. 

Once you really understand who you are and how to honor it in business then you are much more likely to recognize the businesses that will be a better fit and at which you are more likely to succeed.  I have two products that will help you in that process. 

I have developed these after 30 years of working with business owners and solo professionals and starting, owning and running several successful small businesses.

The first is my Progress Set Free E-Book, 

The Lost Keys To Small Business Success:

For Starting Your Own Business

Running Your Own Business

  .  The second is the Progress Set Free Home Study Course. 

The Keys And Steps To Small Business Success:  A Definitive Guide To A Better Business And A Better You

This is for those of you who are committed to knowing who you are in order to become more and have more. 

Regardless which one you choose, the key to success is to get started in making more and better choices when it comes to you and your business. 

Get to know yourself and get out of the maze of trying to find the business that is right for you.   You must get to know yourself.  InterestAfter all, is it going to make any more sense tomorrow than it does today to take the steps to having the business and life you desire?

With the numerous businesses and business owners I have worked with over the years there is one thing all of the successful ones have done.  They have embraced change.  To have your small business successful, you must embrace change or you will be run over by it. 

If you are serious about yourself and the success of your small business then you must be an active participant in change.  Look at the businesses that once were thriving but are no longer around.  With this in mind, I have put together several products that are designed to support you in creating your own successful performance strategy.

A good marketing business plan that recognizes change and embraces it can make an entrepreneur successful.  Do you want to be that entrepreneur?  Are you willing to learn the steps to success? 

All progress starts with those 5 inches between your ears.  What the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.  How are you feeding your mind?

If you change your thinking you will change your habits.  Change your habits and you will change your activity.  Change your activity and you will change your results.  Change your results and you will change your life. 

If you are COMMITTED to change and taking yourself and your business forward, take a look at the following:

1.  Progress Set Free E-Book–The Lost Keys To Small Business Success–This will get you started on the process of change. 

2.  Progress Set Free Home Study Course–The Keys And Steps To Small Business Success:  A    Definitive Guide To A Better Business And A Better You.  This course goes in depth and is for those who are truly serious about their success.  This course can help you create pathways to upgrade your business and your life.

3.  Progress Set Free–Free Audio Mini Course–Imprisoned By Progress and The Treadmill Philosophy–The 10 Deadly Mistakes Entrepreneurs and Solo Professionals Make And How To Avoid Them.  This audio series provides short audio clips with stories that discuss common challenges the business owner faces in starting up a small business or running a small business.

Whether you are running your business in a bad economy or a good one, change is the key to success.  Make a number of small changes and it will lead to the bigger changes you desire.

In the last post we looked at the “people plan” and how a lack of it can be an “elephant under the carpet” that could cause a successful business to fail.  Making your small business successful has several components.  Not only must you have a people plan but you must have “good processes”.

You may be saying at this point, this doesn’t sound very interesting.  I have watched small businesses grow, be successful and fail because the processes for doing business or how to approach business for continued growth were never addressed. 

 Lack of good processes is the second “elephant under the carpet.”How come they were never addressed?

You will hear phrases such as, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.  That’s the way it’s always been done around here.”  There is one constant and that is change.  You either must embrace it, or it will run over you. 

A good example is a business that starts out using contract labor.  It needs help periodically with certain jobs or tasks.  Independent contractors are a great way to do this.  The business grows and now it is demanding most, if not all of the working time of an independent contractor.  In fact, it is dictating hours and other things. 

Much as you may not want to, it is time to switch these people to employees.  Yes, it is more costly.  But, I can assure you, the cost is much higher if you don’t switch.  Yes, there are industries where independent contractors are standard practice.  But, there are many where they are not and I have watched many businesses operate under the illusion that somehow they will fly under the radar.

To have your small business successful, it is important that you get into the right process for doing things.  Pay your people as they should be paid.  You may save money in the present by treating them as contractors but you can easily lose your business in the end when the IR S comes knocking on your door. 

All it takes is one disgruntled independent contractor to start the process that could do you in.  In owning your own business and running your own business having good processes is critical to your success. 

Think about this.  You have good people.  You put them in a bad process or one that makes the business extremely vulnerable and what do you get?  You get bad or disastrous results.  To have a successful performance strategy address those “elephants under the carpet” that have to do with your processes. 

Do that and do it regularly and you will have a greater likelihood of having a more secure and prosperous business.

Jim Rohn, one of America’s foremost business philosophers, once said, “Formal education will make you a living.  Self-education will make you a fortune.” Most of you have experienced formal education in terms of the schooling you were required to take as you were growing up.

So, what is self-education?  Self-education can be many things.

Self-education is reflected in those things you do that are not required.  And, it is critical to your success and that of your small business.  Remember, small business growth, and your small business in particular, will only grow as much as you do.

The Self-Education that will make you a fortune falls into two broad categories.

• The people you meet
• The books you read

Five years from now, your success in your business and life will be directly affected by the people you have met and the books you have read. Think about it.

If you meet some dynamic people it will positively affect your business and your life.

If you are learning to improve yourself and your business this too, will have a positive impact on your business and your life.  Under books you have read I will include magazine articles and purposeful information that you read on the internet.

To have your small business successful and to have the life you desire get in the habit of expanding your contacts and reading for personal and business growth.

You have identified your target market.  And, you have some thoughts on how to reach them.  These are great first steps.  Now you are ready to create some brochures, fliers, an email campaign, etc.  Good!

There are other resources including many small business courses and small business books that can help.  Successful small business is not just about owning your own business.  It’s about creating accountability, a performance strategy,  to take the success actions needed.  Very often, small business coaching, because small businesses for the most part lack a board of directors, can provide the accountability and help accelerate the success process.

But before you get into the creative part you must have a powerfully crafted message.  You can have beautiful materials that don’t deliver what you want because the message is not strong.  A successful performance strategy for marketing and sales will have a message crafted with impact.

1.  Identify the customer or client’s pain, want or need.

2.  Show how your product or the service is the solution to their pain want or need.

3.  Let them know about the benefit of using your product or service as the solution.  For example, faster delivery times, fewer break downs, more personal service, saving money, etc.

A powerful message will incorporate these three points and will state, restate it and state it again.

And, a great way to do this is to tell stories.  Every one loves a story.  We can get the facts almost anywhere.  A story about your product or service marries logic and emotion and adds credibility.   Doing this is a key to small business growth.

As has been said many times, facts tell, stories sell.  Tell your story.  That is your marketing campaign.  Successful small business tells a good story.  And, when you tell it well and when you follow the formula above it can lead you to greater sales.

Owning your own business is a challenge.  And one of the greatest challenges is to have a marketing and sales performance strategy.  The biggest challenge once you have decided on what you are going to do is to execute it faithfully.

Successful small business is about executing the fundamentals.  Remember, most small businesses fail not from lack of ideas but from lack of discipline.  Lack of discipline creates a lack of action. 

Small business coaching, small business courses or small business books and small business ebooks can help create structure and accountability to take the action for success.  Or there are audio courses that can help

Not only does action cure fear.  It will bring success.  You must act on your plan.  In putting together a plan there are a couple of steps that can help you.

1.  Have a database of your existing customers and/or create one of the ones you want to have.

2.  Identify target markets within your existing customers or within the customer base you want to have.

3.  Identify their wants and needs.

4.  Identify how you are going to solve their wants and needs.

This will get you started on a successful performance strategy for marketing and sales.  In the next post we will get into the key to a successful marketing and sales performance strategy.  Start creating and working on the four areas listed and you will be on your way to having a small business running successfully.