Very often I am asked:  “What can i do to imporve my business?  The economy isn’t good.  I have lsot customers.  It’s more difficult to find new prospects, customers or clients.”

Interestingly, while this is a harsh reality for many businesses, it is not for many others.  How come?  There a many reasons.  Much of the time it has to do with being in the right market niche when the economy turns sour.  But, this is circumstantial. 

To learn how to have a good business in spite of a bad economy look at the businesses, regardless of market niche that demonstrate “positive deviance. ”

What is positive deviance?  It is those businesses that are doing something positive that enables them to stand out from the competition regardless of the economy.  What are those positive things?  There are many points but I will focus on two things.

1.  Exceptional Customer Service

2.  Turning customers into advocates

These businesses are successful because they treat their clients and customers like first class passengers on their airline.  There customers do experience exceptional customer service.

And, they turn customers into advocates because they take their relationship beyond the initial transaction.  Part of a good marketing business plan is to add value to the relationship.  This may be done with a regular newsletter, cards or a follow up phone call. 

Small business growth and growing small business are not done by accident.  They are done by design.  In this design with exceptional customer service and deepening the relationship the business is able to generate referrals and do it consistently. 

How do you get referrals?  By turning your database of customers and clients into your sales force with exceptional customer service and adding value to the relationship.  This takes time and a consistent approach. 

Regardless of where your business is now you can start on this success process.  It is a winning performance strategy.  After all, you did start your small business to win.

One of the greatest challenges in starting your own business is to select the right business for you.  You may think that this is the easiest part.  What I have found from years of experience and hundreds of clients is that if you select the wrong business the rest really doesn’t matter. 

I have three free products to help you in this process.  That’s right.  They are free!  There are no strings attached.  I have a free audio mini course–The 10 Deadly Mistakes Entrepreneurs And Solo Professionals Make And How To Avoid Them.  There is second free course focusing on successful character in self-employment–Winning Character Traits.  And the third free course deals with a critical aspect to self-employment success–Winning Personal Development. 

Owning your own business is more than just a statement.  It is owning the investment, the systems and the emotions to make that business successful.  All three are critical to your success.  What I see most of the time is people getting into a business because they have had experience in that type of business. 

They usually bring one of two skills to the business.  They either know how to deliver or make the product or service.  Or, they know how to manage the business.  Very seldom, do they truly know how to do both.  They may think they know how to do both but the reality is that, more often than not, this is not the case.

Small business growth and to have your small business successful is about both delivering the product or service while doing a great job of managing.  It does not matter how good your marketing business plan is if you can’t give exceptional customer service in the quality and delivery of your product. 

Is selecting a business because you have experience in it wrong?  The general answer is no.  That is a good place to begin the selection process.  The key is to select a business that emphasizes your strengths.  And, if you are getting into something that does not make sense financially and whose systems have you doing things you don’t enjoy then the odds are that you will experience the negative emotion of unhappiness. 

And, unhappiness will lead to burnout.  Obviously, there are many things to consider when looking for a successful performance strategy in starting your own business.  Whether it is a bad economy or a good one, the key to your long term success, more often than not, is in the happiness that you feel. 

If you aren’t happy in your business it is like putting yourself in jail every day.  You only have so much time on this earth.  You might as well make it count by investing your money time and energy where you will be happy.  Check out my three free offerings.  They are free now but that will probably change.  Here’s wishing for you to have the freedom and abundance 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.

Friday morning at 1:30 March 27 the phone rang.  As most of us know when you receive a phone call at that hour it is almost never good.  On the other end a female voice said very tenderly, “I am sorry to tell you Mr. Scott that your mother passed away at 1:15 this morning. 

Immediately I was caught up in and sucked into a vortex of emotion.  Where things had been moving along well in my business and life they now began to swirl.  I am a small businessman, like many of you reading this post.  Owning your own business presents many challenges.  One of the biggest ones is how you handle what goes on in your personal life.

Before I had a chance to think my sister was on the phone.  We talked briefly.  I told her I had to go because I had to call the funeral home. 

I reached the funeral home and got things underway.  Friday was a day of many calls.  I was in charge of my mother’s affairs.  She had not been well the past few years.  Yet, her death came suddenly and unexpectedly. 

Emotionally, I have been riding a roller coaster.  Most of the time I have either been flat or down.  Today has been better.  I have received many great e-mail tributes that recognize her and her contributions to others.  I have felt more up.  Early tomorrow morning I will fly from Texas to Philadelphia and spend the next four days closing the book on the life of my wonderful mother. 

She taught me many things that have helped me in small business.  One of the things she would always talk about when I was growing up was coping skills.  She felt it was important to be as good as possible at handling adversity.  How well you coped with adversity would determine how quickly you could get back on track.  As we all know, in growing your small business, as in life, there can be a great deal of adversity that can knock you off course. 

Right now I am off course.  Don’t ask me about my marketing business plan or my performance strategy for success.  At the moment, I could care less.  Yet, because I have coping skills, learned from my mother, I do have a personal marketing business plan and a personal performance strategy for success. 

My marketing business plan is to take care of me.  I must let all this wash over me.  One of the things she taught me is to not ignore your feelings.  If you don’t deal with them and acknowledge them now they will show up later and can cause greater harm.  A stifled emotion is like a beach ball that you try to hold under water.  It takes a lot of energy.  And, eventually the beach ball springs to the top with great force.  When our emotions do that it can be destructive. 

My marketing business plan is to take care of me.  And, my performance strategy for success is to take care of myself by not plowing into more work.  In the long run I will accomplish less if I dive into work.  I will accomplish less because of all that energy I will be using to stifle the beach ball, my feelings, and keep them underwater will actually cause me to accomplish less and be less ready for opportunity at work. 

If you are facing challenges with small business growth or in running your business take a look at the beach balls you may be trying to keep under water.  I promise you they are holding you back because they drain you of energy and focus. 

Develop a healthy coping strategy by facing them and doing something about them.  You won’t believe how free you will feel and how much energy you will create.  Since my mother is no longer with us you can’t ask her.  But, if she were here that is what she would tell you. 

Develop your coping skills.  Get rid of your beach balls.  Eliminate or minimize your tolerations.  When you do you will more quickly get back on the road to business success.

In the three previous posts we have looked at three other challenges you face in starting your own business in a bad economy.  In fact, they are challenges you would face even if the economy were good.  They assume even greater importance when things are not as good and your margin for error is smaller. 

The three earlier challenges were:

1.  Do you have a market for the product or service you wish to provide?

2.  Is the market you wish to pursue vulnerable to economic cycles?

3.  What type of business should you get into during an economic downturn?

The last challenge is:  What should you stay away from?  This may ruffle some feathers. 

The first type of business that I would be very careful about is multi-level.  Most of them provide great products or services.  But, are the products or services necessary?  Will the products or services save the customer money?  If your answer is yes to these questions then I would pursue it further. 

Multi-level is easy entry and it takes hard work.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Just remember that getting rich overnight or well off quickly happens to a very small percentage of those involved in multi-level.  If you have a good network of people who would be receptive to you, your product or service then you have the right things going for you that could move you forward more quickly. 

During a bad economy the second thing about multi-level, or any business for that matter, is whether or not you have to create a market.  For example, if your product has to do with weight loss you are in a good area.  This is an accepted market.  You are not having to create anything new.  People are already spending money in this market.  And, weight loss ties directly to people’s health, sense of well-being and their image. 

In summary, stay away from businesses that have you creating a market or doing a lot of pioneering.  Pioneering is necessary for any new product to get established but pioneering by its very nature has lots of casualties. 

In looking at businesses to stay away from I would avoid anything that promises you overnight success.  Yes, overnight success can happen.  But, the odds are less than one in a thousand.  And, even if you read a long string of testimonials about the success of the business remember that, more often than not, thousands failed and lost their investment for the very few that succeeded. 

A successful performance strategy is to look at these businesses very closely and skeptically.  Small business growth is about having a good marketing business plan.  The marketing business plan may look good but is it really executable?  Growing your small business will be about being able to execute a workable marketing business plan. 

Obviously, there are many more questions and answers about starting a business in a bad economy.  The goal of these blog posts was to give you some things to think about from a different perspective.  My wish for all of you is to have the best in business and life.

In the previous two posts I have discussed two important challenges to starting a business, whether it be in a bad economy or a good one.  A successful performance strategy involves two things.  First, you must determine if you truly have a market for your product or service. 

Secondly, you must know how susceptible your market is to fluctuations in economic cycles.  Think about it.  Eight months ago most businesses were riding high.  Things have changed quickly and not for the better.  Is what you are thinking of getting into subject to wild fluctuations? 

This may seem obvious.  Life and business is the study of the obvious.  And, too often people overlook the obvious in their enthusiasm or pursuit of the next thing that is going to bring them new wealth and a new life.  Small business growth and having a successful marketing business plan is about being a master of the obvious.

Remember, history doesn’t repeat itself.  Only those who fail to study history repeat its mistakes.  Be a good student of history. 

The third challenge to starting your business in a bad economy is to ask:  What business should I get into during an economic downturn?  You may be saying at this point—this must be obvious.  I have answered the first two challenges.  I have a market for my service and it is one that has promise during an economic downturn. 

What business should you get into?  You have the market.  You can market to it.  But is the business you want to get into honoring “who you are?”  This is the one element that is most often overlooked and the one that leads to failure and burnout.  Growing small business is not an accident.  Small business growth is a function of good design.

Think about it.  You have a market for your product or service.  And, it is a good market.  Yet, the skills and disciplines you must employ to be successful are not part of, or a developed part of your skill set.  In the pursuit of the dollar, I have watched more people end up in a wreck because they did not get into a business that honors who they are. 

Here’s an example.  A man I know opened a one-man auto repair shop nearby.  His knowledge and ability to repair cars was extraordinary.  His business grew.  Unfortunately, his people skills didn’t.  He had always been a great technician but had not developed great people skills.  In the beginning when his business was small he didn’t feel as pressured. 

As it grew he had to spend more time with people and as a result he was repairing cars late into the night.  You may say, the obvious solutiion is to hire someone.  But, when you are challenged in your people skills and have the attitude that no one can do the job as well as you are you likely to hire someone?  No. 

The result was that after two years he was out of business and back working for another repair shop.  The worst part was that he was broken by his failure.  The good news is that he realizes his attitude about people undid him and now he is attempting to do something about it. 

Whatever business you start be sure that a lot of that business honors who you are.  Yes, there are certain skills you can learn.  But, there are ones that even if you learn them you would be better off delegating those tasks to someone else. 

Look beyond the startup phase and envision what you want your business and life to look like.  If you truly don’t see that picture being accomplished you may be better off looking into another type of business.

I will finish up this series on starting your own business with a look at “flexibility”.  There are many things that go into having a small business successful, to small business growth and ultimately to the success you desire. 

I have purposely chosen to take some topics that are on the road less traveled.  They are crucial steps to business success and very often they are overlooked. 

Flexibility is one thing that is often overlooked.  Think about this.  Whether it be a marketing business plan, a sales strategy or the decision to hire someone, all of these start with a thought.  If you aren’t flexible between the ears then you have embraced a prescription for “not much is going to happen around here.” 

As I heard someone once quote.  “Embrace change or you will be run over by it.”  When you get run over by change you have been flattened.  When you are flattened, like one of those cartoon characters who is run over by a truck, your business and life become one dimensional. 

To avoid being flattened by change you must remain flexible.  When you are flexible in your thinking you will be agile.  With increased agility you will be able to grab opportunities when they present themselves (one form of change) and avoid disasters (another form of change). 

Just remember that all flexibility and agility starts with that 5 inches between your ears.  Flexibility is something that you must practice.  There are some areas where you are flexible.  Others where you are inflexible.  Take a look at the areas where you are inflexible.  Loosen up a little bit and you will find more energy and opportunity coming your way.

Very often I am asked:  “What does it take to have a successful business?”  Whether you are starting up your business or running your business you already know that to have your small business successful requires many things. 

For this post, I would like to focus on one thing that can help you immensely.  Take a look at the following:

• What baggage are you carrying into your business?
• How much does that baggage weigh?

You may say, now wait a minute, where is this headed?  Think about your business as an airplane.  You have put time and effort into building the plane.  You are ready to start your small business. 

The plane is now on the runway.  You start the engines.  Suddenly, a red light comes on.  You are carrying too much weight.  The plane, in spite of its powerful engines cannot take off. 

At this point, you have to stop and check your baggage.  First you identify it.  Secondly, you decide what you are willing to discard.  Now you are ready to take off and do it successfully.

Take a look at the baggage you are carrying.  Determine what it weighs.  Decide whether or not your business can take off with this baggage. 

Owning a small business is about many things including having a good marketing business plan.  No matter how good your plan, you won’t be able to take off for the success you desire until you account for your baggage and have the proper weight. 

This single thing, baggage, which is not addressed will cause in many instances failure and never allow your business to get off the ground.  Check your baggage every day.  Get at the right weight.  When you do you will take off for success.

You have started up your own business.  Or, you are running your own business.  Regardless, even successful business owners will get stuck.  But, they won’t stay stuck for long.

With multiple challenges it is easy to get stuck.  One of the steps to business success is to minimize the time you are stuck or on hold. 

How do you go about getting unstuck?

• Have a Plan B in everything you do.  What is your alternative if Plan A does not work?
• Be ready to execute Plan B.  This is where many business owners get stuck.  They have thought about Plan B but they are not ready to execute it.

Why is having a Plan B important?  Having a Plan B forces you to get bigger than the challenge or problem? 

You get bigger than the challenge or problem by having a larger vision of how you are going to succeed.  Without this larger vision you will stay stuck. 

You will take the same problem and just dress it in different clothes without getting to the root cause of why the problem remains and you remain stuck. 

The root cause for staying stuck is that you won’t change your thinking.  Change your thinking and you will change your activity and that will change your results.  That’s success.

Whether it is your marketing business plan, personnel, sales or any other area where you can get stuck have a Plan B.  Small business growth is about having a Plan B.  When you do you will enlarge your vision, grow bigger than your challenge and move to greater success.

And, here’s the most important part.  You will do it in less time.

A small business startup is a challenging experience.  It is easy to become absorbed in one area and distracted in another.  But, to have your small business successful and to take the steps to business success, you must keep one thing in mind.  Your customer must have a great experience. 

Too often when you are creating your marketing business plan or coming up with a successful performance strategy, the customer experience gets overlooked.  For customers to want to return and for them to spread the word their experience must exceed being good.  It must be great.

Growing small business is about growing your customer base.  Your customer base, if they have that “WOW!” experience will become a part of your sales force.  Think about it. 

Different isn’t necessarily better.  But better is always different.  Are you giving them a better experience to talk about.  In an era of great competition and many product similarities how can you differentiate your customer’s experience in a positive way?

It could be something as simple as a follow up thank you note or email.  And, don’t try to send anything else in this communication.  If you do, it is another in your face sales pitch and is more likely to take your excited customer and cool him or her very quickly.

Think about a great customer experience you have had.  Think of ways to get your customers to say “WOW” not only about your product but about your organization and you.  When you do you are building a foundation to have your small business successful.