To grow your small business and be successful you must expand your thinking.  After all, if your thinking never changes, then you will not be in control of creating your future.  Think about it.  If you don’t change then you will be constantly reacting to the changing business climate. 

That’s a tough way to do business.  You are always one step behind.  General Douglas McArthur, the famous World War II general once said that all defeat can be explained by two words, “too late.”  Too late in anticipating the problem.  Too late in preparing a plan of action.  And, too late in executing the plan. 

To have your small business successful you must embrace change.  If you don’t then it will run over you.  To this point I have talked about external success.  That is how success may appear to others.  Yet, true success is an inside job.  It starts within you, the business owner.  Embracing change is a successful performance strategy. 

Whether you are starting up your own business or running your own business all success starts within you, the business owner.  Here are four points to remember.

1. Your past shapes, to an extent, who you are. 

1. You determine who you become…..not circumstances, people or things.

1. The best helping hand you have is at the end of your arm.

1. Listen and learn  to focus

Here’s wishing you success and all the freedom and abundance life has to offer.

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.

A parasite is an organism that invades the body of the host organism and ultimately sucks the life out the host, in most cases, causing it to die.  Too often, I have worked with business owners and professionals who have a good business but at the same time are stuck, overwhelmed or just plain unhappy. 

What’s holding them back?  You would think that it would be obvious.  It’s the parasites and they are not obvious.  If they were, we would never let them enter.  Whether you are starting up your own business or running your own business here are some things to look for. 

1. Process parasites
2. Relational parasites
3. Thought parasites
4. Client parasites

For this post let’s look at the first one, process parasites.  This refers to your process of doing business and the parasites are the things that need to be eliminated from your process to improve your business.  Are any of your methods causing you to have higher costs, greater inconvenience or adversely affecting your product or service?  Most of the time in small business there are things we can improve in the process. 

But to improve the process means to embrace change.  After all, the old way is the way things have always been done around here.  Why change?  As is said, “Don’t fix what isn’t broke”.  Sadly, the parasites in a business process have become tolerations. 

And, if you don’t develop the discipline of eliminating tolerations then guess what, you will keep adding them.  This is not a process for growing small business.  And, you will add them to the point where your business process and you will be a mess.  The small business growth and success you desire will be unattainable.

Look at your business process now.  Or, get someone to look at it for you.  To have the success you desire you must minimize or eliminate the tolerations.  After all, in owning your own business you have a choice when it comes to change.  You can either let it run over you or you can embrace it. 

Be in the habit of embracing change and you will be successful.   

After all if you have a good marketing business plan or a successful performance strategy for small business growth you should be doing well.  Maybe?

When most of us hear or say the word “multitasking” we think we are talking about a way to be more productive.  The truth is that “multitasking” makes us less productive and leads to burnout.  In fact, if you are seeking to grow your small business, you must be focused. 

Whether you are starting up your own business or running your own business multitasking is the opposite of focus.  It is about having several focal points at once.  The truth is that we cannot do several things at once.  In fact, studies have shown the human mind is only capable of doing one thing at a time.  We don’t multitask.  We switchtask.  And, every time we switch back and forth from one task to another there is a switching cost. 

Switching costs come as we have to momentarily review where we were at before we can start again.  And, the more complicated the task the higher the switching cost.  In fact it is estimated that the average worker loses 2.1 hours per day or over 8 hours per week in lost time by switch tasking. 

Even computers, where the term multitasking came from, do not multitask.  A processor, CPU, performs many tasks in sequence and can switch from one program to another very quickly that may make it appear to be multitasking.  The only way a computer can multitask if there is more than one processor.  This is sometimes called multiprocessing. 

Take a look at your business and your day.  To grow small business and to have a successful performance strategy you must focus your time.  If you don’t you will have too much going on and burnout.  Successful small business is about focus.  And when you lose focus you end up doing many things and few of them well. 

As a result your business and you will stagnate and fail.  If you want to learn more about multitasking I highly recommend the book by Dave Crenshaw, “The Myth of Multitasking”.  It is a short, quick and entertaining book that will give you some immediate insights on how to better utilize your time and move your small business forward. 

Owning your own business is a great challenge.  Start focusing and stop multitasking and the challenge will become more manageable and you will be more likely to succeed and much less likely to burnout and have the business fail.

Is business coaching for you?  Whether you are starting up a business or running your own business the answer is….it depends.  What I want to do is to give you some things to think about as to whether small business coaching is right for you. 

Over years of experience and hundreds of clients I have found some things that they all have had in common. 

First, in owning your own business and to do it successfully, you must be open to change.  The first thing I determine is whether or not you are open to change.  Words about change come easily but I look behind the words to see if there is a history of action.  If there is then I will consider you as a potential client. 

Secondly, I determine if there has been a pattern of success in your business, or past businesses.  If you are in a position where your business is drowning you don’t need another life preserver, like coaching, thrown at you.    There is only so much you can grab onto when things are rough.  And, in this situation you are more likely to be focused on running your business by reaction to crisis as opposed to having and taking the time to work on yourself. 

The third aspect I look for is someone who is “successfully disatisfied”.  Are you enjoying some degree of success yet feel stuck or overwhelmed?  If you are having these feelings and want to be held accountable for your success then you may be a good candidate for business coaching. 

The fourth aspect to successful business coaching is:  Will you allow yourself to be held accountable?  This is the key.  If all the other things are in place yet you don’t want to be or won’t be held accountable, there isn’t much that can be done to help you.

The truth is that most small business owners practice self-accountability.  They remain in the same patterns that brought the challenges and problems they now face.  They will try one fix after another.  But, until they are held accountable for what they do and how they do it by someone else, such as a coach, nothing will change. 

If your business and life is not where you would like it then most likely you could use some outside accountability.  Without outside accountability you are operating on your business and yourself as if it was ”do it yourself heart surgery.”  And, you know what the results of “do it yourself heart surgery” are failure. 

Coaching is about being held accountable to create the pathways that you want to upgrade your business and life for greater success.

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.

One of the concerns of most small businesses for the first few years is failure.  One of the interesting things is, even if a business is successful, the fear of failure can be huge.  Why is it when things are going well and cash flow is good would you be concerned about failure?

There are many answers but I would like to focus on one of the things I see in my practice as relates to failure.  In running your own business you can get caught up in the “doing” and let some “elephants under the carpet” develop.  A good example of an elephant under the carpet would be starting a business with partners and not having a buy-sell agreement and/or key man insurance.

When a person who is a significant contributor or a necessary part of the foundation of a business dies or suddenly becomes disabled it can be disastrous for the the business.  One of the keys to success in owning your own business is to make the business bigger than you or the key people.  The sooner you do that the better off you and the business will be.  If something happens to you where you are sick for and extended period of time, or disabled, then at least your business will be able to provide for you and those who are involved with it.

How come business owners put themselves in this situation?  They never get a vision of the business being bigger than themselves.  Somehow everything is going to work out.  Unfortunately, life has a way of throwing us some pretty big challenges.  Challenges that are unexpected.

The first step to small business growth and having a successful performance strategy is to have a clear vision and plan when it comes to people.  Be ready for the unexpected.  If you have a corporation make sure you have an exit strategy.  If someone isn’t working out and wants out it is best to have an agreement up front as to what the terms are. 

If you do that then you won’t, as a rule, be subject to expensive litigation.  And, I can assure you, litigation is one of the quickest ways to kill a small business.  Regardless of where your business is now it is critical to  create a “people plan” and address those “elephants under the carpet”. 

When you have your people plan not only will you feel better, but your business will be more secure.  You will give the gift of certainty to the people who work with you and support you.  And, you will be demonstrating leadership by showing you are concerned about their welfare by creating a more stable and predictable environment in case life does throw one of those big challenges your way.

How often have you gone to a funeral and you hear people say that this is a celebration of a person’s life?  If you are like me, I have heard that quite often.  And, there was a part of me that was always confused.  I have lost someone I cared about and therefore it is hard for me to celebrate. 

My mother, who I was close to, died last week.  Her funeral service was yesterday in Pennsylvania and I was in charge of conducting it.  At times I felt overwhelmed with emotion and a sense of loss.  It was a challenge. 

Afterwards many of the people came up to me and told me how much they enjoyed the service.  They used terms such as “feeling a sense of closure” and “freedom to express gratitude”.  Everyone got to talk about my Mother and what she had meant to them.  It was a remarkable experience that I will never forget. 

But, what the funeral service was truly about was embracing change.  It was about celebrating the past and moving into a future without my Mother, who had been a great, positive influence on me and many people’s lives. 

To have a successful small business you must embrace change.  Too often, when we think about change we procrastinate because we focus on all the difficulties in making it instead of the benefits that will come from making it. 

There are some businesses I have worked with over the years that have a “celebration” when a change in completed.  In one instance, the new accounting system got installed and they had a party.  They celebrated the death of the old system and bringing something new and better into replace it.

To have your small business successful it is good to have funeral’s for those things that should be dead and gone.  Those are the things that hold back a business.  We should celebrate change and focus on the positive that is going to be open to us as a result. 

A successful performance strategy for embracing change is to practice the art of detachment.  You must learn how to detach and do it regularly.  It’s hard to move forward at the pace you like when you are holding onto something from the past.  That past can become like an anchor.  Every time you celebrate the past you are pulling up your anchor and you are moving forward.  You are detaching from your current mooring which allows you to sail in a new or better direction.

When you dwell on the past you are anchored in it and stuck.  In running your own business you must take a look at what needs to die.  When you do you will be embracing change and moving forward because you will be bringing death to what is holding you back. 

Now there’s something to celebrate!

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.

Is this a good time to start a business? 

There are no right or wrong answers.  With the unrelenting focus on the “bad economy” this can definitely influence your decision. 

Let me know your thoughts. 

If you are already running your own business let me know how you see things.  

If you are starting your own business or thinking about starting one it would be great to hear your thoughts.

Having a dialog on this can be fun and helpful.