2 Things Create Business Success – Blocking & Tackling

Are you driven to take your business to higher levels of success?  If so, you probably read and search for the wisdom of others who have built and sold successful businesses.  There seems to be no end to books, articles and blogs about the keys to success.  Many of the popular topics today include such things as culture, hiring, continuous improvement, social media marketing, technology utilization, and of course, planning.

My own book shelves are filled with books from terrific authors on all aspects of business that contain excellent advice to help us improve and grow.  And since I subscribe to various online article feeds, my inbox always offers up new ideas and recommendations to ponder for myself as well as offer to others.

The great thing about all of this material is that there is so much of it on every topic we can imagine.  The bad thing about all of this material is that there is so much of it on every topic we can imagine!  What I mean is, where do we start if we sincerely want to work on improving our business?  How do we begin to improve profits, get more sales, build better teams, work less, have more fun, and create a valuable asset that someone else could one day take over and take to even greater heights?  With all of this business wisdom at our fingertips, why does it seem so hard to duplicate that success for ourselves?

The answer, I think, is to go back to basics.  As Vince Lombardi preached to his Green Bay Packers, it’s all about blocking and tackling.  He knew that if the Packers blocked better and tackled better than their opponents, they would win championships.  While others might chase the latest razzle-dazzle plays in the National Football League, he focused on fundamentals.  Not that the Packers didn’t come up with a few inventive plays here and there, but these were built off a foundation of solid performance that stemmed from the basics.

In business, success also starts with the basics.  Ask yourself, what fundamental areas of your business could use improvement?  Then go to work on these.  But what are the fundamental areas to consider?  Well, a real simple answer is these three:  1) What do we make or provide, and how; 2) How do we sell them; 3) How do we count the money?  Thinking about being excellent in these three areas will improve your business.  If you need a broader, “categorized” approach to defining the basics, consider the “Seven Centers of Management Attention” proposed by Michael Gerber in his book, “E-Myth Mastery”:

• Leadership – Vision, direction, and planning
• Marketing – Determining your target markets and customers and why they buy from you
• Lead Generation – Implementing the tactics that attract customers
• Lead Conversion – Turning prospects into customers
• Client Fulfillment – Delivering the product or service of your business
• Money – Measuring and tracking the results of your efforts
• Management – Building the team, systems and resources of the business.

Regardless of what list of “basics” you choose, put your efforts into improvement of your business fundamentals.  That strategy will help you cut through the clutter of business advice, and put you on a track toward success.

Your Competition Looks Just Like You

How do you feel about your competitors?  I’ll bet you don’t like the way they go about their business, do you?  They could do a better job of pricing, instead of “giving it away” all the time.  Their sales approach is kind of sleazy, and it’s too bad customers can’t see through their exaggerations.  You often end up fixing problems they cause when their disgruntled customers come to you with something they did that didn’t go right.  They have some good people working there, but also one or two real losers.  How in the world do they even stay in business?

And why is it that customers don’t seem to be able to tell the difference between your competitors and your clearly superior business?  Let’s ponder that one for a minute.  With all the negative things you know or feel about your competition, what is it that makes you better?  Why is it so hard to stand out in the eyes of customers?

“Differentiation” is the marketing word most often used for the concept of standing out from the crowd.  It’s easy to understand what it means, but I’ve found that for most small business owners, it is incredibly difficult to actually identify, and then describe for customers what it is that makes us different, and better.  Our natural inclination is to describe our businesses in terms of what we do or sell.  So we talk about the products we provide.  We describe the services we offer.  We tout our incredible customer service.  We list our high quality reputation.  We glorify our amazingly effective employee team.  We offer deals, discounts, freebies, and specials.  But the thing is… SO DO THEY!

Take a close look at business ads, and notice the content of ads among competitive businesses.  When you strip away the picture and colors in the ads, they all say pretty much the same thing… “This is our product/service, this is what we do, here is our offer, please call us.”

So how is your prospective customer supposed to know that you are better… different?  This is where some deeper thinking has to take place if you want to attract more business.  Put yourself into your customers’ shoes and think about why current customers do business with you.  Why not ask them?  Why did they choose you over the other guys?  Did they simply throw a dart at a map and picked the one located closest?  Did they Google “Your product, Your city”, and you were at the top of the list?  Did a friend suggest your business to them?  All these are fine reasons to attract attention, but WHY then do they do business with you?  Because honestly, your competitors look just like you.

Do you want more business?  I suggest setting aside some time this month to do some thinking about what makes you different.  Think about what your customers really want when they seek your product or service.  Do they simply want to buy what you have?  No differentiation there.  Think instead about what they hope to get out of what you offer.  You may find it’s things like satisfaction, security, peace, pride, familiarity, and accomplishment.  Or it may be that they want to avoid certain things like pain, embarrassment, cost, effort, or fear.  Then figure out how you deliver these emotional wants and needs better than your competitor.  When you deliver that message to your marketplace, you will start to look different and more attractive than all of your look-alike competition.

You Aren't Crazy

It seems as though there is a lot more public discussion about mental health these days. I've read some about fascinating new brain research that is helping us understand more than ever before about how this vital organ works, and how its diseases can alter its workings. There is also growing awareness about conditions such as bipolar, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), depression, anxiety, ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), substance abuse, and more.

What does that have to do with your business, you ask? Consider the following:

•                 More schools and businesses (especially large organizations) have put "active shooter" procedures into place to protect their people from the possibility of a deranged and suicidal killer.

•                 The shortage of employees is complicated by an increasing number of failed drug screenings by applicants, and deaths from heroin abuse are alarmingly high.

•                 Legislative mandates have shifted toward mental health "parity", meaning in theory that mental health gets the same coverage a person could get for medical or surgical care. If you offer employee health care benefits, you are paying for that expanded coverage.

•                 What is the impact on your business when an employee is alcohol or drug impaired, depressed, abusive towards other team members, or withdrawn from them? Your business efficiency goes down, and employees are less engaged.

And how about the impact of all of this on you as the owner of your business? It's just another thing to add to the pile of stressors that already come with business ownership. Yet because we business owners are a proud and independent lot, we believe that being an entrepreneur means that we are somehow gifted with the amazing ability to handle piles of stress with calm resiliency and decisive execution all by ourselves. It turns out, not so much.

When I started my coaching business, I joined a local BNI chapter, and met another member who is a psychotherapist. Over time, coming to understand her work and her business, I began to see mental health in a new light. Instead of thinking that people with mental health issues were "crazy" and should just straighten themselves up, she got me thinking about a different viewpoint. She explains that the brain is an organ, just like the heart, or liver, or lungs. If those organs are diseased, we will automatically seek medical help to cure the disease. Well, the brain can be diseased as well. So why do we balk at seeking help to cure or manage the problem? Why do we stigmatize those with mental health, but sympathize and embrace those with other organ diseases?

I share all this in the hope that perhaps these thoughts will be a bit of a revelation for you, as they were for me. Two thoughts are worth taking from this that relate to your business. One, be alert to the mental health of your employees. I know, neither you nor I are experts in this, nor do we always know how best to approach and deal with someone's brain-related disorder. But we owe it to ourselves, our business, and our employees to seek advice and help for them when we notice that something isn't right.

Second, consider how best to take care of your own mental health. It does your business no good, and it does your life no good to try to go it alone. Seek advice, don’t hide from it. Taking care of yourself is the first step to taking care of your business.