It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to realise that business has changed. In the last ten years the shift has gone from foot traffic to internet traffic and marketing has taken on a whole new Ethernet meaning. Add to this the effects of the GFC as well as the disasters that have befallen Australia and New Zealand recently, and you have The End Of Civilisation As We Know It – well at least in a business sense.
Throughout 2010 many businesses experienced a turn for the worse. We had to learn sink or swim survival tactics and we had to learn them fast. Well I’m here now to say congratulations, because you did survive and you did fight back! Your current position may now be promising, but before you relax a little too much, let’s take a look at what you need to do to turn that false sense of security into a strong and confident market position.
Firstly, get organised. Sort out your Inbox, cull your emails, file your stuff and turn your workspace into something recognisable as just that – a workspace. Then it’s time to get a handle on your time management. Make a list of what needs doing and then be realistic about how long it will take. Shock horror! You have run out of time already so now you need to undertake, allocate and delegate.
By that I mean undertake the most important tasks straight away, allocate the things that can wait until next week or the week after and delegate the tasks that can easily be handled by someone else to someone else.
This method of prioritization should be applied to your clients as well. Where are your best dollars coming from? Which clients are the most profitable? They’re your priority so let them know it. Spend your most constructive hours working on these clients and then allot a smaller amount of time to your less profitable clients. Use some of this time to try and turn a low paying client into a high paying client and if you can’t, sometimes it’s just better to say NO.
Recharge. We all know the dangers of stress, overwork and never having enough time in the day. Take a break, go for a walk, stop for lunch, clear your head. You’ll come back refreshed and vital and achieve far more than if you’d continued to persist in a fatigued and jaded form.
Keep up to date. No one person knows it all, and in this rapidly evolving millennium no one person possibly can. Watch out for webinars, events, groups and all types of news and events that can help you learn how to better do the stuff that you have to do.
You’ve spent the last 12 months weathering a really rotten financial run followed by a huge blast from Mother Nature. You picked yourself up, tidied up your businesses, polished up your processes, smartened up your suppliers and got back to business. But now you need to stay in front and in control. It’s not rocket science, in fact, it’s elementary my dear Watson – as the market strengthens so we need to strengthen our business. Some more information and tips can be found at:
Small Business Webinars
http://smallbusinesswebinars.com.au/_/Home/Entries/2011/2/28_Strengthening_your_business.html
My Strategic Plan
http://mystrategicplan.com/resources/strengthening-your-strengths/
