I recently had the pleasure of attending a few one day business seminars where a number of aspects of business were discussed. I don’t know if you will agree that it is so important to be constantly absorbing intelligent, ethical and proactive advice from experts in their field. By attending events it is not just the content we experience, but also the interactions from the other people attending.
Below are 7 lessons to grow a successful business:
- There is a difference between having a business idea and the reason for doing it. People have lots of ideas and most of them are not new. Usually just slight modifications on what is already out there. Only a few people understand their WHY for making the idea come to life.
- Identify your own skills. Know what you do well and not so well. Delegate the not so well and work with those people that complement you. You do not have to be good at everything. The sooner a leader understands this, the faster the organisation grows.
- I heard someone ask an audience, “Who are the five most important people in your life?” Interestingly only a few people sheepishly admitted to writing down themselves. The speaker hammered home the point that we are the most important part of our business. She emphasised that we should look after ourselves first, even if it may feel or seem a little selfish. Have “recharge time” put in the diary just for you, which is time away from business and family commitments.
- “Email is the destroyer of start-ups” according to Mel Bound. She was a stay at home Mum who loved running and created a business valued at £0.75million after only six months. Why she said this was that Mel was receiving over 400 emails a day that she felt she should respond to, but after a while setup an email auto-responder message stating that emails are checked only once a day and the reason for that.
- We become who we surround ourselves with. We all require a good network of people to make sure we stay physically and mentally fit. I know an Entrepreneur who has received an OBE for his work and he told me he has four mentors. Most people may wonder why a talented person like that would even need one Mentor, never mind four! However, it doesn’t matter how large a business, the problems tend to be similar. Therefore Mentors can bring a variety of viewpoints.
- A successful serial entrepreneur said to me “Forget your competition, keep them in your peripheral vision, but avoid comparing yourself to them. Only focus on what you can control.”
- If you are an Entrepreneur and growing your business then you will inevitably have to pitch your business to gain financial investment for future growth. The problem with that is that most people hate pitching their business. To counter this, below are four quick steps summarised from an excellent session with Cliff Dennett from Innovation Birmingham:
- A) Tell the story of the problem.
- B) Explain why you will win.
- C) Summarise the fix and the brief figures including net profit projections.
- D) Show the broad potential for growth. (He suggested a significant achievement is 5% market share).
Whether you are Entrepreneur; currently employed, but would love to be your own boss; or maybe someone in Professional services that supports entrepreneurial business owners, I trust these seven simple lessons will be a helpful reminder of what contributes to success in business.
Matthew Broomhead
“Raising the level of Business Skills in Britain”
Creator of Broomhead Business Channel