So you want to grow your business because maybe you’ve plateaued… maybe you’ve been doing a lot of business for a lot of years and you just hit that mark where you think this is all I can do… that’s where I found myself a few years ago. Or maybe you’re started in business, and you want to grow your business, and you just don’t have the right pieces in place. Well I’ve got a few tips for you.
Let me paint the picture for you, either you’re in one or two places right? Either you’ve been doing business a long time and you’ve plateaued and are maybe feeling complacent. You’re in a place where, hey life’s pretty good I’d like to grow the business, but I’ve put enough effort in to get this far. Maybe you’re in a place where you’re 2 to 5 years in your business now I want to get this thing off the ground. Or you’re a brand new business and you’re thinking how can I grow this thing? How can I get more business and increase my revenue share and my market share by working on my business?
INVEST IN YOURSELF
First tip I’m going to share with you today is invest in yourself. You’ve got to write that one down guys. Invest in yourself. For the longest time I have been investing money into my business, but I did find out recently that investing yourself through knowledge and other means will help you go a very long way. Take this for instance, before May 2019 I had plateaued at a certain point in my business where I didn’t think I could really grow any more in a specific month. I thought wow I’m pretty much at capacity, and I can’t grow any more. Then I went to a conference called the “Vault 2019”. What I found out is that I’ve made it quite a long way with what is in between my two ears. For instance, I didn’t have to put a lot of data in to get a lot of effort out of myself for the past 20 years. You may find yourself at that point as well or in that same space.
What occurred to me after going to the conference was there’s a lot of other people in my space. A lot of other people trying to find ways to break through to get through the plateau phase in their business. Or there’s people in the startup phase and want to just speed that process up.
Go to some conferences that are in your field. You always hear about these people going to Vegas…going to Florida going all over the world doing these little conferences for real estate or or whatever it is. Find something that’s in your field or even it’s just a it’s a blanket entrepreneurship conference that will help spark some energy go to that type of a conference.
Take in as much information as you can.
Another thing that’s worked well for me is the use of technology to strengthen my weaknesses. I’m very good at following up with clients and I’m very good with attention to details, but over time I get really busy even though I know that these things have to be done consistently. They have to be done all the time. What I have found is having a very good CRM or some type of tool that has AI in it helps prompt me to follow-up with clients. That’s the ticket. Technology in some way to fit in to your business that will help strengthen up some of the weak points that you may have. I think that it’s priceless.
Think about yourself as being a person that makes $300 an hour and you’ve got to keep investing in yourself so that you can push that limit to $400 an hour…$500 an hour… whatever you want to get to. You’ve got to invest in yourself.
WORK A SYSTEM
The next thing I want to talk about is work a system if you’re plateaued like I was or you’re growing your business from scratch. You have to have some type of a system that will take the thinking out of your day-to-day repetitive work systems. Systems will help you build a predictable business.
Back in the day for me it was up and down up and down up and down. I was always building and then I was feast or famine. I was either having a lot of business to deal with or I had nothing to deal with. If you have systems in place to help with your follow-up… help with your phone calls… help with your prospecting… it’s going take a lot of the edge off, and make your business a lot more predictable.
A lot of you out there have great entrepreneur minds and you can think of great ideas. You’re really creative! The creative aspect can slow you down when you’re looking at building your business. Here’s what I mean. If every day you come to work and you have these fantastic ideas and you implement one here, you implement one there, you don’t ever start focusing on a consistent message. Then you spend your time chasing shiny things all over the place and you never move forward. A good consistent system that you put in place will help you stay on task all the time. You can take those ideas, you can write them down, but realize that if they’re opportunities without a direction they’re just a distraction. Continue to work the system and watch the business slowly grow back.
When I worked at McDonald’s I was hired at like 16 years old. I walked in and they did not ask me what my opinion was for making a Big Mac. Let me repeat myself, they did not ask me what my opinion was when it came to making a Big Mac. They plugged me into a system. That system was… flip the burgers, sprinkle the onions, put it on the bun, lettuce, sauce, and in the box…it’s out the door. That system is there by design to make them more efficient. Quicker, faster and profitable.
Another thing a system does for you is it takes all the emotion out of it. So if you get on big highs because you’re having success and then you go really low when you’re not having success those things slow you down. Even being on the big high can slow you down because you get really high and you’re like everything’s working I’m winning! Then you forget to do the work they got you there and you slow way back down. Or vice versa you go down into the dive and you can’t get yourself back up because you’re just sitting there thinking about how bad it is. If you’re not working a system consistently you will stay there for a greater period of time.
The last thing about a system I will share with you is… nothing beats consistent effort. Consistent effort will trump anything when it comes to building your business, breaking out of a plateau, rebuilding your business, whatever you’re trying to do right now as an entrepreneur. You have to have consistent effort that will push through any type of problem that you’re having.
So we wanted to take a break from talking about cars today to talk about business. I hope you enjoyed this!