. Here are five tips that I think will help any business succeed.
Tip #1: Give Your Customers What They Want Not What You Want
Many business owners have strong views on what their customers really want or need and they work hard to ensure that they deliver it. Unfortunately a lot of those same business owners never find out from their current and potential customers what they actually want. As a result they are putting a lot of time, energy and money into things that are not going to enhance their business.
If there isn't a strong market for what you are providing then you are going to work very hard for little reward and possibly become disenchanted with business in the process. Do yourself a favor and invest in some good quality market research.
Tip #2: Burn Your Bridges But Never Burn Your Contacts
Burning the bridges is an expression that comes from the military practice of invading generals ordering their troops to burn the bridges behind them in order to remove retreat as an option.
Many business people, especially those who become billionaires, use this same strategy to fully focus themselves on their primary goal. They will purposely put all their capital and energy behind their major strategy. What these people are really doing is backing their own ability to succeed.
One thing they never do though is to burn their contacts. They work hard to foster good relationships with those people who could potentially help them whether that help is likely to be in the short term or the long term.
Tip #3: Expect to Win and Support That Expectation with Your Actions
People who succeed in business expect to succeed. They believe so strongly in themselves and in their business that they can't see any possibility other than success. However they keep their feet firmly planted in reality and realize that success in business requires massive goal directed action.
These winners in business make sure that their action level is always as high as their confidence level. They leave no stone unturned in their efforts to build a highly profitable, long lasting, successful enterprise that will keep pumping out the profits year in and year out.
Tip #4: Know When to Multi-Task and When to Fully Focus
One of the best time management tools is to multi-task. Multi-taskers use their travel time effectively by doing suitable work rather than just idly traveling. They have business meetings over lunch so that their lunch time is not down time. They look for all manner of ways in which they can achieve two things in the one time space.
However they also know which activities are best performed with totally dedicated focus. When the activity is best performed with single activity focus then that is what they do. They are using time management as a tool rather than becoming its slave.
Tip #5: Say No to Bad Business
All business is not good business and there are times when rejecting potential business is the best course of action. This would include business with clients who take too much time or too many resources for the profit generated, or customers that you know are going to be impossible to please.
There is a temptation when business is slow to accept any business offered but this is the time when you need to be most on your guard against bad business. Far better to use your time, resources and energy to find good business than to take the lazy way out and accept business that you will be cursing at a future date.
Applying these five simple tips can go a long way to ensure your lasting business success. Why not give some time to thinking about how you could apply them in your business.
