Similar to the fact that your website is truly the only platform that you completely own, your email list is the only customer engagement method that you 100% control.
We saw it last year with Pinterest. Bloggers who had thousands of Pinterest followers and focused all of their efforts on the acquisition and engagement method that had always worked for them (Pinterest) were deeply affected when Pinterest changed its algorithm and bloggers saw their traffic plummet to a screeching halt.
Many successful small-business owners have at least one thing in common—the ability to see the big picture and envision what their success will look like tomorrow. Here are some of the activities successful small-business owners complete to place their focus on the future and keep moving forward.
Key Takeaways:
- Use the SMART goal-setting to make specific, actionable, achievable, and relevant goals within a specific time frame.
- Focus on making customers happy and asking for feedback from them.
- Always be learning, whether it’s through formal classes, a mentor, or continuous reading about relevant business topics.
- Learn to delegate tasks that someone else can do, so you can concentrate on growing your business.
- Keep up with changing technology that may affect your business or help you be more productive. Keep up with changing technology that may affect your business or help you be more productive.
2. Focus on Customers
Being able to retain desirable clients plays a significant role in the continued success of a small business. Not only does having regular customers mean regular income, but happy clients can also provide powerful word-of-mouth marketing.
Along with providing your clients with an exceptional product or service, you can encourage repeat business by being customer service-focused. This means asking for and acting on feedback, addressing issues and complaints quickly and thoroughly, and being consistently accessible and accountable.
3. Commit to Continuous Learning
You should understand that no matter how much you achieve, there will always be more to be learned and applied for even greater success.
Even if you don’t have the time or the desire to learn in a traditional classroom setting, there are several ways you can advance your knowledge and continue to learn so your business can continue to thrive. Continuous learning can take online training, self-paced programs, collaborative opportunities, mentoring, and even reading.
4. Learn How To Delegate
Whether you have employees, subcontractors, or family pitching in, learning how to delegate effectively can be the difference between reaching new heights and burning out.
Many small-business owners are accustomed to doing a variety of things themselves instead of enlisting the help of others. So, it can be challenging to identify the tasks you don’t need to do yourself and assign the work to someone else. Once you overcome the challenge, though, you will have more time to dedicate to what you do best—grow your business.
5. Increase Your Productivity
Some of what you do as a small business owner will be routine; there is a variety of daily tasks that will need to be accomplished to keep your business running smoothly.
The more effective you are in completing the day-to-day business management tasks (the ones that you don’t delegate, that is), the more potential your small business has for greater success. You can boost your productivity by developing systems to streamline these processes.
6. Stay Current With Technology
Technology plays a role in every business, so all small-business owners can benefit from not only having an understanding of the technology that impacts them directly but also keeping track of how it changes.
Keeping up with new and changing technology can help small-business owners make better decisions; and it can help save money, time, and other resources.
7. Change up Your Marketing Activities
Consistently changing, testing, and mixing your marketing activities can be a valuable way to see what works, what doesn’t, and what type of result it produces.
Many small-business owners understand how online marketing and social media marketing can add new dynamics to promoting their goods and services. The most successful small businesses are willing to explore new outlets of online marketing—in combination with their offline marketing activities—to see what produces the most interest.
While you do not need to do all of these activities at once, most successful small-business owners find a way to work them in over time. To gain momentum, start with one or two that are already aligned with the way you run your business, and then start to make changes to incorporate the others gradually.
