Best Small Business Idea -- It's All About You
Summary:
We've all heard
that the key to success in business is to focus totally on your customers. In this article, Michael Clark takes the
opposite approach and tells readers why they must focus on themselves first if
they are to have ultimate success.
Keywords:
Small business
start-up idea, Small business success story, Start-up business resource, Best
small business idea, Business plan sample small, Best start-up business, Sample
start business plan
Article Body:
Getting More
Focused -- It’s All About You
Jeanna Pool from Catalyst Creative writes a great ezine on marketing each
month. In January she shared 5 Great
Marketing Tips for 2006. Number 1 was
“Stop Focusing on You”. She declares
2006 the year of the client and exhorts you to focus totally on your clients
and their needs. I think she’s right. And I think she’s completely
wrong. Why right and wrong?
If you’ve been in business for a while and have great products and great
services and aren’t getting the results you want, you may be too focused on
your clients and not focused enough on yourself. Last week, I encouraged you to revisit your
vision of your business and ask yourself why you started your business in the
first place. Now I want you to focus
even more on what you want. What exactly
do you want out of your business? Do you
want more money? If so, how much? Write down a number. Do you want more flexible hours? If so, write out exactly the schedule you’d
like. Do you want to change the
world? If so, write out specifically how
that would look.
Why does all this focus on you? Because if
you aren’t absolutely clear on what you want, how are you going to know if you
are successful? How are you going to help
your clients if you aren’t taking care of yourself as well? Maybe you need to be making $150,000 a year
to provide your family with the life that you want. You want to send your kids to college. You want to retire while you are still active and in good health. Or maybe you
want to just make an extra $20,000 a year working part-time while you take care
of your children until they are in school.
Or perhaps your goal is to make a million dollars a year and live a
really incredible life. Defining this is
very important. Why?
Because what you want will shape your business.
It will determine who your customers are and how you will help
them. If you want $5,000,000 in sales,
your products and methods are going to be a whole lot different than if you
want $50,000 in sales. If you want to
work only afternoons, that is going to shape your business as well. If you want to sell your business and retire
in five years, that’s going to affect your decisions as well. So right now, get out a paper and pen and get
ready to write.
Did you get your pen and paper out?
Answer the question, “What do I want out of my business?” Write in as much detail exactly what you
want your business to give you. Be as
specific as possible. Write as much as
you can. Think income, lifestyle,
schedule, partners, travel, location, employees. What exactly do you want? Throughout the week, add to this and revise
it. Compare where you are right now to
what you really want. How large is the
gap? Next week, I’ll help you create a
plan to narrow the gap with Why
Business Plans Don’t Work -- How to
Create an Effective Action Plan
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