If you’ve made it to this page, that means you’re interested—at least a little bit—in what it takes to have a strong, self-sustaining small business. Congratulations! The key is following the seven steps of the Business Fitness™ System outlined below.
The Business Fitness™ System is a step-by step program for building a strong, self-sustaining small business. Based on years of work in the small business world—as a small business leader myself and a small business consultant—I have developed a series of seven strategic steps for growing a successful small business. Following them will truly allow you to live the American Dream!
These seven steps are:
STEP ONE: Do What Matters Most
STEP TWO: Get Things Done Through Others
STEP THREE: Impact Your Marketplace
STEP FOUR: Empower Your People
STEP FIVE: Keep Your Cool in Conflict
STEP SIX: Turn Vision into Execution
STEP SEVEN: Build Your Leadership Team
STEP ONE: Do What Matters Most
Traditional time management doesn’t work anymore. Traditional time management says, “Do you have 10 things to do today? I can show you how to do 15. Do you have 15 things to do today? I can show you how to do 20.” But the stark reality of business today is that we have 30, 40, and even 50 things to do every single day that simply cannot get done through greater efficiency. With this explosion of things to do we must make choices, hard choices, about the things we spend our time on. I will help you do just that! Being effective with our time requires greater focus NOT greater efficiency.
STEP TWO: Get Things Done Through Others
Delegation dysfunction plagues most small businesses. Here’s how it works: You give something to someone else to do. They put it on the bottom of their pile. You check on it and discover that it’s not done. You press them on it, and it finally gets done (with rolled eyes and cold stares). But it’s not done right and you end up doing it yourself. That is the definition of dysfunction! In spite of this dysfunction, delegation actually does work. More importantly delegation MUST work or we’re doomed to doing everything ourselves. Stop doing everything yourself and learn how to get things done through others.
STEP THREE: Impact Your Marketplace
Most people view sales unlike any other profession. There is a mystery about it and an aura that surrounds it. We refer to great sales people as wizards and rainmakers, modern-day magicians. Sales, however, is not magic. Effective selling is about finding the specific steps of action that apply to the customer you are trying to reach and doing those actions over and over and over again. That is what I discovered about sales working in the radio industry. If I could clearly identify the businesses that were most likely to use my group of radio stations and reached out to them in a systematic way, I would succeed in sales. And I did, being the fastest in my company to achieve $250,000 and $1 million in radio revenue. You can succeed in sales too, whether you sell directly yourself or through sales associates, with the mastery of a customized sales system.
STEP FOUR: Empower Your People
Here’s what the Gallup Corporation found after interviewing 10 million employees: 55% of all employees are not engaged at all in their work and 16% percent of workers are actively disengaged. Only 29%, less than one-in-three employees, are fully engaged at work. In other words, if you have 30 employees, only 9 of them are really working for you, while 16 of them are cruising on auto pilot and 5 of them are actively working against you. What’s a small business leader to do? Learn how to empower your people and transform your workplace into a true workFORCE.
STEP FIVE: Keep Your Cool in Conflict
For the first time ever ComPsych’s Stress Pulse™ annual survey revealed that “people issues” have replaced workload as number one cause of stress at work. The source of a lot of this stress comes from leaders who are not able to handle conflict in a healthy, positive way. How do you do that? First by being SAFE and creating the context of communication by monitoring how you say things to others. Then by being SOUND, making the content of what you say clear and concise. This is how to keep your cool in conflict.
STEP SIX: Turn Vision into Execution
I have a plaque on my desk that says, “Dream it and Do It.” I believe the most important word on that plaque is the word AND. Dreams are useless unless they are done. So too, however, is doing things that are not energized by a dream. Vision and execution must be seen as two sides of the same coin. We must look into the future and dream, and work in the present to do something about our dreams. To do this I will help you set SMART goals: Goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant to overall business objectives, and Time bound. This is how dreams get done!
STEP SEVEN: Build Your Leadership Team
Here’s the irony of leading a small business. We think we are leading when we’re on the stage in front of others. We think we are leading when we are doing things no one else can do. We think we are leading when the applause is loud and the cheers are louder. But leadership is not about just being a leader. Leadership is about leading leaders. And there is a world of difference between the two! Leading leaders means that we are not the only one who is able to do the key jobs in our company. It means that we have successfully duplicated ourselves in others, who feel just as responsible for the business as we do. It also means that we are able to step away from our business for a week, a month—or even a year—and return to it just as profitable as when we left.
Does it work? YES!
Just like our bodies, however, there is no quick fix or magic wand that will make our business instantly healthy. Those who jump in and work hard find that their business gets fit faster and stays fit longer with our program. Some of my clients have seen sales increase by as much as 50% in the first 6 months of working with me. Most of my clients, however, see immediate impact in their personal life. As I teach them how to do more of what matters most, they find within a month or so they are actually doing LESS with greater results than ever before. They then have time for the things that are priceless: family relationships and personal health. That alone is worth the investment!
BOTTOM LINE: I love collaborating with high-energy, hard-working people who want to succeed wildly in their business and still have a life outside of work. Because of the limited amount of spots we have available in our program, I am careful to fill them with people who share this passion.
Are you ready to get started working on your business?
Read the Interview with Bill, then call me at 541-752-LEAD or email me Bill@LeadershipLink.net to set up a FREE 30 minute Business Fitness™ consultation.
How fit is your business? Take the FREE Business Fitness™ Assessment.
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