4 Simple Habits That Lead to Small Business Success
There are often two types of business owners you'll come across: The savvy planner, who began building their dream company while practicing good habits. Then there's Charlie, (also me), who learned by trial and error how to develop them along the way.
Most of us are Charlie because being risk tolerant is primarily a part of what fuels entrepreneurship. The problem with the latter approach is it assumes you'll have time to learn the ropes before it's required of you to lead effectively. What happens when your sales skyrocket or when you need to shift gears?
Developing good habits is a vital part of enabling your business to flourish into new markets and scale revenue. Like most small business owners, there are never enough hours in the day to complete every task on your list. From resolving customer concerns to preparing proposals, prioritizing the day to day often takes over the big picture.
Having a firm handle on how you will manage your time, nurture a team, and ultimately enjoy the process leads to instrumental business growth. Here are four tried and true practices to adapt to achieve small business success.
Set a business budget—and stick to it
It's not uncommon for small business owners to lose touch with where they stand financially. But an awareness of your real-time income and expenses is the key to making informed decisions with your dollars. Implement these changes and see the difference they make in your business:
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Consider using financial tools that offer access to real-time data anywhere, anytime. It's always helpful to solicit a coach or advisor to help set this up properly.
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Get in the habit of reviewing your finances on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis; Document unexpected changes or patterns to revisit in future planning.
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Check-in on your other numbers, too – your website metrics and software analytics – so you know whether your marketing, lead generation, and sales tactics are working.
Update your business plan as needed
Companies should update their small business plan at least once a year—sooner if there's an upcoming change that requires planning, financing, or re-assigning resources (for instance, a product launch, an opportunity to start importing/exporting, or new side business).
In the age of "getting things done," many small business owners neglect to revise their plans regularly. They end up operating on autopilot, losing sight of their bigger goals, and the steps they planned to take their business to the next level. The end of a quarter is an excellent time to set goals, mark milestones, and start implementing your plans. The timing also aligns nicely with closing out the previous year's books to plan with your latest annual figures in mind.
Outsource tasks based on your weaknesses
It sounds simple, but the self-sufficient, independent nature of many entrepreneurs can make it difficult to get comfortable delegating responsibility. The key is being honest about where your skill sets fit across areas needed to run your business and delegating where you fall short. Finding the right people to relieve the burden of managing everything is the only way for a company to scale and reach its potential.
Think carefully about how you spend your days. Are you still at the point where you want or need to do it all? The ultimate success of any entrepreneur is to reach the stage where your business can operate in your absence and you can happily disappear on a beach. After all, isn't this the point of striking out on your own in the first place?
It can take time to build a team that you can trust to perform their jobs well and continue to grow your business. Personality assessments are often a great way to gain perspective in your strengths and weaknesses to recruit people with complementary skill sets.
Developing new habits takes time and commitment – but the payoff is well worth it in the end. Like all goals, growing a small business requires discipline to achieve the desired outcome. Start by truly evaluating what habits are costing you significant time and energy. There's no time like the present to adopt a new approach.