I had all these ideas on my mind, but each of them was too short to make a blog post out of it. So, I decided to group all my ideas into one blog post. I hope you like it!
Idea #1: Stop Using the Wrong Metrics to Evaluate Business Success
When people want to figure out how much money you make as a business owner, they ask about your revenues or number of employees. I think those are two horrible ways to measure success. A $1M business with 75% profit margin is very different from a $1M business with a 6% profit margin. However, they both have the same revenue. Also, some businesses make a few million dollars with only one employee, while others make half that much but have several more employees, so don’t let the number of employees a business has fool you.
There’s only one way to measure the financial success of a company: profits.
Idea #2: Is Your Business in a Plateau? It’s Time to Re-Invent It
There’s a limit to how much you can grow doing what you do now. Once you reach that limit, you need to change the way you do things. Maybe that means introducing new products. Maybe it means targeting new audiences or switching from a service business into a product business. Don’t think incremental changes; think completely different business model. How can you tweak your business model to grow your company exponentially?
Idea #3: You Can’t Outsource Social Media Marketing
You need to interact with your customers. You need to be the expert in your industry. You can’t outsource that. That being said, I think that every company doing social media marketing should have professionals put together strategies for them, so they understand what they do and why they do it. But from that point on, you need to own the interactions with your customers; you shouldn’t have a third-party do this for you.
Idea #4: Ask Your Employees What They Like Doing
Fact: people who do things they like do those things better than anyone else. They’re also more likely to stay with your company and recommend it to their friends. Talk to your employees. Ask them what they like the most and the least about their jobs. Give them more of the kind of work they like and less of the one they don’t. I know: some things need to be done, but sometimes something one person hates is someone else’s favorite tasks.
Idea #5: Information Is Over-Rated
You don’t need to read every newspaper and blog out there. You don’t need to get the latest electronic gadgets as soon as they’re launched. You don’t need to check your email in real time on your iPhone or BlackBerry. In fact, all these things will keep you busy and when you’re busy you can’t think of new ideas. Try consuming less information for a week and giving yourself more time to be creative, and see what happens.
Idea #6: You Don’t Need to Do Everything on Your To-Do List
Procrastination can be both a curse and a blessing. It’s a very useful resource if you know how to use it. Go through your to-do list and choose the items you can put off until next week. And, next week, see if you can put them off for another week. Did your world fall apart because of it? If it didn’t, those tasks might not be that important and you should get rid of them altogether. Focus on the big stuff that will make a big impact in your life; don’t let the small stuff get in the way.
Idea #7: The 5% Technique
How can you increase your revenue by 5%? In most cases, this should be really easy. Can you raise your rates for some of your clients? Can you offer your existing customers a new feature? Get creative; there’s always a way to increase revenues by 5%. Once you’ve done that, do it again. And again. You should also do this to cut costs. Go through your expenses and find ways to cut costs by at least 5%. Ask your vendors for discounts, switch to more affordable vendors and cancel services you don’t use.
I have a question for you: do you like posts like this one with a bunch of ideas, or do you prefer one topic per blog post?
