Someone recently asked what I mean by “We need to disrupt business as usual!”
Here’s what I mean…
Business as usual isn’t working!
And it’s more apparent now than ever.
There are so many businesses that have spent years on the edge of shutdown, and the current crisis is pointing out how many businesses aren’t in a solid position to weather business challenges. From small businesses to major corporations, people are suddenly struggling and flailing to keep afloat.
Up ‘till now, all we've seen is everyone's “Social Media Highlight Reel.” The great news about the business. Entrepreneurs ascribe to the “fake it till you make it” mindset too often, and that is all they show to the world. Now? We’re suddenly seeing the number of small businesses who have dirty laundry, skeletons in the closet, or who have survived on luck.
Continuing the same way isn’t an option anymore, it won’t keep working.
If this isn’t working, what needs to change?
We need to shift how small business owners think about setting up a stable business. Businesses have to rest on more than just sales and fulfillment! There are five keys to creating a solidly built business that can weather whatever comes. When small business owners start to think about creating a solid foundation in each of these elements, we have the opportunity to create a massive impact.
We have the opportunity to start a movement across the globe by helping small business owners create better jobs and better job security: for their employees as well as for themselves!
I'm going to break down each of these five categories piece by piece in blogs over the next few weeks, because right now is a great opportunity to create a solid, all-encompassing foundation for your business that goes beyond sales and fulfillment.
My Five Key Areas (In no particular order…)
Good Cashflow and Financial Management
This is about pricing and management. Your pricing needs to be in a good place from the get-go to provide room for profits & scaling. You need to know how to manage your cash flow. Cash is king. (Check out the blog on this key here!)
Great SOP and Quality Controls
Standard operating procedures are the organization and documentation of how you fulfill what you’re being paid for by your clients. Great SOPs create quality control so as you grow and onboard new team members, your quality doesn’t drop and sabotage your brand in the marketplace. (Check out the blog on this key here!)
Marketing and Branding
When you're smaller, marketing and branding matters less. As you grow, you start to realize everything you do impacts your brand. Your brand is more than logos and colors - it’s what people think when they think of you. It’s how you manage your outreaches to the market to let them know you’re here for them.
A strong brand coupled with a smart marketing strategy empowers that marketing to reach further, faster, and for less effort! Your brand will establish or destroy trust more quickly than anything. (Check out hte blog on this key here!)
Sales
Although too many people try to run their business just off of sales or marketing and fulfillment, it still needs attention. There must be a strong strategy for moving prospects from marketing into sales and actually generating sales and the cash needed to keep your business moving. (Check out the blog on this key here!)
Strong People Management
Even when you’re the only person you’re managing, you still need to know how to manage yourself! I can tell you from experience, I was a terrible self-manager for years. But the great thing is that the sooner you learn how to manage yourself, the easier time you’ll have learning to manage others as you grow your sales, fulfilment, marketing, and management teams.
And you need to know how to pass those management skills on to the rest of your team as they step into management and leadership too. In order to develop the culture you want in your organization, this is essential.
At the end of the day, without strong people management, the other four keys will slowly fall apart. (Check out the blog on this key here!)
If you want to be a really solid business, you need to have all five of these keys in place to build the foundation that will weather any storm that comes your way.