An Easy Fix to Get Massive Results

When you’re frustrated with the results you’re getting (or NOT getting) in your business, there’s a few things you can take a look at to find out why.  I’ll cover a few keys to small business success here, and don’t worry, they’re all things you can do - today. If you’re ready to change your downslope into a steep incline, keep reading. You’ll see exactly how to run a successful small business.

Clarity Is Key

The most common pitfall for small business owners is that they’re simply not clear enough on what it is they want to achieve.  There are a few possible reasons you could be in this predicament.

First, maybe you haven’t decided what you want.  Sometimes, as busy entrepreneurs, we flounder on this part of our plan.  We’re sort of wishy-washy and set goals like ‘well, it would be nice to have a big social following,’ or ‘I want to make 10k months.’  Either one of these examples is heading you in a direction, but neither is specific enough. I’ve talked at length about setting DIAMOND GOALS, and if you want to know how to set goals correctly, you can go here:

Second, maybe you change your mind too often.  I’ve totally been guilty of this. There’s a lot of content being thrown at us from all directions, and if we’re not careful, every article we read can change our mind on what it is we want to accomplish.  Like on Sunday night, when planning for the week, I decide what my main goal is for the week. However, if I am not careful with the content I consume from all the amazing people I follow, I find that I’ve derailed myself by Thursday, and have to scramble back onto the train that’s taking me the right way.  This causes stress, frustration, and overwhelm. Keeping my eyes on the goal I set by writing it in my planner (and then LOOKING at it!) helps me stay focused.

The third reason you’re not clear on what you want is that you want too many different things.  If you have too many goals, you’ll find yourself bouncing around, and not making a lot of progress on any one of them (and if you’re not careful, some progress on one goal can interfere with your progress on another goal). If you’re working on more than 3 goals at a time, you may fall into this category.  For some people, more than ONE at a time is too many. That’s OK. Recognize if this is you, and modify your plan.

Measure the Right Things

After you take a few minutes, or hours (if you’re suffering through this part) to decide what it is you want, and set a DIAMOND goal around it, you can start to measure your progress.  Start immediately by recording your baseline measurement, a fancy word for where you’re starting today. If you’re not recording your numbers, you can’t see your progress.

As you start to record your numbers, or metrics, make sure you’re recording what matters.  There are quite a few ‘vanity metrics’ out there that will lead you astray. If you’re focused on growing a social media following, but you’re tracking only the number of visits to your website, you’re misaligned.  There is a reason to track many different metrics, and you may want to record a number of different metrics. But make sure what you’re recording shows progress or not progress on your actual goal. Another example could be focusing on selling more of your product, but tracking only how many followers you have on Instagram.  There is not a 100% accurate across-the-board relationship between social media followers and sales volume.

One other thing to consider, is if you’re tracking at all.  Yes, tracking numbers can be tedious, and can often be stuffed away as a ‘get around to it later’ task on your list.  But your guts can’t tell you when you’re making small progress on a goal, where your numbers can. Just as much as tracking the wrong thing, not tracking at all can leave you in the dark when you’re looking for business growth.

If you’re really stuck on what you should track or not, it’s worth calling someone who knows how to develop relevant measurements for your business.  You’ll want someone skilled in operations and/or project management to help you. If you’re interested in getting some help, book a call with me.

Fix Your System

Another reason you’re not getting results with your business is you might not be doing the right things, or, what you ARE doing is taking you too long.  If you want to be efficient and get results the fastest, you need to automate a large chunk of your process. Any place you’re manually completing steps in your work is a place you can look for automation.  Those things you can’t automate really should be delegated.

That brings up another point - are you even following a process?  If you do the ‘same’ thing, but differently each time, the answer is no.  The problem with this method is there is no way to know if you’re being effective or not.  Doing something for one week, and then changing how you’re doing it the next week, is probably too fast to know if the first way was going to achieve a result or not.  

When you create a process to complete the steps you take to reach your goals, you have to decide how long (usually about a month) you’ll do it before you change things up.  Just like variables in the Scientific Method, if you change too many things at once, you won’t know what change made the difference. So as you work through your process, to decide what’s working and what’s not, make small tweaks over time, not a big overhaul each week.

Now you’re ready to go reach your goals - because you’re clear, know what to measure, and know what you’re going to do.  Knowing is half the battle, right?

What is your current goal?  I’d love to hear it!