Success Lifestyle Magazine Issue 1 - July 2018 | Page 4

How To

Energize Your Business For Financial Success

Entrepreneurship is an important part of financial freedom. Your 9 to 5 has its limitations and owning a successful business helps you break free of these limitations. Creating a business that allows you to earn an income while pursuing your passion is the doorway to a world of happiness and financial freedom. The road beyond the door will be riddled with challenges. However, if you play your cards right you’ll achieve financial success.

A fundamental principle of successful entrepreneurship is that effective entrepreneurs aren’t motivated by greed. They’re motivated by passion; a passion to do more, be more, and give more to the world. Passion, quality and the best customer experience are the hallmarks of a company that attracts loyal customers. Always remember this.

Building a business takes grit. The hard work you put in must be ongoing. It shouldn’t stop when challenges arise or when everything is going well. You must make a monthly commitment to find inventive ways to energize your business. Here’re some strategies you can use to create that monthly energy.

Update Your Knowledge

We live in a constantly changing world. There are always new developments in various niches. You must stay current if you want to remain competitive. Each month provides an opportunity for you to learn something new.

There are several ways to keep abreast with what’s going on in your industry and learn new skills. Some strategies include:

Subscribing to journals

Subscribing to local and international news apps

Completing courses on sites such as edX, Coursera, HubSpot Academy or Udemy

Following influencers in your niche

Reading books written by niche experts

Subscribing to and watching videos posted on industry expert’s YouTube channels

Following industry experts on LinkedIn and reading the content they post

Get Client Feedback

Client feedback is a good way to gauge what your business needs to do to improve. Ask your clients to complete short surveys at least once per month. Don’t let the results gather dust! Use them to create a plan.

Some of your clients’ suggestions may be easy to implement. Others may take more time and require more work. On a blank sheet of paper, create 2 columns. Write the problems that can be addressed within 2 to 3 weeks (or less) in one column. Write the other problems in the other column.

Now that the problems have been listed, you must list them in order of priority. The critical issues should be first. You then need to create a WIN strategy to tackle each problem. WIN stands for a 30-step strategy that you can use to guide your problem solving.

W- Write all possible threats to your business if the problem isn’t solved.

I- Identify existing resources that you can use to solve the problem. Also identify any additional resources that will be needed.

N- Network by gaining insight from other entrepreneurs and creating an in-house team to create and implement a solution.

Be Creative

Carve out time to brainstorm ideas that can help your business grow. It’s time to think outside the box. Customers love to see something fresh, new and exciting each month. Work with you team to see what can be created.

Always evaluate each initiative. That’s the only way to truly determine if it was successful and identify best practices. Some questions that you can use to evaluate your monthly initiatives include:

Is this initiative helping more customers engage with my brand?

How can the initiative be improved?

Is this an initiative that can be continued in the long-term?

What are the strengths of the initiative?

Injecting new life into your business monthly keeps your business alive. It’s the fertilizer that helps your business grow.

By: Christine McLean

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