This has been a relatively new revelation for me in my side business adventure. I’m greatly interested in leveraging everything I have to up my sidewages. Let it be known that every little tip I can get to more effectively do things with a limited amount of time and resources that I have highly piques my interest. Got some you can share with me, please?
“Hold still… hold still… hold it… hold it… HOLD IT. GOT IT! Thanks guys.”
I remember bouncing from tactic to tactic, figuring out what little thing is working today, and what little thing I can use to boost me up to the next level. The only problem is none of these were legitimate strategies. They were just little tools that, by themselves, didn’t really get enough done and didn’t do anything to permanently grow the assets of the company.
These tactics just provided for small injections of resources from here to there. This is no way to grow any business. If you want to get the most out of what you have and learn how to really manage a small business, here’s some tips that will help you along that path.
1) Stay Away From Shiny Toys
These are the latest web marketing tactics. These are the latest infomercials that you see on TV, and these are the latest emails you get from management firm X that has no idea on how stuff actually gets done on the level that you do it.
These are the shiny toys that haven’t been proven and are usually being sold for way more than you want to spend. Realize that until these new ideas are vetted, and until you really know the structure and strategy behind them, bouncing around each new shiny toy is only going to take away from a legitimate strategy that will move your business to the next step. Think focus – not flounder.
2) Hire Slow And Fire Fast
Working in a corporate environment, you see that the opposite of this section heading is true. Big gigantic corporations seem to hire on a whim and keep people forever, even, and probably more-so, the ones that don’t pull their own weight.
This is a horrible way to do business and ends up setting yourself up with black holes of resource inefficiency. In your small business you need to take the proper amount of time to make sure the person you are bringing into the company is the right person and the instant you find they’re not, you have enough proof, and you’re doing things ethically, you need to get rid of them.
Don’t let them keep dragging you down. One person on a 10 person team has the ability to influence at least 10% of what happens. In a corporation of 300 that can get lost in the noise. The same noise-filtering is not true for a small business.
3) Increase Traffic, Frequency And Price
Web and real world marketing genius, Jay Abraham, says that there are only three ways to grow your business. These three ways are to increase traffic, to increase the frequency of purchase, and to increase your prices (and thereby the profits). Pay attention to these three things when you’re trying to grow your business.
If these are the only three major ways to do things, figure out strategies to help in each one of these three categories and then just start doing one from each category. Try to get more traffic. Try to up sell, try to cross sell, raise your prices, do product bundles, and do different things that will help you get more money out of every effort that you do, and provide more value to your clients.
Managing a Business is As Simple as You Want it to Be
If you’re looking at tips to help managing a small business, understand that you need to stay away from bouncing around from shiny toy to shiny toy, you need to hire slow and fire fast, and you need to increase your traffic, frequency of purchase, and your prices.
These are the things that’ll get you to the next step and so will assessing how many shiny toys you’re bouncing around right now, and stopping all of them that don’t matter.