A few weeks ago I was listening to a radio phone-in whilst driving to an appointment. The topic was ‘Running your own Business’ and the guest was one of those ‘overnight business successes’. You know the story – after 20 years in business he became an ‘overnight success’ and celebrity!
One caller rang in to complain about how the UK supermarkets had moved into the domestic electrical market and because of their buying power were forcing the likes of him out of business. What should he do?
You may not be surprised at the answer, but how is it that so many people in similar positions who also know the answer, seem to do nothing about it? The answer of course was to ‘develop a unique selling proposition’, that the competition was unable to match. Offer your customers ‘added value’. Within the space of a minute the speaker was suggesting how he might do just that. Whether or not the caller took the advice we’ll never know.
I took a call last week from a former client of mine who’s in the tool hire business, and phoned to update me on his progress. Since we had last spoken, he’d undertaken a survey of his customers to ask them ‘what they wanted’. As a result of the survey, he’d not only taken their views on board, but acted upon them. Within three months he’d redesigned his website, extended his scope of services (by offering more added value) and seen his turnover increase by 20%. I’m sure that the very fact that he’s contacted his customer base (without trying to sell to them) had a positive effect on the relationship and contributed to the upturn in business in itself.
I know it’s been said so often that business owners and CEOs get so immersed in the business, they have little time to work on it. They can also lose sight of what it’s about. It’s no good having a real passion for producing black widgets if the market has shifted and is now demanding red ones. You are in business to make money, not widgets!
So what other factors contribute to success in business? I referred, tongue in cheek, to an overnight success that took 20 years. Overnight successes rarely happen; you need staying power and determination; but that doesn’t mean going on blindly!
You also need to be able to stand back from time to time, be honest with yourself about your success criteria and change course if you need to. I call it plan-do-review.
Another major factor is the willingness to take advice and act on it. Research shows that those who do take advice, enjoy more success than those who don’t. It also shows that women are more likely to take advice than men. Perhaps we’d better not go there right now!
