Sandra Martini discusses the 3 components of every successful business — small or large.
We received quite a few follow-ups to last week’s article on 3 key marketing skills.
Most of them mentioned all the hats we wear as business owners: visionary, manager, technician/doer of the “thing”, marketer and often all the back end admin and bookkeeping support and office maintenance.
So how do you actually get stuff done?
It comes down to the 3 F’s of Business:
- Focus
- Flexibility
- Follow-up
Miss any one of these and you’re in trouble.
Focus: I recently shared a post on Facebook describing Gene Stone, the author of Forks Over Knives, who, upset over the results of the recent Presidential election, wrote a book in 12 days so it could be published in paperback and available well before the inauguration. Regardless of your politics, you’ve got to admire that type of focus.
While you may not choose to write a book in 12 days, what can you do over the next 30 that will advance your goals?
Flexibility: No matter how specific your goals or detailed your schedule, incorporating flexibility allows for the unexpected challenges and opportunities that will undoubtedly arise. This newsletter used to go out every Tuesday, then I switched it up to Wednesdays. Now, now it goes out weekly and not until I’m happy with the content rather than “good enough” just to make an arbitrary deadline.
Earlier this week, a friend was having some challenges and while I had some office things to get done (this article being one of them), when she called, I closed the laptop and spent a few hours with her. Flexibility for what’s most important in your life.
Where can you loosen up and be more flexible in support of your values and overall goals?
Follow-up: Finding the balance between following-up effectively and not being an annoyance is often the hardest of all. For most business owners, I’ve noticed that the sweet spot is just outside your comfort zone. When you’ve followed-up and thing you’re done, once more is often the difference between a new customer or not.
The best thing here is to follow-up in a non-salesy way. What can you send out to keep in touch, help potential clients and demonstrate your expertise? Depending on your budget, there are several answers to this (ezines, postcards, print newsletters, complimentary trainings, open Q&A sessions, etc.) and the only “wrong” one is none at all.
Is your follow-up system working for you? Do you need to add one/freshen it up?
Take care of the above and the 4th “F” (yep, a bonus ) will put a smile on your face: Finances.
And, as always, if you have any questions or comments or would like support in achieving your goals, please comment below.