An integral part of success in business and in life revolves around reflection and evaluation. It’s hard to know what to change or improve if you do not take the time to review what has already happened and why. As we move into a new year or new phases in business, it’s important to reflect on your success and failures to determine where your main focus and concentration needs to be moving forward. Below I have listed some strategies and tips to help you determine how to focus so you WIN BIG!
1. Analyze your wins and losses.
It’s important to understand your success and failures in business and life. If you won big in an area, review the process that led you to that success. What steps did you take? Write it down. If you failed in an area, review what happened. Analyze what went wrong and why. Write down as much information about the experience as you remember. Figure out ways you could have done something differently that would have contributed to a better outcome.
2. Get Feedback.
Many small business owners do not take the time to get consistent feedback. Some may even believe that feedback is not an important part of business. I’m always amazed at how many times I am told that business owners haven’t asked their customers or employees how they feel about their business. The truth is, Obtaining feedback from your customers and your employees is critical and there are so many reasons why. You need to understand the perceptions that exist about your business and your brand. You need know what your customers and employees like and dislike. YOu need to know these things so you can determine what areas to focus on first. Happy customers make repeat customers and happy employees make a successful business.
3. Review your sales numbers.
Remember, if you’re not making money, you’re not in business for very long. Nothing happens until you sell a product or a service that produces income, so you must figure out how much you have sold. You must know your best selling items and your worst and why. If you are not creating products and services that your ideal prospects and clients want and need, they you do not have a sustainable business model. You must analyze your sales numbers on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis. Once you have done a sales analysis you can then formulate a sales plan to increase your revenue.
4. Review your strengths and Weaknesses.
The bottom line is that you must do your research. If you don’t know where you have an edge over your competition you can not maximize on it. If you don’t know where your competition has an advantage over you, you can’t fix it. You need to know every area where you exceed and every area where you fall short.
5. Create a plan.
Once you have analyzed all of the previous items, then you must develop a plan of attack. You must decide if there are any immediate and critical needs that must be addressed first. In other words: “is your business bleeding or dying? The questions to ask yourself are “if I don’t fix this, will my business be forced to close its doors?” If the answer is yes, then you must address this area first. If there are no immediate needs, you must look at the area where you can make the biggest impact with the least amount of effort.
The key to business success is always remaining in a state of assessment as you grow to each new level of success. Knowing what to focus on and when will be critical to your long term business growth.
Now I want to hear from you. What process have you implemented to determined what to focus on in your business?
Please share and leave a comment below.
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This article is written by Lori A. Manns. Want to use this article for your website, blog or newsletter? No problem. Here’s what you must include:
Lori A. Manns, CEO of Quality Media Consultant Group your marketing and sales success mentor, and founder of Marketing For Trailblazers™ & Sponsorship Sales Secrets System;™ that shows you how to get more sponsors and sales for your business, guaranteed. To purchase consulting services on marketing, advertising or sales and, learn how to increase your revenue and grow your business; please visit www.qualitymediaconsultants.com.