10 Valuable Business Solutions to Really Skyrocket Your Business!

Wanted: Ready-to-use business solutions to grow my business that are smart, simple and just right for my small business!

More and more, that seems to be what many of my clients were demanding of me, with increasing frequency.

Hello, I am Lorna Barrow, Founder of Impact Training and Development Services (ITDS).

I started this business more than 20 years ago because I passionately believed, and I have proven, that the best way for small business owners to grow their businesses is first to grow and develop themselves and then to do the same for their teams.

But when statistics for small business failure are compiled, the fact that the owners found themselves in situations where they were running $20m businesses with $5m mindsets or skills, is seldom mentioned, if at all.

In addition, I also know that it is a mistake to take “big business” solutions and try to resize them to fit your small businesses. You see, small businesses are unique and as such require unique solutions.

Therefore, it’s easy to understand why I have compiled 10 valuable business solutions which focus specifically on you, the business owner.

They are smart and simple and even as you begin to apply them, the results will be showing up in your business.

So if you want to be a successful business person, if you want to make money with your small business, if you want to make a difference in your niche, These business solutions are for you!

Commit to continuous personal development
Train and develop your employees/team
Find the “right” leadership for your business
Be flexible/adaptable in and with your business
Learn to improve your personal productivity at work
Build a strong personal network around you
Understand the big picture of your business
Take action to keep you moving forward
Learn key business communications skills & use them
Market, market and then market some more

Business Solution # 1 – Commit to Continuous Personal Development

The average business person understands acquiring a physical asset. It is tangible, it will be around for a number of years (hopefully!) and it will help them to make money.

Spending money on personal or professional development is first of all seen as an unaffordable cost and not an investment. Furthermore, you cannot readily understand the connection between your growth and the growth of the business.

But as many of my clients, colleagues and even family eventually discovered, your business will only grow as fast and as far as you grow personally.

Unfortunately, I know that few external forces are going to persuade you to begin process of focused learning. The desire has to come from within and is often triggered when you hit a wall.

But once you decide, it is up to you to make it a priority in your life.

Whatever is the trigger, here is a comprehensive approach to help you implement continuous learning, as a key part of your personal development.

I can’t stress enough that when you educate yourself, you make better decisions in your business, you can improve your bottom line faster and when you face problems, you can recover far more quickly than if you’re “uneducated.”

Business Solution # 2 – Train and Develop Your Employees/Team

Just as important as training and developing yourself, is training and developing your employees or team, even if there are as few as 2 persons.

And even in casual conversations with small business owners, they will agree that having well trained employees is indeed one of the smartest business solutions.

But in reality, they are fearful that if they invest too much in training, employees will leave, taking what they learnt at their expense with them.

My answer to this is usually: Have you considered what will become of your business if you don’t develop them and they stay?

In my opinion and experience, even when you have only 2 employees you need to be considering their development. This is an important route to growing your business fast.

Furthermore, when you can’t offer them the salary and compensation packages that a big business can, you can create opportunities for on-the-job training, coaching and mentoring.

These can prove to be equally valuable and attractive to your employees, especially when combined with other low/no cost employee recognition.

So don’t think of employee development or team building as an unaffordable cost; think of it as an unavoidable investment.

Solution # 3 – Find The “Right” Leadership For Your Business

There is no disputing that some form of leadership is a viable business solution for accelerating your success.

However, if you’re like your fellow small business owners, you are frustrated with the theoretical BS that is widely paraded as leadership.

You want practical leadership steps, strategies and tools that you can apply to get results fast.

And who can blame you.

In reality, leadership occurs in a specific context and in a particular environment. For small businesses, the circumstances which require effective leadership skills are constantly changing and owners must be able to respond appropriately.

Therefore, the one thing you can do right now that will revolutionise your leadership is to be able to recognize the type of team(s) you are leading.

To explain this, I rely on author, consultant, coach Kevin Eikenberry’s concept of teams, a view which I support whole-heartedly.

He advances the argument that there are basically two types of teams – a basketball (hockey, football, netball) team and a track and field team.

The “basketball” team operates as a single unit in which regardless of the position you hold on that team, its success requires you to be flexible and be able to perform any or many roles on that team at a moment’s notice.

The players depend on each other, acutely aware that goals are reached and success achieved only when they are working together as a single, coordinated unit.

The “track and field” team on the other hand, while representing the same club or organisation and in this regard can be considered a team, they really operate independently of each other.

What this means is that if enough of the team members perform at a high level, the team will win. But the actions of the sprinter is not dependent on those of the high jumper and neither is hers dependent on the cyclist.

What does all this mean for you?

Well, both types of teams can exist in your small business at the same time…and that’s okay. Your mission, should you accept, is to recognize which type of team or if both types exist in your small business, and which type of leadership you will rely on.

When you get this right, learning and applying the appropriate leadership skills to your business improves your productivity, enhances the closeness of the team and results in fully engaged employees.

In the fastest time.

Solution # 4 – Be Flexible/Adaptable In And With Your Business

Being flexible determines how and how fast you generate more sales, lower your operating costs, make more productive use of your time and of course strengthen ties with your customers and your team.

When you’re adaptable, you are able to respond to market and business conditions or any other challenges you meet in your business environment, if you are to remain in business.

Being flexible does not mean you are not true to yourself and your business like my girlfriend believes.

But it can mean that, for example, you recognise changes in customer preferences and change the business structure or the production methods to readily respond to these.

I can declare myself a firsthand expert on this.

I once had a candy business (Yes Me!) Before I began it, I did what I believe to be extensive market research.

Based on the number of schools in the area and my target market, I was pretty sure that my customer base would be made up of children between the ages of 5 – 13 and their parent and teachers.

When the business opened, I soon realized that I was sooo wrong about my ideal customers and products.

They turned out to be young men between the ages of 19 – 25, who bought gifts of sweets for their girlfriends, grandmothers and all the other women in their lives. And a ton of almond nuts for themselves since these are high in the cancer-fighting agent magnesium.

Instead of being flexible and or adaptable, I convinced myself that this was just a fad and the customer base I had envisioned and planned for will soon show up. Boy, was I wrong!

I eventually adapted but sad to say, it was too late.

So make flexibility and adaptability a part of your business model.

It’s really your #1 asset!

Solution # 5 – Learn How to Improve Your Personal Productivity At Work

For me, personal productivity is consistently completing those tasks or activities which move you closer to accomplishing your goals, in a manner that brings balance and ease in your life.

When you take it to work, it becomes another one of the business solutions which helps you to get more done in the time available to you without the accompanying stress.

Let me rush to warn you though, that multi-tasking does not equal increased productivity. Neither does “I’m so busy!” mean that you’re productive either. To me they just suggest that you’re not focused.

But personal productivity won’t improve by accident.

For some of you, it requires a painful separation of sluggish bum from comfy chair and actually taking action to get something done.

For others, it means a reluctant change in mindset. Instead of constantly trying to find time for important projects in an already busy schedule, you have to priotise and make time for what’s important first.

For me being productive means having an efficient productivity system that enables me to reach my goals in the shortest possible time.

And yes…I do have such a system. I call it my COPE system. It has only 4 steps and here’s how it can work for you:

1. Collect – and write down all your “tasks” or “things to do.”

As you do, you will realise that they might be some with a common theme. You can then group these into projects. For example, “return call to customer A”, “create a more friendly returns policy” and “fix problem with online shopping” can be grouped under a project called “Customer Care Activities”.

2. Organise – these projects into some logical or workable order.

I like to organise mine by which could have the most impact or give me the best results in a particular time frame.

3. Priotise – by identifying which projects you should tackle first.

This is usually based on your timeframe and how you had organised them. Now within each project you have selected, Also priotise which tasks you should do first.

4. Execute – do what must be done in a focused and relaxed manner.

If you have followed steps 1-3 up until now, you will be able to do what must be done in a calm and methodical manner.

I really have to tell you that the “execute step” can also be a harmonious blend of work, family and personal life. It can also be based on your circadian rhythm, how you “park” interruptive thoughts and ideas, your diet and how you develop completion criteria.

Yeah…improving your personal productivity is indeed another of the valuable business solutions!

Solution # 6 – Build A Strong Personal Network Around You

Building out a strong personal network is not only a business solution to grow your business fast, it is about building relationships through networking and making a friend before you need a friend.

It is surrounding yourself with Mentors, Coaches, Masterminds, Circles of Experience, Advisors, whatever you want to call them – to accelerate your business success.

I once conducted a brainstorming session on this very topic.

One of the participants wisely said that he is always amused when he hears people talking about “self-made this” and “self-made that” because right at the very beginning we were made by two parents!

Many of the others identified the need for some sort of support network to help them grow their businesses and improve their leadership. But they admitted they had failed to build one for two main reasons:

They were uncomfortable or even afraid asking for help
They believed that networking means that you are using people

I understand #1 because many of us were raised to be strong and independent and asking for help is seen as a weakness.

#2 must be some kind of a flaw in business and personal thinking because I can’t imagine living without my “circle of experience”.

So please get over yourself and begin building out your network. Here are some tips to help you:

When you begin to build your network you will need people in the following three areas:

People who have the answers you need:

Folks who can help you find a critical piece of software at a moment’s notice … or who are wired into your market in ways that allow them to know what’s working and what’s not … or who have solved business problems like yours for themselves or others … or who have a genius for brainstorming business solutions – you decide.

People who have the resources you need:

People who can send you qualified prospects when you need to hire “the perfect” employee for a particular position; business owners and executives who control crucial resources — TV production units, training rooms, computer equipment, and other assets that could come in extremely handy in growing your company.

People who can perform specialized tasks far better than you

— or anyone on your staff can: Graphic Designers, Business Breakthrough Specialists, Business Coaches.

But in order to really have a great team of providers and partners, you’re going to have to have to locate them, begin a relationship with them, add them to your network and keep them in your network, long before you’ll ever need them.

How hard is that? It’s up to you…

Solution # 7 – Understand the big picture of your business

Staying in business and growing your business requires you to see the big picture of your business.

Meet Benjamin – owner of a business with an annual 7-figure revenue, and one of the most successful of my clients.

But this was not always the case. In his own words, he had five businesses fail before he finally “got it”.

You see, for too many years, he concentrated on doing what he was trained to do and loved doing, paying little attention to the other aspects of business. Then he finally learnt to embrace the “big picture” of his business.

He began paying attention to things like key numbers, marketing, understanding simple finance, understanding his industry as a whole. Only then was he able to scale a business up to 7-figures.

Benjamin is not alone.

Several other small business owners have confessed to me that a serious flaw in their approach to business is that they had convinced themselves that learning about business goes against the very essence of being an entrepreneur.

And yet, they identify “seeing the big picture” as a business solution that can really speed up the growth of a business.

I do not question this contradiction, because over time I’ve come to realize that in most cases, this position is really a cover for fear of exposing weaknesses in the areas of business where their knowledge is limited.

So let’s think of your business as a puzzle of many pieces which you must fit together.

A smart way to fit a puzzle together is to first become familiar with the picture on the cover of the box – the big picture. Only this time you will write down a description of your business’ big picture.

Then, when you begin to fit the pieces together, you will have a good idea which pieces you will need to connect first and how this will help you to complete the “puzzle” in the fastest way possible.

For example, Let’s say that you decide that your key systems or “puzzle pieces” are Human Resources, Customer Service, Team Building, Personal Development and Marketing.

When you have a good idea of your big picture, you can better fit the pieces together so that it represents a valuable business solution.

If you approach your business development in this way as early in the process as possible, you will achieve your business growth maybe even faster than Benjamin did.

Solution # 8 – Take Action To Keep You Moving Forward

If you are going to really explode your business success, taking action to keep you moving forward, must be your business solution of choice.

Taking action against procrastination is also good for your personal development.

In addition, more formal research suggests that there are actually two types of entrepreneurs:

One that learns something and immediately applies it. Because they take action, they learn quickly (mostly through their own experience) what works and what doesn’t.

Then you have the second type — by far the larger of the two. They want to learn more and then some more and consider this and review that before they get started.

So they plan endlessly; always asking “What could go wrong” and attempting to solve problems before they occur so as to avoid making a mistake.

If you are a “consummate procrastinator” you need to replace your procrastination with action.

I know that inaction or procrastination which has strong roots in perfectionism has much to do with fear of failure. I had to work so had to overcome mine.

So what advice can I give you?

The same that one of my business mentors gave to me:

“You can’t let procrastination take you out! You have to keep moving forward! You have to be always taking action!”

Some of you may approach taking action like me – by jumping off the ship without a life jacket and learning how to swim before you hit the water.

The rest of you may want to take a more measured approach in which you will at least acquire a life jacket before you jump.

Remember:

It is not the reflection, the reviewing, and the studying that will make things clearer. In reality, this will make things even more confusing.

There is so much information out there that the more you search the more conflicting information you will find. Very soon you will be suffering from information overload – leading to even more inaction.

Your best bet?

Learn to embrace a “do-it wrong- fast” mindset, knowing that you might not get it right the first time, but knowing that taking action will create the clarity you want.

Solution # 9 – Learn the key business communication skills and use them

Want to really get that next-level breakthrough you and your business deserve?

Learning and applying the key business communication skills will definitely shorten the journey for you. With effective communication skills, you will be able to:

Communicate better with your teams
Improve customer/client relationships
Increase personal and team productivity
Solve problems better
Make decisions faster and better
Manage conflict more effectively

…and these are just a sample of the benefits.

Perhaps you’re wondering what are these communication skills? Well here’s a partial list for you:

Having conversations with clients, customers and employees
Public speaking
Listening effectively
Communicating in a crisis
Communicating assertively
Leadership Communication
Conflict management
Management communication
Writing effective emails
Communicating with the media
Writing reports

The question I love to ask small business owners is: How do you know your communication skills are poor?

Here are a few direct quotes:

There are times when I should have a face-to-face conversation but I send an email. I know I’m a coward but I can’t help it!

I hate having to give negative feedback. I find I put it off for as long as I can and then (when I do) the drama is off the chart!

Lorna, I know you’ve spoken to me about reacting emotionally instead of responding calmly but these people that work for me just piss me off!

I hate public speaking and I find I’m having to do more and more of it lately!

If another employee tells me I don’t listen, I think I will start screaming and never stop
I fall to pieces when I have to write anything – a proposal, a report, even a letter…

Now, I’m sure you know by now, fixing your communication problems is not something you can easily do on your own but it is something you must do.

Therefore, You need to take a proactive and comprehensive approach to dealing with this problem. Begin by identifying your flaws and also what communication skills you need to have to be successful as a leader.

Also, try to determine your communication style and the extent to which it is helping or hindering your business success.

One last thing, key business communication skills vary from person to person and will depend on the nature of your business.

Find out which yours are, continuously improve them and you will become an effective and admired business communicator.

Solution #10 – Market, Market, Then Market Some More

“Marketing! Marketing! You have to ask? – Marketing!”

I received some version of that answer from my mastermind recently, in response to the question:

What single thing you wished you’d done more of?

Truth is, I half expected that answer but not from almost the entire group and not with the amount of emotion.

But what is marketing?

Never mind the highfalutin definitions you hear, simply stated, marketing is everything you do to place your product or service in the hands of potential customers in return for a profit for yourself.

Even as they acknowledge marketing as a powerful business solution to explode their business success, many business people, like those in my mastermind group, are actually afraid of marketing and will avoid it at all costs.

I can relate to this fear.

When I started ITDS some years ago, the one thing I was sure I was going to outsource was marketing. And I tried. But repeatedly, the marketing experts just kept trying to market my business like I was selling products.

Very soon I discovered that no marketer I tried could quite translate the passion I felt in my belly and present it to the world as I wanted them to.

So, I had no choice – kicking and screaming – but to learn how to market myself and my business. This was necessary because however good your product and or service is, if no one knows about it, then you will make no sales.

For marketing services the approach has to be different. A service is an activity or benefit that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything.

Its existence may or may not be tied to a physical product. Incidentally, have you ever tried returning a service you didn’t like?

This means that effectively marketing a service depends on building a series of relationship at which you the service provider are at the core. This requires you to learn how to sell yourself. No excuses.

Here are 3 great marketing tips provided by Clate Mask, Co-Founder of Infusionsoft and Keap:

First – you need to be consistent in your marketing

The majority of small businesses are inconsistent in their follow-up. They might send an email or direct mail piece and then wait months before sending another one. Without consistency, your prospect has no idea who you are.

Furthermore, inconsistency can cause a perception of ineffectiveness. Nobody wants to buy from a company they don’t trust.

Second – establish your expertise

Too often entrepreneurs, struggling to survive, send emails and direct mail pieces simply to promote their products. Now, promoting your products is great. But you need to do a lot more than that with your marketing.

Your marketing messages should be positioning you as a respected authority in your industry. Be sure to include testimonials, endorsements, and awards your company has won, along with your sales message.

Third – educate your prospects

Your follow-up must be informative. You need to provide valuable information. If you’re showing up with no value, you’ll wear out your welcome fast. You need to communicate that you are on their side and deserve to be trusted. You’ll accomplish this if you provide them with accurate, insightful information.

Just remember, when your marketing becomes consistent, promotes your expert status, and educates your prospects, you will soon have prospects knocking at your door, rather than you knocking at theirs.

Want a business solution to really explode your business growth? Marketing will do it for you!

Conclusion

So there you have them…10 valuable business solutions to really skyrocket your business! And YES…they’re all about you!

The good thing is that they each stand alone and you can implement any one of them that will help you, in any order.

In case you miss them at the beginning, here they are again:

Commit to continuous personal development
Train and develop your employees/team
Find the “right” leadership for your business
Be flexible/adaptable in and with your business
Learn to improve your personal productivity at work
Build a strong personal network around you
Understand the big picture of your business
Take action to keep you moving forward
Learn key business communications skills & use them
Market, market and then market some more

Now PLEASE go ahead and select the one business solution that will bring you the most results the fastest.

The good thing is, whichever one you choose you would be doing # 8…Isn’t that great?

Remember…If you do nothing you are actually going backwards because those taking action will be passing you out…