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Six Steps to a Profitable and Sustainable Business

Written by: Warren Coughlin

Article Overview: Introduction The information in this report is to help illustrate the key ingredients or principals that help make any business successful. These are not new principals or revolutionary in nature, but are time proven to work in all industry sectors (manufacturing, wholesale, technology, retail, service, etc.) through good economic times and bad. As you read this report, it is hoped that you will be able to identify areas of your business that may need to be addressed and possibly improved upon. The true value of this report, however, is not just to make you think but to motivate you to take Action.

Six Steps to a Profitable and Sustainable Business

Introduction

The information in this report is to help illustrate the key ingredients or principals that help make any business successful. These are not new principals or revolutionary in nature, but are time proven to work in all industry sectors (manufacturing, wholesale, technology, retail, service, etc.) through good economic times and bad. As you read this report, it is hoped that you will be able to identify areas of your business that may need to be addressed and possibly improved upon. The true value of this report, however, is not just to make you think but to motivate you to take Action.

Do You Remember That Grand Vision You Had

When You First Started Your Business?

Think for a minute. When you started your business did you want more than just a better income?. Did you want more out of life; more freedom, more time with your family, more security, the freedom to work or not work whenever you felt like it?

Do you have these things today?

Statistics Canada states that over 100,000 business will fail this year and that over 80% of business fail within their first five years of existence and that 80% of those that do survive the first five years will fail in the second five years. Even if your business is a roaring success financially, do you find yourself trapped in your business, wearing too many hats, running from one function to another, working too hard, and feeling like you’ve got to look after everything, because you can’t properly rely on your employees?

If so, there’s a reason for it. When you started your business, you were so wrapped up in the product or service you sell, you never expanded your focus to design a business that could run without you being involved in every aspect of running your business. You never freed yourself from the busywork and routines of running your business. You never developed a game plan for working "ON" your business and not just "IN" it. You have become a manager of many activities and master of none.

The result is that you are constantly frustrated by:

• Not enough sales and customers

• Not enough profits

• Not enough time

• Working longer hours than your employees

• The difficulty of finding and keeping good people

• Can't develop capable managers

• Inadequate cash flow

• Business depends too much on you

• Not enough take home pay

• Inconsistent operational performance

The key questions you must ask yourself are;

1.What is all this costing you, financially and personally?

2.What toll is it taking on your family and your health and life?

It’s as if you started building a car, but got so consumed with keeping the wheels turning, you forgot to build the engine. Now, whenever someone looks under the hood, they find YOU in there - Running, Running, Running - On A Human-Sized Hamster Wheel! And you’re exhausted!

What if, one day, you wanted to sell that car? Who would keep it running? Without you on the wheel, the buyer would have to climb in under the hood and take over! How appealing is that? Do you see the analogy? If your business depends on you (the owner) you don’t have a business but own a job and you cannot sell a job

Ask Yourself- “Do You Own A Business or Do You Own A Job?”

If your answer is that you own a business, congratulations, I would encourage you to continue to read this report to compare how your business measures up. If however your answer was that presently you own a job, sadly, in spite of the blood, sweat, and tears you’ve invested in your business, it’ll never be worth much to a prospective buyer. Things aren’t going to get any better until you apply the powerful business principals and concepts that the owners of McDonalds, Blockbuster Video, and Federal Express have used to build their businesses.

Don’t be intimidated by the size of the businesses I just mentioned or brush off the principals I am about to discuss as not applying to you because your business is not a Fortune 500 company. The size of your business does not matter; you don’t have to be a "big business" to make your company run efficiently, effectively and profitably. Action International and their business-coaching programs have helped more than 10,000 business owners around the world. All it takes is a realization on your part that the status quo of your business and your life is no longer acceptable and that you are open and willing to participate in changing how your business is structured and managed.

The benefit of improving the way your business operates is that you can enjoy more freedom, make more money, and have more control over your life.

The Key is to Make Your Business Run –

“Predictably, Efficiently, Flawlessly, and Profitably”.

The Action International Vision Statement reads;

“World Abundance Through Business Re-education”

The Action International Six Step Business Coaching Process explained below will help you improve your business. After all, being in business should give you more _______________!

( I will let you fill in the blank.)

Action Internationals Six-Step Business Development Process

Before you can begin to work "on" your business with our Business Development Process, you need to have a clear understanding of the following 5 points. It is important that as you read further that you keep an “open” mind. “Attitude dictates Performance” and closing your mind to time tested business best practices will greatly restrict improvement in your business and your life.

1. Success Requires an Entrepreneurial Mindset

Successful entrepreneurs focus on customer needs. They define a profitable opportunity as a better way of serving customers needs and they see the businesses that they create as the way to deliver the solution to these needs. Entrepreneurs have a clear vision of how the business must look and act at maturity to stay ahead of its competition and they build the business that way from the outset. Can you define your business with a unique focus on customer needs? If not, act now to develop your business with the end in mind, satisfying customer needs. This step will quickly focus you and your business on the correct road to success.

2. Marketing is an Investment

Your accountant will tell you that marketing is an expense. The entrepreneurial mindset views marketing as an investment. The greater the difference between what it costs you to acquire a customer and the lifetime value of the goods or services sold to that customer, the greater your profit potential and return on investment. Later in this article under the title Niche I will introduce the five key marketing leverage points in your business that if managed properly will rapidly improve cash flow, revenue and profits. It is important that you correctly identify the marketing strategies/investments that will keep you ahead of the competition.

3. Test and Measure

The basic difference between successful businesses and poor performers is that they test and measure everything that they do. It is impossible to play a game or manage a business without keeping score. An iatrical part of any business is to test and measure everything of significance in your business. You can then build a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) tailored specifically to be measure. This is the only way you, as the business owner, can continuously monitor all the key factors that determine growth and profitability for your particular business. Your KPI’s and your Financial Plan constitute the Management Control Plan for your business. This is like a Control Panel on your desk that enables you to track your progress. It will tell you what is going on in every key area of your business and enable you to respond quickly to changes and new situations.

4. The Power of People and Systems

Systems run businesses and people run systems. Systemizing the routine tasks in your business is the key to overall efficiency. People, however, are the business and contribute most to the success or failure of your organization. You must focus on building a team with a common cause and shared vision; a team with well developed interpersonal and communication skills, trust, support, commitment and energy. Only when the systems and people are effectively in place, can you, the owner, graduate from working in the business to working strategically on the business.

5. Leadership

History teaches us that Leadership is a Critical Performance Criteria. Whether it is world events (Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, General Norman Schwartzkoff), sports (Vince Lombardi, Joe Torrie, Michael Jordan) or business (Jack Welch, Warren Buffet) leadership is consistently the determining factor between success and failure. Why would you expect that the results and success of your business be determined any differently?

As a result, your thoughts, words and actions are the critical performance criteria for your business. As a result, how much time, money and effort are you investing in improving yourself. How much time do you spend examining your strengths and weaknesses, setting development goals for yourself, seeking outside advise.

Developing the entrepreneurial mindset, understanding that marketing is an investment for your business not an expense, consistently testing and measuring, acknowledging the power that people and systems bring to your businesses growth and success and the need for effective leadership are the first five key ingredients that successful business owners must possess.

Ask yourself, which of these ingredients do I need to improve upon and what difference will this make to my business and my life?

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