It’s no business owner’s intention when they start out that their business will turn into “just another job”, right ? But it happens so easily.
Without realising it, the energy sapping result of fighting the fires in your business every day has eaten away at your ability to run it like a proper investment opportunity. Where you’re maximising your returns.
Does this ring any alarm bells for you?
How can you tell whether your business has turned into ‘a job?’
Here are 10 signals. Answer them Yes/No as honestly as you can…
1. There’s no active plan or growth strategy for the business anymore.
2. You’ve stopped regularly reviewing your product offering and your pricing.
3. You’re not sure which products are the most profitable.
4. You haven’t refreshed your marketing in some time.
5. You’ve stopped asking your customers for their feedback.
6. You’ve got no weekly business performance targets in place.
7. You’re struggling to maintain revenue/turnover.
8. You’re exhausted and your motivation has severely dropped.
9. You feel like none of your staff are on your side anymore.
10. You’ve got no-one helping you on the strategy side of your business.
If your honest answers are YES to 4 or more of the above questions, then your business is at risk of becoming a “place to go to work” rather than a growing vehicle for maximising returns for you.
But its never too late to turn the situation around.
In my experience getting help to refresh your thinking is the key. Taking time out to look at your long term objectives. Find someone who you can trust to help you as a sounding board and start flushing out improvement strategies around each of the 10 areas above. Question everything. Put a plan in place. Then start implementing. Then begin measuring and monitoring regularly.
If you can take regular time out for planning and questioning and continue to implement small but continual improvements week by week you should start to see noticeable improvements.
