I have been in business for many a year now, nearly a decade at last count and like all entrepreneurs and business owners, I have had many successes and many failures, many headaches, heartaches, and the general joy and crippling despair of being in business, such is the nature of our game of choice.
Being a serial entrepreneur and current owner of multiple SME businesses, here are the three most important peals of wisdom I have learnt to play the game better than my competitors.
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1. Build And Test More Prototypes…Lots More
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The market is a unforgiving mistress and many a small business owners best laid plans have been smashed to kindling on first contact against the rocky shores of the “target customer”. This is fine if the “boat” in question is but a small rower, sent out to test the waters, quickly created and cheaply replaced. It is an altogether different story when the “boat” in question is a large and expensive galley, crafted over many months or years far from the real life dangers of the reef.
I have both fallen pray to building idea “boats” far too large before testing them in the waters and have seen far more of my clients make the same mistakes over and over again. The SME’s that succeed in this day and age are those that test quickly and test often, gathering real market feedback and adapting their designs to create a better boat, one that will navigate the waters far better than the competitions.
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2. Constantly Streamline Your Processes…As A Priority
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When you neglect your business, it gets fat. And not in the good, expanding profits sort of way. Cash flow may be the blood flow of your company though it is the systems that are the skeleton holding everything together.
In the early stages of a business there is seldom time to think about a diet plan over the long term. An extra document there, a new protocol there; in the short term you see very little affect on the business waistline and the belt still buckles on the second hole. Time, however, can be a cruel thing, especially to a business not focussed on cutting the fat, constantly streamlining the systems and working methods. If not kept in check the lean, mean, fighting machine you started with can very quickly become the fat, slow and incredibly lethargic sumo wrestle struggling to breath.
Protect your business by putting it on a diet of constant streamlining and be disciplined in keeping it there.
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3. Get Rid Of The Deadweight…Quickly And Unceremoniously
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Homemade blackberry pies are delicious, though it only takes a few bad berries to effect the whole glorious creation. In business, it only takes a few bad policies, people or customers to do the same to the whole organization.
Be vigilant in hunting out these bad apples and ensuring they don’t have the opportunity to get into the mix and sour the whole dish, or your business as a whole will suffer the consequences.
Customers are easy to ditch, policies more problematic and staff the most pain. Each have their own unique challenges. Remember though, you are baking the perfect blackberry pie and so cannot afford to have even one sour fruit in the mix or you risk losing out to your customers delicious apple turnover. Ok, i’ll stop with the fruit analogies.
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This article was written by Jonny Gibaud, serial entrepreneur and SME consultant specialising in helping small businesses grow and expand their offerings in the internet age. To find out more about him visit his website at www.jonnygibaud.com.
