3 Insanely Simple Steps to Keep Business Growth Painless & Productive
Leading a small company has its challenges. As the owner and CEO of one myself, each day is something I can get excited about. Each day can also bring some dread because I never know just what it will hold. There are lots of trials by fire and shoot-from-the-hip situations but it’s my experience that the unpredictability can be metered if you remind yourself to follow a trail.
You need good people to help you. A no-brainier yet, I’m still surprised at the number of owners/CEOs that think they can do it all and won’t delegate important responsibilities to others. You will crush, you won’t be effective and you’ll likely be pushing up daisies before your time if you don’t have a senior team you can trust.
Whether you’re making candles, drilling for oil, selling software or something in between—you have processes. They may not be perfect. You may have been handed them or perhaps devised them through years of experience, you may not even realize you have them, yet you do. And your processes need to be reviewed continuously. Not daily, but consistently.
If you begin to notice a number of hitches in the normal course of business, stop.
- Get your team together and run through each situation to find the common cause. There’s likely a theme that needs addressed which may change your process.
- If you decide it’s time to change a process, it’s your responsibility as the leader to frame it out.
- When you feel pretty solid about the framework, get the appropriate folks around the table to flesh it out further. You need your team’s input to put meat on the bones and gain buy-in from those that will execute the changes across their teams.
In the world of digital marketing, change is constant. There are days I feel like we’re strapped to a rocket in a round room. New technologies, tactics, channels, competitors, etc. will keep you on your toes. As you think about your own business situation, keep in mind that not every new, shiny thing is viable. Tried and true processes, or parts of them, may still have a place and too much change at once can be a bad thing.
If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re familiar with risk and are likely a fan of change. But your customers and staff may not be cut from the same cloth. Take it easy. Remind yourself to slow down and account for all of the moving parts. The trickle-down effect of too much change at one time can be brutal – especially if you missed something critical. (Or call me, I can tell you about it.)
If you step through your changes methodically and with purpose, there will come a time in the not too distant future when things smooth out and business growth continues. Now is the time to look at other departments within your company and roll through the same process review. Eventually you’ll get through most of them and feel satisfied with the outcome. Ah relief. Then buck up, because in a few months you’ll have to start the process reviews all over again. And remember, change it constant–but it’s good!
Writing this post made me think about some of the changes I’ve had to help steer and navigate since starting Oneupweb. It made me think of the people, the clients, the work, the offices we’ve lived in. It’s been an amazing, chaotic, exhausting, thrilling, painful, triumphant, transformative journey. And it keeps on surprising me.
If you’re marching your business forward and are looking for a marketing agency to help you drive growth, reach out and let’s see if Oneupweb can help. You can reach me by email (lisa@oneupweb.com), call direct (877.568.7477 x 101) or connect with me on LinkedIn. I look forward to it!
