Written by: Caroline Murphy, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Whilst owning your own business can be many things, exhilarating, profitable, exhausting, repetitive, it is never boring.
However, many business owners can feel that whilst they may love the work they produce, running a business can be hard, and very often, it can feel like the business is running them.
So, what can a business owner do to have more control in their business?
So many business owners start in business because they are good at creating something or they are highly skilled in their career working for someone else. But this does not mean that they will naturally be good at running a business involving this creativity or skill.
There are many skills and processes in business that must be learned for the business to survive. So, here are some things you can do to change how you run your business so that it is working for you and not the other way around.
Remember: These are three tips, not an exhaustive list.
1) What is YOUR Version of Success?
You need to define YOUR version of success, and the keyword here is YOUR. Not your spouse or partner, not your parents, siblings, friends, social media, or the man on the street. It’s YOUR version.
What does the successful version of your business look like to you?
Do you sell your product locally, nationally, or internationally?
Do you have lots of employees or just a few or just you?
Do you only want to work a couple of days a week, or are you happy to work more?
This is the fun part where you get to imagine, dream, and vision your future. This work is vital, though, because how do you start and go on a journey if you do not know where you want to go? How will you make any business decision if you cannot consider? How will it impact your end goal? You do not need to know every step of how to get to your version of success at this stage, that work will follow, but you do need to know where you want to go.
2) Do, Review, Plan, and Repeat
There comes a time when the dreaming and visioning have to stop (for now anyway), and the doing has to start. You can only achieve your success by actually doing. Once you have done a task, a sale, or an event, you need to review it. Here it is important to make sure that you have your metrics done. For example, how many social media followers did you have before the task, and how many do you have now? What was your customer feedback, where are your opportunities for improvement?
Then you plan how to do it better the next time. Very rarely, if ever, does a business get it 100% correct in the beginning, and experience is truly a great teacher. It is a continuous process of doing it, reviewing it, planning how to do it better, and doing it again until you get it so right that your customer experience is consistently great, your product or service is consistently brilliant, and you are being paid consistently at a price you are very happy with.
Only by doing will you know what works for your business. We can all be afraid of the unknown and afraid to put that part of ourselves and business out there to the real world if people don’t like it or it doesn’t work or sell. Or worst of all, failure!
But imagine what a dis-service you might be doing to the world, your local community, your customer if your business did not exist? What experiences, service products, memories people wouldn’t have if you were not in business.
So, unless you actually get out of your comfort zone and keep doing, reviewing, planning, doing, reviewing, planning, then how will you ever achieve that version of your success and create a business that works for both you and your customers. It may not be easy but stick with it, and it will be worth it.
If you need more inspiration to keep trying and doing, check out Oprah Winfrey's story or Walt Disney or Tomas Eddison.
And remember the quote, “What if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?” – Erin Hanson
3) Know Your Figures, Know Your Figures.
This is such an important aspect of running a business, and yet many business owners shy away from it or leave it to the accountant to deal with. This is usually because it may not be something that comes very naturally to business owners, but it is a skill that they must become more comfortable with.
You may be excellent at producing a product or providing a service, but not how to produce a set of accounts. But don’t worry, whilst you don’t need to be a financial wizard, you do need to know the basics, and you do need to have an understanding of where your business is now, today. Going to your accountant with invoices and receipts for last year’s trading won’t help you know where your business is today. That information is historic.
So, what should you do?
Be aware of your business’s costs. The cost of absolutely everything, not just the obvious like premises, raw material, packaging, employees’ wages, but also the hidden and sometimes forgotten costs like utilities, insurance, delivery costs, profits, and your wages. So many small business owners forget to include their wages as part of their business costs. It is vital that you get paid, as probably one of the main reasons you went into business was to be better off financially.
Other important habits to develop are regularly checking your actual prices against your costs, your actual sales figures against your predicted ones, keeping an eye on cash flow, and having processes for collecting money and paying suppliers.
Knowing your figures and your financial status will have a much stronger foundation for building your business and its future. There will be no nasty surprises, and you will feel more in control and more confident.
These are only 3 tips to help you be more in control of your business, and there are many more, but this is a good place to start.
If you want to learn more, I am running a FREE workshop on Thursday 15th April 2021 at 1 pm to help business owners think more like a REAL BOSS and have their version of success.
Caroline Murphy, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Caroline, is a straight talking and practical Business Mentor & Coach. Through running her own Award Winning Business she now helps other Business Owners to define what their version of Success looks like and helps them to develop a Roadmap to get there. She is a true Champion of all her clients and believes that we can all live the life of our dreams!! Contact her today to see how she can help you live your dream life.
