Up Your (Business) Game

We all want our businesses to be the best in our chosen Niche. However, when we work in a small business, or alone, it can be difficult to find tools and techniques that enable us to consistently improve our performance.

10 top tips to inspire

• Attitude - Always foster an attitude of greatness in your own performance and in those you work with: Suppliers; Customers; Peers; Colleagues
• Avoid Mediocrity - Good enough – is the enemy of great – resist the temptation to lower your quality standards – even for the lowest paying customers. If necessary, sack customers who pull your performance down.
• Belief - Believe in yourself and in your own ability.When you start to doubt yourself, speak to a trusted advisor, family member or mentor – or pick a task from your to-do-list that will make you feel better about talents.
• Enemies - War drives innovation – as does any major struggle. Choose a worthy enemy to compete against or to bench-mark your performance. It may be a business you actively compete against, or you could choose a business like your own in another town to measure your business against.
• Colleagues and Associates - It is often said that our own income is the average of the people we associate with. Find people who make you stretch your business performance. Choose networks for the talented people represented as well as for the business opportunities. Forge alliances with people who are better than you in some business aspects – you will probably excel in an area that they find difficult.
• Defy Convention - Conventional wisdom is often wrong – base decisions on facts and data. Avoid “gang mentality” approaches to business – they are often based on prejudice and fear – rather than on evidence.
• Inspire Others - Spend at least part of every week inspiring others in some way. Your own confidence and attitude will benefit from your generous actions.
• Technique - Practice – school yourself on key techniques. Measure your performance. Act on your measurement to improve your ability to work in each of your specialisms.
• Training - Get training on any techniques that you struggle with. Olympic athletes have lessons to improve their technique – there is no justifiable reason for assuming that you know so much about a topic that you will not benefit from some well thought out training and skills development.
• Youth - People who are straight out of school, college or university can have a better grasp of professional areas that we are too arrogant to revise. Take advantage of their enthusiasm and learn the things you have forgotten as well as the more modern techniques developed since you trained.
  

Good luck with upping your business game.