Wednesday, 7 May 2014

5 SECRETS TO SUCCESS part 2

      In this concluding part of this post, focus is on you, the business owner, the leader, motivator, authority, management, decision maker, etc. This part highlights your role and qualities you must possess to succeed.


1.    Focus on YOU
·        Integrity
Promise what you can deliver and refrain from giving excuses. People, staff and clients alike should see you as a man of your words and your word should be your bond. It is one of the fastest ways to ensure acceptance and repeat business from your clients. Referrals or and repeat businesses are guaranteed as 1 happy customer is bound to tell 10 others and vice versa. Your clients and staff must be able to trust you to assure loyalty and followership.

·        Quality of staff
You get what you expect. Knowledge is wealth. Train and retrain your staff to constantly be abreast of what is happening in the industry and how to be at their best. It’s unfortunate that most business owners have cancelled or jettison this area of their responsibility forgetting that your ability cannot exceed what you know. Always recruit the staff that understands and support your vision and also compliment you.

·        Focus on quality 
Ensure the best always. It will be beneficial in the long run as it will ensure return business and deepen the relationship with your clients. Focus on building relationships rather than just making a sale. Never engage in a price war in order to sell your product or service. Focus on quality and efficient/effective service delivery to drive sales.

·        Be Adaptive
Listen to the market and customers’ input and feedback. Be proactive rather than reactive. This puts you in the driver’s seat and on top of the market. Customer followership is definite as long as you are creative and quality service delivery is maintained.

·        Competence
Regularly seek to improve yourself by acquiring more skills and knowledge about the business, environment, clients, etc. Subordinates appreciate and respect a boss that knows and exhibit a substantial level of competence, even in non-official matters. Show good example, provide necessary support and intellectual ability. Lead by doing. Be ready to fill any gap and dirty your fingers but don’t gag your staff. Allow them to use their initiatives and learn from their mistakes.

2.    Source locally
·        Source for local support
Source your input to a great extent locally and spread the risk. Avoid using a single supplier or buyer as this puts you under their control and can jeopardise your entire operations. You are open to blackmail, threats and even closure based on the wimps and caprices of the supplier or buyer. Going beyond the shores opens you up to exchange risk and cross border risk if not well managed can be a clog in the wheel of progress

·        Choose the right TEAM
Ensure you share the same vision and drive with your team. Your Team consists of the board, management, mentors, advisers, employees, suppliers, buyers and any other group that has direct impact on your operations. The truth is that you cannot know or do everything by yourself. The support could be in terms of experience, advice, finance, etc. The bottom line is the purpose and vision of the team members must be synchronised and moving in the same directions with that of the business and not at cross purposes.

3.    Commit long term
·        Patience/Perseverance
You must be ready to go in all the way. As in every venture, it takes time to mature. Like a seed planted, you need to water it till it germinates and nurture it until maturity.

·        Implement right strategies and adopt right processes
Identify the processes and strategies that suites your position and situation, that can stand the test of time and can be easily transferable to others to ensure smooth operation even if you, the business owner is not available. It must be easy and simple to understand and also open to changes as things evolve. Focus on strategies/processed that build relationships.  This is the panacea for success.

These 5 secrets can also be applied to our daily lives once well understood and appreciated. As long as we are willing to learn, correct our mistakes and convert our weaknesses to strengths, our potentials are limitless. The secret to achieve true success is found in our daily activity. Knowledge they say is power.

“Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right”. Henry Ford


For clarification and comments: michael@bizadvisory.tk

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