1. Charge More
This sounds absolutely ludicrous. If it were that simple, why would you need to read this?
Well, it is a simple concept. For most businesses, if you raise your prices by 5% and you lose 5% of your clients, you have the same amount of revenue but with less work. Generally, most of the ones you lose might have been plain miserable to deal with.
Most business owners are so deep in the trenches they don’t have the time and brain space to really think about what they can charge. If you’re good at what you do, you’re almost certainly worth more than you think. Do yourself a favor and charge what you’re really worth.
2. Optimize Your People
There are two big truths about employees:
They are the biggest discretionary cost in almost every business.
You can’t live without them.
If you’re paying people, you need to get the most out of them. They need to keep your work flowing and free you up to do the things that really drive results - working on the business, marketing, product development - the things that make an owner a leader. Give your good employees responsibility, help teach them and hold them accountable, and let them do the day-to-day stuff for you so that you can bring home the bacon.
And if they aren’t doing what they need to be doing, no one has time for that. Make a change.
3. Plug Your Leaky Overheads
There are so many flashy things on the internet that seem like they are so awesome that we can’t live without them as business owners.
SOFTWARE! FANCY OFFICE FURNITURE! MORE SOFTWARE! EXPENSIVE CONFERENCES! EVEN MORE SOFTWARE!
As a growing business, these are all distractions that detract from you driving your core success. Look, we all need software, but you need software that fulfills your core business functions and helps you serve your clients. There’re ungodly amounts of other stuff out there, though, that will eat up your time and eat up your money. Be extremely selective in what software you allow into your business life, and cut out the stuff you aren’t actually using.
As for so many other things, the point isn’t to keep up with the business Joneses. The point is to serve your customers and grow to new heights.
When you’re off to the races, you have to be lean, mean, and focused on a strong finish; don’t burn up your much needed fuel on rabbit trails.
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