I have 3 ‘golden rules’ of doing business that I often discuss with clients so thought I would write about them in a blog post. I’d love to hear about your business wisdoms, so please leave a comment or drop me a message.
Rule number 1: Is the effort you put in less than the results you get out?
This is a common conversation I have with clients. So are the results you get from an activity greater than the efforts you put in? They should be, and if they aren’t then I would question why?
If you apply this to business development (where this conversation happens most frequently) then does the effort you put into your business development activities generate greater results? In monetary terms, if you invest £1000 into marketing does it generate £2000+ return? The truth is, often we dont know, so measurement and understanding ‘what success looks like’ is crucial.
Most people get this concept and the logic behind it but don’t always apply it to all areas of their business.
Rule number 2: Don’t start a task if you’re not prepared to see it through to a logical conclusion
If we worked out how many hours we spend on an activity that never gets seen to completion, I wonder how much time we would win back?
So I have a rule that I will do my best to not start an activity if I am not prepared to see it through, and this takes me “having an honest conversation with myself” before I start something or ensuring I book enough time to do a job thoroughly enough.
In business development terms, this means if I send an email to a prospect, then be sure to follow it up, and follow it up, or if I promise to do something then be sure I do it.
We often start out with good intentions or lots of enthusiasm which quickly disappears as we “get busy” or get distracted.
Rule number 3: Remove “I’m too busy” from your day to day business vocabulary
If I got paid a £1 for every time I was told that “I’m too busy” to carry out a crucial business task, I would be a wealthy man!
“Being too busy” is often connected with being too busy (over) servicing clients, leaving little or no time to focus on future business planning – and guess what will happen in the not too distant future?
Or it could be “being too busy being busy” to carry out the core tasks they are employed to do!
So my 3rd golden rule is to remove this term from our business vocabulary and instead have everyone focus on their core roles & responsibilities.
So these are my current 3 golden rules, I am sure I can think of more but would love to hear about yours?