No business attribute is more important today as that of adaptability, as many, many businesses are on the brink of irrelevance … unless they change as fast as change itself. You need to have and try many creative ideas from business information as often as possible.
Can you change? Of course you can. Everybody changes every day. But how versatile, agile, and quickly can you adapt yourself and your organization to stay relevant in today’s society?
Organizations are always evolving. What’s different now, is that we set a new speed record of change on a daily basis. Technology gives us unprecedented possibilities. And this sea of opportunities is pushing the traditional bureaucratic, controlled and hierarchical organization into an identity crisis.
For decades, the dominant view of strategy was based on Michael Porter’s ideas about competitive advantage. In essence, he argued that the key to long-term success was to dominate the value chain by maximizing bargaining power among suppliers, customers, new market entrants, and substitute goods.
Yet digital technology blew apart old assumptions. As technology cycles began to outpace planning cycles, traditional firms were often outfoxed by smaller competitors that were faster and more agile. Risk-averse corporate cultures needed to learn how to “fail fast” or simply couldn’t compete.
The good news is that digital technology allows us to access more than ever before, but we still need to make the effort to reach out. In a networked age, competitive advantage is no longer the sum of all efficiencies, but the sum of all connections. So we need to work to design our organizations to widen and deepen those connections, rather than hamper them.
Here is an example: when Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, one of the first things he did was develop a marketing campaign to rebrand the ailing enterprise. Leveraging IBM’s long-running “Think” campaign, Apple urged its customers to “Think Different.” The TV spots began, “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes…”
Yet Jobs’s actual product strategy did exactly the opposite. While other technology companies jammed as many features into their products as they could to impress the techies and the digerati, Jobs focused on making his products so ridiculously easy to use that they were accessible to everyone. Apple became the brand people would buy for their mothers.
The truth is that while people like the idea of being different, real change is always built on common ground. Differentiation builds devotion among adherents, but to bring new people in, you need to make an idea accessible and that means focusing on values that you share with outsiders, rather than those that stir the passions of insiders. That’s how you win.
And it all starts with basic generosity and good intentions. Power no longer lies at the top of the heap, but at the center of networks and you get there not by vanquishing rivals but through cultivating friends.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, one of the first things he did was develop a marketing campaign to rebrand the ailing enterprise. Leveraging IBM’s long-running “Think” campaign, Apple urged its customers to “Think Different.” The TV spots began, “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes…”
The truth is that while people like the idea of being different, real change is always built on common ground. Differentiation builds devotion among adherents, but to bring new people in, you need to make an idea accessible and that means focusing on values that you share with outsiders, rather than those that stir the passions of insiders. That’s how you win
You need to implement these factors for business success.
Comedian Steve Martin, in his brilliant memoir Born Standing Up, says that he is often asked about the secret to his incredible success. His best advice for people is, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”
Being great (in the world of content marketing) means creating useful content that gets passed around, commented on, and linked to by other bloggers. Your content could be a great video series. It could be a fantastic how-to blog. It could also be an audio podcast.
“Be so great they can’t ignore you” is the core of what I teach my clients about online marketing. And creating content that is so good people just can’t ignore it is the first step you should take if you are just starting out, or if you’re not getting the results you want with your online efforts.
Your strategies for success do run out of steam, though. They get old and become ineffective. You need to keep refreshing them based on your anticipation of the next change.
Building a small business for failure? Certainly not. But results show many more failures than successes. In 7 out of 8 industry sectors.
From a November 2012 article by Scott Shane, his results showed a services sector rate of success of 47% and a retail sector success rate of 41%. For businesses started in 2005. Not very success-oriented, eh?
Why may you ask? Many reasons. Two of the top reasons … poor cash flow planning and not enough capital resources.
So what other actions can a small business take to improve its success besides having more cash as a safety net? Consider these 44 small business success tips to use to improve your business:
It is always a good idea to have a helpful checklist for reminders of improvements for your business. Here is one of the several checklists that I find helpful:
Knowing, understanding, and caring about your customer is … Rule #1
Always put your people first … they ARE your business
Be a talent hound … put a priority on finding the best people
Everyone is a marketer and … everything is marketing
Creating ‘WOW’ customer experiences … creates the best marketing
Establish and maintain clear value propositions
Be social and create conversations with customers… it’s all about customer relationships
Be adaptable … be a change agent … anticipate and embrace change
Make listening, observing, and continuous learning about the centerpieces … your team’s core competencies
Keep it simple … in everything you do
Ideal customers
You can’t be a business that is all things to all people. Do you know who your target customers are? Your ideal customers? If not, you need to get busy.
Business information … customer value
Look for customer value in places you might not expect to find it. Have you thought about building a synergistic alliance and relationships with other businesses? Relationships that create customer value that neither business could create on their own?
Consistency
Look to provide customer service that stands out consistently. Deliver that consistency always.
Customer follow-up
Promptly follow up with your customers will be noticed. Go the extra mile. And always, always, always keep your promises.
Little things
How many times have you surprised customers by doing little things that were not expected?
Here is a customer success story as an example. My favorite florist always insists on taking my vase of flowers out to my car and setting it up, so it won’t get knocked over. Consistently. A little thing, yes. But it makes a difference to me.
Remember, the more you engage with customers, the more you can own the moment. And the better your understanding of their needs and from these insights the easier it is for you to win new customers.
Focused business plan
It’s not clear to us why business plans are the way they are, but they’re often focused on too many things. If you want to maximize success, the key is to focus on five topics. We recommend dividing the business plan into these five sections:
Competitive analysis
Market research and analysis
Marketing plan
Financial plan and cash flow
Short versus long-term
Creator of change
Be a creator of change. Watch for trends in the market and what your customers are doing. Stay ahead of the change curve by adapting before you have to. Remember the status quo is usually your worst enemy.
Business information sources … network for support
Find local business leaders that can exchange ideas and support your thinking on a day to day activities. Activities like being a sounding board, idea generation, and offering lessons learned. They often see solutions that you can’t see. You can do the same for them. Create a large network and make it social … like a casual advisory board.
Work on right things
Sounds trivial, doesn’t it? But you would be amazed at how many of our clients have their priority lists inverted. Or work on things that should be ignored.
Trust your intuition
Tackle real problems on behalf of your customers, many of which may challenge the status quo. Be curious. Experiment on a small scale often and learn. Place lots of small bets to see what will work best. Don’t be afraid of unconventional paths.
Don’t get consumed
Be a team player … caring about your employees. Delegate and empower them to act on your behalf. Remember that you can’t do everything or be everywhere.
Learn to back away occasionally. Maybe an afternoon … sometimes for a day. Find a balance between work and life that works for you.
Business information examples … gain customer insights
Unlike big companies, a small business gives you the opportunity to interact with customers on a daily basis. Make use of these interactions by gaining a better knowledge of their wants and needs. Ask good questions, listen carefully, and take notes. You will be amazed at how eager many are to help and assist you in learning. Customer insights are one of your most valuable assets.
Build on these enablers, and you will find success … status quo is most often your greatest danger.
The bottom line
To be effective in this new era, we as marketers need to see our jobs differently. No more just focusing on metrics like clicks, video views, or social media shares. We must successfully integrate our function with other business functions to create entire brand experiences that serve the customer all the way through their experiences throughout the business.
We can do better. Much better. But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive brand experiences.
There can never be enough focus on continuous improvement in business performance, independent of how well the business is doing. It seems we all are looking to take our success to a new level. This is an excellent time to make a statement about their business and marketing. Changing before you have to is always a good idea.
There is a reason why some change leaders succeed while others fail. At some point everybody needs to decide whether they would rather make a point or make a difference and, in the end, those that prevail choose the latter.
