Business owners want their companies to deliver the results they want. Do you know what you want? I’ll bet at the top of your want list is more money, freedom, time off, wealth and fun! You want to build the best company in your marketplace that makes more net profit than your competitors, have excellent managers who run your company, loyal customers who give you most of their work at your price, allow you to build equity, generate passive income, and gives you several months off every year to enjoy your life.
But do your everyday actions, activities and priorities deliver what you want? Probably not. Most continue to do the same destructive things which keep you from ever achieving your dreams and reaching your goals.
Is Your Company Mediocre?
Are you really willing to do what it takes to get your business to work the way you want it to? Or are you stuck, afraid to make a move, unsure what to do, unwilling to try new things, not able to trust your people and comfortable with mediocrity. Mediocrity is owning a company that makes little or no net profit, competes on price, doesn’t have a unique differentiating factor from its competition, and doesn’t deliver what the business owner wants. Are you satisfied with being mediocre and continuing to struggle to keep it afloat?
Where Are You Headed?
Are you ready to hit your goals, earn more, work less and live the life you want? Most business owners don’t have a specific destination or road map to get where they want to go. They work as hard and as fast as they can trying to make headway against all odds. And they don’t know where they’re going. This causes frustration for the owner, managers and employees who try to fly faster, make a lot of waves, and go around in circles.
You know what you need? You need something to shoot for. You need a goal. Here’s a goal you have been striving to reach for years: Keep doing more! When you keep doing more, you stay busy and never run out of things to do. Why do you need specific direction? To achieve the results you want, you must know where you are going and why.
Measure What You Want!
Measure what’s important to you. Paying your bills, invoicing customers and keeping your checkbook balanced isn’t enough to get ahead or be the best at what you do. In everyday life, you measure your weight, blood pressure, miles per gallon, the Dow Jones average, who won the football game last Sunday, or the dollar amount on your paycheck. What measurement indicators will tell you if your business is on track, serving your customers, achieving your goals, building wealth or enjoying your life?
Aim At What You Want!
Start with what you want to accomplish. The number one stress business owners experience is from not knowing where they’re headed. What do you want and where are you headed? Next, how will you achieve your goals? If you depend on hard work to deliver what you want, you’re going to be disappointed every time. Then set up a measuring system to keep track of your progress toward your targets.
Charge Higher Prices!
The long-term solution to achieving your ultimate goal to earn more and work less is to charge a higher price for your services and products. When you charge higher prices, you will also make higher gross profit margins. This will create more money to spend on an empowered management team and full-charge trained employees. It will allow you extra cash to invest on improving your operations, finances, accounting, marketing, sales and customer service. To charge more, you must strive to become the leader in your market.
Develop Loyal Customers Who Will Pay More!
Another way to differentiate your company is to have incredible loyal customers who deeply trust you and your company. And because of this trust, they know you’ll do a better job than any other competitor in the marketplace. Providing good work will not set your company apart from your competitors as they also try to do a good job.
Developing and building trust takes a concentrated systemized effort and program. To carve out the time to build loyal customer relationships requires you to free up 33% of your time. To do this you’ll have to improve your company, management team, systems, operations and service. Are you willing to do what it takes to build customer relationships to increase your profit margin and get what you want?
When your company works and delivers what you want, you feel great. Your company is running on all cylinders. Stop making excuses and settling for less than you can accomplish. Take this challenge to move beyond mediocrity. Do what you must do to earn more, work less and live the life you want.
George Hedley, CSP, CPBC, helps contractors grow and profit as a professional business coach, popular speaker and peer group leader. He is the author of “Get Your Construction Business to Always Make a Profit!” and “Hardhat BIZSCHOOL Online University,” available on his website. Visit www.hardhatbizschool.com for more information.
