Stay focused, your business depends on it!
How staying focused on your core business pays off in the long term.
Looking back at October 2008, who could have predicted the destruction that would come about from the gale-force events that ripped across Wall Street only a month earlier? The effects continue to threaten Main Street business communities. While the shopworn slogan states that one never steps into the face of a hurricane in order to curse the wind, now is hardly the time to draw down the sails. You need to chart a course for where you want to be this time next year, even if that course doesn’t follow a straight line. Despite the chaos of the past 12 months, these 11 lessons can help you weather the storm:- There’s no way a business development plan could have anticipated this kind of downturn. But the unpredictable climate is hardly a reason to scrap one’s business development strategy. Just the opposite: a good small business development plan provides resilience against adversity.
- You can’t win a race if you’re not aspiring to lead. Innovators never finish last. To become better at what you do, however, you must train. Work even harder to strengthen the weakest links in your company.
- Every business leader started as an underdog. Rekindle that spirit again. It’s easier to stalk than to be stalked.
- You’re not reinventing the wheel. You’re simply taking what you know, based on accumulated experience, and making your product more relevant to customers.
- The best plans are perfected during down times in the market, not during periods of easy money.
- The past year made you leaner by necessity, but make sure the fat you shed left you smarter and fitter, not so hobbled that you can’t take advantage of the opportunities ahead.
- Expansion is not merely a process of scaling up the physical infrastructure of your company.
- Get in on online advertising now, but do it incrementally. The old days of reaching customers easily through print (newspapers and magazines) aren’t coming back. You need to have an online presence, but on your own terms.
- While there’s a lot of noise on the Web that can drown out your message, the key to success is narrowing your focus to people who will listen. In this lull, take the time to cultivate and expand your personal contacts within the industry. Identify people online who already have a presence and an audience, and forge a relationship.
- Remember, some business relationships are linear, but more and more, strategic collaborations are asymmetric. You need to widen your perspective and court nontraditional allies on your flanks to help get the word out on what you do.
- Living and doing business in the hurricane zone comes with risks, but the rewards of trying to harness the wind are far greater. Happiest are those prepared for anything to happen. Rekindle that spirit again.
Copyright © 2011 Business.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.