Most often in life, the hardest part of any challenge is just getting started. The age old adage says that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but before you embark on your journey towards improving your business, you’d better make sure you are headed in the right direction. And everyone seems to be constantly asking themselves the same question. How on earth does a leader improve their business? It’s such an open ended question that many are left chasing one idea after another, only hoping that something will work. Instead of sinking in a quagmire of indecision because you have too many options, consider the following proven ways to start improving your business for the rest of this year.
Creating a Plan for the Future
If your company lacks a business plan, one of the first things you can do to improve your business is to chart out a path for the future. Central to the idea of business planning is goal setting, and not having plans and goals for the future is an invitation for the competition to mop the floor with your business. This is a good place for most businesses to start, and it is absolutely essential to analyze the previous year’s business plan to see what worked and what didn’t. By focusing on areas that bore the most fruit and pruning away endeavors that were futile, your business will already have a head start for the coming year.
Finding the Pain Points
You can’t ever hope to solve a problem unless you can identify it in the first place. Part of what separates good organizations from great organizations isn’t only knowing where their strengths lie, but also their weaknesses. One of the simplest and most effective ways of identifying internal pain points is to open up a channel of communication between leadership personnel and employees through employee surveys. Often times leaders miss pain points that can be identified with employee surveys because they aren’t present in the trenches in their day-to-day work life.
Improve Leadership Skills
Leaders are central to the success or failure of any business, and leaders of your organization need to make sure they are doing everything in their power to constantly improve. Even if your leaders are confident and competent, there is always room for improvement. Just about every business stands to gain value from business leadership plans, training, and development, but too many forgo the opportunity because they’re too busy. However, leadership personnel who aren’t reaching their potential can negatively affect your bottom line.
Seeking Assistance
Taking action to improve your business is no easy task. All too often, the largest hurdle is knowing where to start. Instead of meandering through the next quarter without a clearly defined plan for improvement, contact John M. Ruh and Associates. Specialized consultation is only a phone call away, and we want to help your business reach its goals.
Written by John Ruh
John M. Ruh and Associates are mission based business advisors who partner with growth oriented leaders to create the right P.S.T. support: the right People, the right Structure and the right Tools.