Recently, I served as a speaker at Melinda Emerson's Reinvention Weekend. The photo here was taken at the cocktail reception the night before the start of the conference. My topic as a speaker was How to Launch and Grow a Product-Based Business. At Reinvention Weekend, Melinda, also known as Small Biz Lady, delivered a great keynote presentation, which doubled as the public unveiling of the details about her upcoming book entitled Fix My Business: a 90-Day Plan to Get Back Your Life and Reduce Chaos In Your Business.
Melinda's book will be available for purchase in 2018. Meanwhile, I thought I'd share an overview with you. Of course, there is no way to cover everything you need to know about fixing your business in this article, but Melinda's presentation at the conference delivered a delicious foretaste of the goodness to come. Until then, you can marinate on these steps to fix your business, from Melinda Emerson.
Fix Your Business: 12 steps from Melinda Emerson
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- P-reparation
Get ready for success. Define what you want to do before you start doing it. A period of preparation can avoid a whole lot of problems down the road.
- P-urpose
Clarify your value to the market in advance of starting your business. Make sure your business fulfills a specific purpose so you're not twisting around in the wind trying to figure it out later.
- P-eople
Many small business problems are really people problems in disguise. Minimize your people problems by surrounding yourself with the right people. And remember, if you have terrible employees, your employees might have a terrible boss. Make sure you are growing your personal leadership skills so you can avoid being that boss.
- P-rofit
Don't be a volunteer in your own business. You may have a passion, but your passion needs to have a profit center.
- P-rocesses
Document and record things that happen in your business so that you can eventually create systems to ensure you are not the only one working. Don't be a bottle neck in your own enterprise.
- P-roductivity
Use automation as much as you can for things like email marketing, sales funnels, and social media. Eliminate as many manual processes as possible so you can focus on what needs your real attention and focus.
- P-erformance
It's important to measure how things are performing in your business so you know if you're getting results from your investments of time and money. For example, Google Analytics will tell you about the sources of your website traffic so you can focus your efforts on engaging people coming from those sources. Monitor sales numbers and marketing investments so you can do more of what delivers results and less of what does not.
- P-roducts
Know exactly what you are selling, and to whom. Claim your strip of land on the Internet. Stake out your territory and make sure you are relevant to the conversation at all times.
- P-resence
Manage your online presence well. Be consistent in your message so you can become known as a trusted source for whatever it is you have to offer. That's how you become known for something.
- P-rospects
Website traffic is great, but it's not enough. You must have a way to convert the prospects who visit your site into the customers you need to serve and grow.
- P-lanning
Clarify what you need to improve and get to work on those things with urgency and intention.
- P-erseverance
Success in business is rewarded to those who … “Stay strong enough, long enough.”
Yes, more tangible activities are important, but in order to do them, you have to be strong, and you have to engage in those activities long enough for them to make a sustainable difference.
Many people do the right things, but not for long enough periods of time. You need stamina to make it work long-term. Perseverance will be the golden key that ties everything else together for you.
Get More of Melinda
Make sure you listen to Melinda's small business wisdom on the Indie Business Podcast at this link.
You can also follow Melinda on Twitter and visit her website to make sure you are the first to know when her new book is available to purchase.
What do you think of Melinda's advice? Any guesses on what step twelve is? If you like this advice and have a friend or business colleague who may benefit, please feel free to share on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
- P-reparation
