Business 101

We get so caught up in the daily life of running a business, it?s easy to miss the forest for the trees.

Not that you have a choice! You?re fighting fires, handling a pissed-off customer, rending your face over an emergency bug-fix, the website just went down, and the accountant is coming tomorrow and the books are in shambles.

All normal. But still every month or so it?s nice to take a step back and see whether you?re missing a chance to make a more meaningful change to your business.

Here?s some things you can do:

* View your website/product/service through the eyes of a new potential customer. *Do informal usability testing with a stranger. You?re too close to your own projects!
* Find a decision about your product or your behavior which is really due to ego rather than making life better for your employees or customers, or rather than seeking revenue. *There?s no shame in having a big ego and it?s natural to not want to admit mistakes or change your position on things, but sometimes it?s the right thing for everyone.
* Delegate activities you?re still doing yourself because ?no one else can do them as well or as quickly,? but which don?t actually need to be done that well or quickly. *Delegation is hard, but healthy, and necessary if you expect to grow as a company and as a person.
* Do one thing to increase your company?s visibility on Twitter, blogs, Facebook ? wherever.
* Identify one person who could really help get your company more exposure, and who might be personally motivated to do so. *Then spend real time trying to contact that person.
* Find one ?number? in your business you know the least about (i.e. conversion rates, trial/sales rates, length of a trial, number of people who hit the home page and nothing more). Then spend time trying to learn more.
* Come up with one thing you could do that might increase conversion rates by 1%. Here ?conversion? can mean any part of the funnel from home page hit to downloads to CRM opportunities to sales. *Usually conversion rates are in the 0.1% ? 5% range, so just a single additional percent can result in a massive boost in revenue.
* Collect 10 pieces of empirical evidence about why your latest customers decided to give you money. *Use that to tune your website, ads, pitches, and marketing material to attract the next customers.
* Collect 10 pieces of empirical evidence about why people didn?t buy even when they were deep in your website or after they trialed your software. *The answer to more revenue lies with the folks who didn?t buy.
* Do one thing to prove to the world that you?re an expert in your field. *People like to buy from experts they trust.
* Identify one mundane, time-consuming tasks that you could outsource. *Even if it means spending money, it means you can spend your time on getting more revenue which will more than pay for the outsourcing.
* Quantify how much completely disposable cash you have in the company?s bank account. *Whether it?s $50 or $50,000, maybe you should brainstorm how to spend it to get more revenue.
* Defer something you?re working on now that really isn?t necessary to be done now. *Take a minute to reset your priorities. What?s really timely?
* Admit one thing you?re doing because of an assumption rather than because of hard evidence. *You have to make assumptions to live in the world, but it?s worth stepping back and challenging even the most basic ones.
* Identify anything you?re doing because of a ?plan? rather than because of hard evidence. *There?s no glory in following a business plan. Do the right thing with information at hand today regardless of any ?plan.?
* Identify choices that don?t ?feel? like the right thing to do. *If it feels wrong, it is. Do what?s right instead of what makes most revenue; in the long run Karma does work in business.
* Change your home page to be more specific in describing how you help your customers. *General phrases and wishy-washy statements don?t excite people or win customers? hearts.
* Give your customers something wonderful, for free. *A deal on a related product, a free book, even just a thoughtful article of interest to them ? give them something for free to show you care and they?ll reward you ten-fold.
* Take one step to become more visible in communities related to your business. *On-line or off-line, how can you be a part of other social networks?
* Further differentiate yourself from competitors rather than just try to ?kill? them. *Explaining the niche you unquestionably own is a better path to sales than trying to win every deal on every point.
* Congratulate yourself and your employees on the good aspects of the business. *We?re always battling problems instead of reveling in the good stuff; the good stuff is what makes business fun, and is kinda the whole point.
* Do something to invest in your customers? experience after the sale. *We?re so caught up in getting new customers we sometimes forget how to keep them thrilled one year later.
* Take on a project that you could complete in under a week, and really ought to, but you?ve procrastinated because it sucks to have to do it.
* Remove 5 blogs from your feed reader because they?re not worth the time, and add 5 blogs that increase your chances of having a successful business.

I hope some of these ideas inspire you to reconsider your priorities and shift your behavior. Don?t let fire-fighting or your personality get in the way of healthy revenue growth!