Through the work we have done with hundreds of business owners and the experienced gained from building our own businesses we have learnt that there are seven key barriers preventing business success.
1. The Owner
Yes that’s us! We are our own worst enemy. Think about it; we didn’t learn how to be a business owner at school. We weren’t able to apprentice for the job before taking over. When we first became a business owner we had neither the knowledge nor experience. We would never have hired ourselves for the position:-) And on top of all that we don’t have the time to do everything that must be done.
2. People
A business is not a business until it has more than one person. A key barrier to success is not being able or willing to find the right people to do those things that need doing but shouldn’t be done by you! These do not have to be full time employees with generous benefit packages. Today we have many options. Part time assistants; virtual assistants; web sites like odesk.com; out sourced work and so on.
3. Money
Business growth devours money. Money for the people we must bring on to overcome Barrier #2. Money to build a web site. Money to move into an office. BUT not only do we need money we must also manage our money. A lack of good financial management has killed many large organizations; it is equally as fatal for small businesses.
4. Customers
I am afraid the truth hurts ~ despite the wonderful products we have to offer, despite the superb quality of the service we provide, people are not going to flock to our door. They have to be enticed. Not only must there be effective marketing strategies to get their attention there must also be sales campaigns to help them buy. Yes, as I said the truth hurts. We need customers and to get customers we must sell! Actually we like to say “bring them into our community”.
5. Focus
You are a business owner and so you love building successful things. You get easily distracted by new exciting shiny objects. You are never short of great ideas and so it is all too easy to lose focus and chase the new idea. Losing focus on the destination, losing focus on the core business, losing focus on the important activities will prevent business success.
6. Processes
The reality is that a business is just a bunch of processes that allow us to profitably produce and distribute our products/services in exchange for money. The key word is “profitable”. If the processes don’t work the business won’t work. By nature business owners are not great business analysts but time and effort must be expended to ensure that processes are in place and are working.
7. Plans
Philip Orsini (author and successful business person) wrote “Companies don’t fail because they grow. They fail because they don’t plan their growth”. Without plans there is no destination, there is no road map to follow, there is no focus (there’s that word again). Your success is left to luck or even worse miracles. As Peter Drucker ~ the greatest of all business gurus ~ said; “Miracles are great but they are so unpredictable”!
