Читать книгу The Owner's Manual for Small Business - Rhonda Abrams - Страница 14

5

Strategy

Focusing on Your Focus

Whenever someone asks me to name the biggest problem for small business owners, my answer comes as a surprise. I don’t recite the expected litany of typical responses: paperwork, taxes, finding good employees. No, I reply with one word: Focus.

In a small business, there are so many different things to do, and so few people to do them, that an entrepreneur has to continually juggle priorities. It’s very different than working in a big company, where there are specialists for every product line, market segment, and area of operation.

At one of my workshops, one small business owner told me that throughout her work day, she thought of herself as having different job titles: Marketing Director, Chief Financial Officer, Director of Operations, shipping clerk, and so on. And she was an artist!

Handling so many tasks at once is exhausting. You’re constantly pulled in different directions. You’ve got a To Do list for each area of your business that could take up all your time. It’s very easy to end up feeling that you’re not succeeding very well in any of them.

Compounding the problem is that many of us are, in essence, running more than one business at once. Not out of choice, but of necessity.

For instance, a landscape designer might prefer to spend most of his time designing new gardens, which is business #1. But serving an entirely “one-time” clientele can mean expensive marketing (continually having to acquire new clients) and might not provide sufficient stable income. So, he might wisely decide to also offer ongoing garden maintenance—business #2. Since he doesn’t live in a sunbelt state, his business is seasonal. So he also offers snow removal—business #3. Eventually, some of his customers ask him to install and remove their outside Christmas decorations. Since that’s more predictable than snow removal, he adds and starts marketing that service. Business #4.

Adding each of these “businesses” makes sense, but it can make an entrepreneur schizophrenic. After all, our hypothetical landscape designer really wants to be creating inviting gardens, yet he spends part of his time fixing electric lights on reindeer on rooftops.

While I’m not dealing with twinkling Santa Clauses, I face the same dilemma. I own and run a publishing company. That’s my primary source of income. Business #1. But I’m also a speaker for conventions and conferences. Business #2. Taking up a lot of my time is writing books. Business #3. And you thought all I did was lie in a lounge chair by a pool, sipping a tropical drink, effortlessly typing out 700 words of expertly crafted business insight for my weekly newspaper column. Business #4.

I’m a big believer in finding a niche and sticking to it. As a business strategy, being highly focused makes it far easier to succeed.

But, you don’t want to have all your eggs in one business basket. If you’re too dependent on one client, or even one product line, you’re very vulnerable if there’s a change in that market.

What’s an entrepreneur to do?

Make certain you have an overall concept of your business that logically covers the different aspects. For instance, the landscaper actually runs a company designing and maintaining outside spaces of clients’ buildings.

Develop separate business and marketing plans for each “business line.”

Create separate To Do lists for each line, so you can see where each of them stands.

Don’t be too hard on yourself. Remember, it really is hard to run so many businesses at once.

Your Mission Statement

“If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you’re lost?”

A Mission Statement is a written document that makes clear what your company does, and where it is going, and enables everyone involved in your company to share and understand the mission.

A Mission Statement doesn’t have to be long. Sometimes a relatively brief one sums things up best. By selecting a very small number of items, you send the message that these are your company’s highest priorities.

The key elements of a Mission Statement:

A brief description of what you do (especially important for new businesses as an anchor)

A vision of what you want to become

The philosophies and values that will characterize your actions

Key strategies for reaching your goals

What distinguishes you from your competition

A Mission Statement only achieves value when management and employees use it as a touchstone. Share your Mission Statement with all those who have a stake in your company: employees, customers, shareholders, even suppliers and distributors. You want them all to know what you’re trying to achieve. Of course, nothing proprietary should be included in a Mission Statement.

Keep in mind that your Mission Statement can evolve over time. As conditions change in your industry, the economy, or your management style and beliefs, you can go back and re-examine and revise your mission.

Developing Your Strategic Position

During my first few years as a management consultant, I helped business owners learn to improve their operations and marketing. I helped entrepreneurs learn how to increase their profit margins and design more effective brochures. In other words, I helped them with the nuts and bolts of running a company. Over time, I realized that nuts and bolts aren’t enough.

In today’s increasingly competitive and constantly changing business environment, it’s not enough to know how to run a business. You have to have a clear understanding of what business you’re really running. You need to find a way to meaningfully differentiate yourself from the competition and create a bond between you and your customers. What you need is a clearly defined strategic position.

Today, defining a strategic position is as important for the proverbial “mom and pop” small business as it is for a high technology company. I learned this from one of my very first clients, a florist. Although this business was located in a neighborhood storefront and might be perceived as just another “bucket shop”—a place where people pick up a dozen flowers on their way home from work—in fact, they specialized in exquisitely designed arrangements for high-society weddings and events, often importing unique flowers from Europe or the tropics. On any given day, however, you might walk into their shop and not be able to find so much as a dozen roses or daisies. They didn’t try to be all things to all people.

This type of positioning better equipped my clients to deal with increased competition as both supermarkets and discount warehouse stores began selling cut flowers. They were clearly different from their competitors.

A strategic position differentiates you from others. It shows you have something to offer that’s unique, special, and difficult or impossible to replicate. When defining your company’s strategic position, look at:

Industry trends and developments

Competitive opportunities and openings

Changes brought through new technologies

Your strengths and interests

After a few years in business, I had to struggle with defining my own strategic position. I had been doing a wide variety of management consulting, taking whatever came along. But just hanging up a shingle and saying, “I’m a management consultant” was like the florist who says, “I sell flowers.” Yeah, me and who else?

So I started clarifying my company’s position. By coincidence, I had attracted a number of law firms who needed advice on improving their marketing. I came along at just the right time to meet the new trend in the legal industry of more actively courting potential clients. After working with a few law firms, I realized I could easily develop a strategic position, a specialty, in marketing law firms. Eureka!

There was just one hitch: I was bored out of my mind. Even though there was an excellent fit with industry trends, market needs, competitive openings, and my skills, the work just wasn’t a good fit with my interests. Instead, I chose to differentiate my practice on the basis of the nature of the service I offered—business plan development—rather than the market segment.

Your company’s strategic position can be based on your market niche, type of product or service, quality of customer service, pricing, convenience, or anything else that will significantly distinguish you in a meaningful way from the others out there who offer similar services or products. There’s no one “right” position, and your positioning will change and evolve over time. But defining your strategic position is a critical way to answer that nagging question, “What business are you in?”

Finding Your Niche

We’re all familiar with the concept of specialists. If you discover you have a heart disease, for instance, you’re going to make an appointment with a cardiologist. After all, you want a doctor who has specific knowledge and experience with your particular problem and concerns. But have you ever thought about becoming a specialist yourself—finding a specific niche for your business to serve?

Imagine, for instance, that you wanted to start a housecleaning service. In most communities, there are hundreds of housecleaners. You’d have lots of competition.

But what if you specialized? What if you only used natural or non-toxic products? Then, you might name your business something like “Healthy House Non-Toxic Cleaners.” You’d advertise in publications or join organizations serving customers who are particularly concerned about keeping their homes safe—perhaps parents of young children or animal owners. Assuming there were enough such potential customers in your community, you’d have an instant way to set yourself apart from the competition.