Like many business owners, you may feel you’re too busy to network while you’re running your business. But if your goal is to grow and build your business rather than just run it, it’s vital that you find time for networking. It’s an investment in your future.

Great mentoring will open doors, set direction and help you achieve your goals.

When you’re in the day-to-day of running your business and fighting fires, it can be hard to keep your eye on the big picture and focus on your goals. Having a mentor helps with this – not to mention giving your business a much higher chance of succeeding!

defining your vision, mission and position

The most important thing you need to do as a business owner is define your vision, mission and position.

• What is your vision (what you want your business to be)
• What is your mission (your purpose and values)
• What is your position (what is unique about your business and offering, and what differentiates you in the market)
  
  

You need to do this whether your business is just yourself, or you have a team. And whether you’ve just started or whether you’ve been going for years. Believe it or not, there are large, long-standing businesses that operate without one, two, or even all of these things!

YOUR WELL-BEING - THE KEY TO A BETTER BUSINESS

Today we understand that to truly become the successful person we envision for ourselves, whether in business or family — we must achieve the essential component of any productive modern lifestyle: wellness.

Wellness, as it turns out, has always been the key to achieving and sustaining success, and it also holds the potential to exponentially grow our economy. It’s also a concept that’s driven a recent, widespread lifestyle renaissance. So how can we apply it to the workplace and your business?

Most businesses spend a lot of time and money trying to win new customers, and not very much on keeping the ones they already have. But that can be the wrong way around.

It’s generally accepted that it can cost up to five times more in marketing expense to acquire a new customer than it is to get an existing customer to buy from you again; not to mention being up to 50% less effort and resource to sell to existing customers than to brand new prospects.

Time – and the lack of it – is undoubtedly one of the most challenging resources for any SME or small business owner/operator to master. When you’re striving to get your business to the level you want, it can often feel like you’re working long hours every day and trying incredibly hard for little return.

As entrepreneurs, we tend to want to take a “hands-on” approach to everything. However, while this work ethic is what inspires us to reach for the stars, it can also be holding us back.

I wanted to start by talking about the importance of having a business plan… for your business. I emphasised that last bit, because it’s vital to what we’re talking about - it has to be a plan for your business. You can have a standard format, but you should not have standard content. There is no one-size-fits-all formula for writing a business plan.

I often talk about the importance of knowing your ‘why’. What is the purpose or reason for being of your business? Why are you doing – often at great effort and expense – what you’re doing? You need to be able to answer this before you can even start your business plan. Once you have, then developing your business plan will be like a roadmap for your business to achieve your objectives and vision.

A thorough business plan is priceless for any business, and if you’re trying to grow your business in a crowded marketplace, it could be your biggest asset.