Be Different or be dead

July 18, 2022

11 simple proven ways to grow your small business

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11 simple proven ways to grow your small business.

The Audacious Unheard-of Ways I Took a Startup TO A BILLION IN SALES are not applicable to large businesses, they are also relevant to small businesses.

Here’s what one small business owner says:

”Every concept Roy touches on in ‘Audacious Unheard-of Ways’ can be used in small business. This is about a personal journey to success. Roy teaches you not just how to focus but where to focus, how to cut the CRAP, that there is greater value in looking ahead then behind, and how to build respect and get results with your staff in his Bear Pit sessions. And the list goes on. If you are a small business owner and you really want to differentiate yourself to achieve better results Roy tells you how. Ask yourself, do you want to be DIFFERENT or be dead?” — Daniel Boisvert, A DiFFERENT Entrepreneur and Notary Public, Delta Canada

In my experience, these 11 Moves will put your small business on an growth trajectory that will leave you speechless:

#1. Strategy — Get your strategy done FIRST!
Don’t start chase tactics until you have created your strategic context. My Strategic Game Plan—‘Head West’ planning method—will get you there by asking 3 simple questions:
✔️ HOW BIG do you want to be?
✔️ WHO do you want to SERVE?
✔️ HOW do you intend to COMPETE and WIN?

#2. Competitive advantage — Create the ONLY Statement.
Declare a clear separation between your business and your competition using my ONLY Statement—“We are the ONLY ones who…”

Avoid CLAPTRAP and ASPIRATIONS in your competitive claim — BETTER, BEST, #1, LEADER, PREMIUM, MOST COMPELLING, MOST RELIABLE, GREAT TASTING etc.

They are aspirations at best and offer little to define how your small business is different from others.

Examples of unhelpful claims

“Canada’s largest and most reliable 5G network.”

“(XXX) offers the best coffee and espresso drinks for consumers who want premium ingredients and perfection every time.”

“We work hard every day to make (XXX) the world’s most respected service brand.”

“We’re in business to save our home planet.”

“To inspire humanity – both in the air and on the ground.”

ONLY examples

“St John Ambulance is the ONLY First Aid Advocate that provides safety solutions anywhere, anytime.”

“Roy is the ONLY coach and advisor who offers The ONLY Statement as a practical and proven tool to create a competitive advantage for organizations and individuals.”

Rules for ONLY

▪️The ONLY Statement must speak to the experiences and value you create for people—WHAT THEY CARE ABOUT—not the products or services you want to push.

▪️Keep it BRIEF. It’s a sound bite not a narrative. If it consumes a page it isn’t a viable claim.

▪️Talk to the specific customer group—the WHO— you are targeting, not the market in general.

▪️TEST your ONLY statement with customers and employees to ensure it is relevant and true. Tweak it based on what you learn.

▪️Consider your ONLY statement a DRAFT. Revise it ‘on-the-run’ based on changing circumstances.

#3. Cravings — Discover what your customers ‘CRAVE’.
Competing on the basis of what people NEED, unfortunately, is not always a winning strategy. There are too many competitors in this space and people tend to be price sensitive.

’CRAVINGS’ is a category beyond NEEDS. It refers to what people desire, want or wish for as opposed to the basic thing they need to sustain their lives. Of course, the needs category continues to expand as new products, services and technologies continue to proliferate.

And, as THE major benefit, the CRAVINGS business has fewer competitors and is less price sensitive which means margins are higher.

#4. Feelings — Focus on the CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.
Don’t do like everyone else and focus on how cheap your prices are. People will soon forget about what they paid for a product or service, but they will NEVER forget about the experience they had when they bought it.

Develop your service strategy as the way of deciding on the level of service you want to deliver.

#5. Loyalty — Focus on rewarding your EXISTING LOYAL CUSTOMERS.
Avoid the common mistake of putting most of your energy into acquiring new customers  by offering them special promotional deals and other ‘goodies’ you don’t make available to the customers who have supported you for many years.

You can grow your business by getting current customers to refer you to others.

#6. Policies. — Simplify and ‘kill’ your internal rules and policies—DUMB RULES— that annoy your customers and threaten their loyalty.

#7. Stop doing stuff! — Eliminate projects and activities—CRAP—no longer relevant to your strategy.

#8. Frontline people. — Stay in touch constantly with the employees—FRONTLINERS—who deal directly with your customers, and get their input on what’s working and what’s not.

#9. Don’t delegate. — Micromanage the activities critical to the execution of your strategy. These actions—for example architecting what the ‘customer moment’ looks like—should never be delegated to anyone. They’re the role and responsibility of the leader.

#10. Hiring. — Recruit people who have the innate desire and ability to ‘take care’ of humans. You can’t deliver memorable customer experiences with employees who don’t ‘like” people.
Hire for GOOSEBUMPS.

#11. Strategy execution. — Ensure every employee understands their specific role in executing your strategy—LINE OF SIGHT LEADERSHIP.
Every employee needs to understand what new things they have to take on, new behaviours they have to learn and adopt, and what old things they need to give up.

Amazing business performance happens when all the simple actions are taken to ‘light fires’ in people and deliver pristine strategy execution.

If you follow these 11 Audacious Ways, you’ll be surprised how well you can sleep at night!

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 7.18.22 at 03:04 am by Roy Osing
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