photo by looseends

Do the right things and be patient. That is easier said than done. As most of us are painfully aware following the Kansas City Royals has been one of the most challenging tests of perseverance and patience in the history of professional sports. The 2011 season is young, but it appears Dayton Moore’s plan of doing the right things (developing young talent through the Farm System; the foundation of the franchise) and patiently waiting for the results is starting to payoff…stay tuned and read on.

Approaching your business with the mind set of doing the right things and being patient is also easier said than done. If you are going to have sustainable long term success in your business you must build a strong foundation. Short cuts usually only yield short term results. And the process of building a strong foundation takes patience.

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  photo by AGirlWithTea

What does it take to make a business grow predictably?  Signing up a big client?  Rolling out a hot new product?  Actually those are outcomes…what I’m talking about are the ingredients it takes within a business that if mixed properly and cooked just so will create growth. 

These critical ingredients are embodied in you as the business owner and within your team, whether you have 1 employee or 100 employees.  If you’re missing one or more of these ingredients – then you’re likely not growing consistently and you’ll be at risk in the long run.  The important thing is to have the right mix of these ingredients and to make sure you’re using all of them consistently.

So what are the ingredients you need for growth?  Let’s take a look:

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  photo by icatus

When you’re talking about overall business effectiveness, the first thing you have to figure out is where the bottleneck is within your business (side note – it’s really challenging to find a good picture to represent a bottleneck).

Of course the bottleneck is the constriction / constraint in terms of your growth potential.  As an example, a lot of businesses have the issue of getting enough leads generated or getting interest in buying.  They have plenty of capacity in all other aspects of the business, so in this case, the bottleneck of the business is marketing.

Of course using that example, it wouldn’t make any sense to invest time, money or resources into anything but better marketing…at least until you uncover the next bottleneck. 

I thought it would be worthwhile to dig up a post I did a while back that has a pretty good model to talk through this idea – I call it the 8 Pillars Model and it’s a good way to think through your business.   What Pillars are holding you back?

Can you identify the primary bottleneck in your business success right now?  When’s the last time you tried to identify where things were getting hung up?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

Photo by azrainman

It’s not necessary to change.  Survival is not mandatory!   – W. Edwards Deming

If you’re not actively marketing your business, you’re at a dead end!  Even if you’re doing a bit of marketing here and there, if you don’t have an online presence…if people can’t find you online – you’re at a dead end!

I had a great discussion with a business owner today who had seen a handout from one of my recent workshops.  One of the bullet points that really caught his attention (and made him noticeably uncomfortable) was the following:

• You should have 5 to 10 active marketing strategies at any given time.

His comment (and I’ve heard this from plenty of other business owners) was “I’m not big enough for a marketing department and I don’t have the time or money for even 5 strategies”!

It’s not necessary to change.  Survival is not mandatory!

As a small business owner, regardless of whatever your business is, you are first and foremost in the Marketing business.  See the marketing assessment below to find out how your Marketing business is doing.

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   photo by !!sahrizvi

Your marketing is a net that you throw out to capture the attention of your best prospects.  You want to snare those prospects (and only those prospects) with the information, benefits and outcomes that speak to their situation.  That’s not going to happen on a single visit or interaction, you need to get in front of them with the right message several times…in fact a big part of your marketing job is to stay top of mind as a value added resource so you’re a no brainer decision when they’re ready to buy!

One of the best tools you can use to build your marketing net is some variation of email marketing.  There are a lot of great reasons you need to be using email marketing with your business – here are few to get you thinking!

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