3 Effective ways to grow a small business

1) Purpose:

Without purpose you have no destination without dream you have no drive. Purpose is the most important factor that will determine the kind of impact your life will have. You need to take time to find your purposes or a purpose that can outlive your time on earth, that is the highest form of purpose.

Purpose is simply the problem you want to solve for humanity. Your dream is the drive, your purpose is the goal. Your purpose is the destination to reach. Your dream is the engine that will provide the drive to reach your destination (purpose).

How powerful the engine (dream) determines how far the drive you will have and also determine when and whether you will reach your destination (fulfillment of purpose). Your purpose determines the destination you are driving at reaching. Dreaming of what you want to achieve supplies the power and drive you need to reach your purpose. Without purpose you have no destination, without dream you have no drive.

2) Consistency:

Another important soft skill you need if you really want to move your business forward is Consistency. This is steadfast adherence to the same principles, course and form in order to achieve a certain goal. When you are consistent, it means you are dedicated to carrying an activity or completing a task. It means you are clear on what you want to accomplish and are taking steps to reach it.

To be consistent is a commitment you make to yourself and others. It's about keeping your word to carry out what you've agreed to do. Your level of consistency reflects your values and standards, therefore consistency is about repetition, it's about doing the same things repeatedly over time to reach a goal.

People fail at a course due to lack of consistency and the reason many people struggle with consistency are lack of patience, desire for instance gratification, lack of clarity and focus, having an all or nothing mindset.

The success that many desires lies in the consistency, you desire to work with some people and get them to join hands with you in building your business but they are by the side, in one corner viewing your activities to see if you are truly worth it and if you can be trusted. There are many benefits attached to consistency if only you are willing to pay the price.

Consistency will build your level of discipline and self-control. It will also build a higher level of trust because the level of trust you have with yourself shows up in the level of trust others will have with in you.

Consistency builds your credibility and it create accountability. It will help you stand out or be noticed in the field that you are, small actions carried out repeatedly will amount to big results over time. When you do something for a long period, you will differentiate yourself from those who aren't consistent and it can help you attract new opportunities that may not have been possible if you hadn't been consistent.

In a nutshell, in staying consistent, you don't have to do that big thing, start with small steps and learn to take it one at a time, you can achieve bigger things by starting with small steps.

3) Marketing:

How is your business operation optimized for best results? Do you have a system for attracting clients, customers or patients? Do you have a plan in place for follow-up? Or are your marketing efforts rag-tag?

When you don't have a system in place, your business and marketing becomes majorly cyclical - you focus on generating leads, then try to convert them. Then return your attention to generating leads. So a lot of your marketing processes are done manually.

The challenges of having such poor marketing systems are much but I'll discuss just a few:

1. Essential marketing pieces will be missing your marketing.

2. This will lead to things falling through the crack in your marketing.

3. You expose your business to competitors with better marketing who will legit "steal" your business.

4. Rag-tag marketing system will most definitely give you lukewarm business growth - your business will just be running hot and cold every day.

5. It is not a good way to live or do business. Imagine having to wake up suddenly in the middle of night remembering that you forgot to do something essential in your business.

You will constantly be stressed, worrying over what hasn't been completed and what has been completed. The number of uncertainties in your business will skyrocket; you will always worry as to whether you will have enough customers, clients or patients next month.

But what if you had a marketing system in place that is complete with both a marketing method and a follow-up plan? Do you think that would reduce your stress level and help you sleep better at night knowing that your business business is running well all year long, even when you're not there?

Don't take shortcuts. You're spinning your wheel if you have a lead creation system but no follow-up method. Don't go through all the work of gathering leads and then ignoring them. It would have been better for your business if you hadn't gotten the lead in the first place.

While the process of setting up system for your business might be challenging at first, especially if you don't know what you are doing, but the benefits of a systemized business with clearly defined business policies, marketing procedures and growth markers far outweighs the stress of setting up the systems.