Managing Your Business
Ask SCORE                                                                        Word Count 448

Grow Your Business with Success Thinking

In order to be a successful small business, you have to think and act like a
successful business. Sounds simple, perhaps, but many small business owners
and startup entrepreneurs forget this basic concept. In the face of financial
adversity, they adopt a “can’t do” attitude.

As leader of your business you should spread a message of success to
everyone involved, from employees and vendors to customers and prospects.
High-performance businesses—both big and small—allow people to take risks,
generate new ideas, make mistakes and learn from them.

The most successful entrepreneurs find ways to make successful thinking
contagious. One way they do that is by emphasizing long-term potential over
short-term thinking. They learn to innovate rather than hesitate, and shun the
status quo as they seek to spark new interest and enthusiasm inside the
business.

Sure, working productively will help build your business. But generating creativity
and passion for what your business does, no matter how seemingly mundane, is
a hallmark of a high-performance business. But these don’t need to be
grandiose concepts. Simply going out of your way to help a customer in an
unusual fashion qualifies.

Emphasize the collective success of your business as a whole, not of any
individual person, project or product. Then you can accelerate success by
identifying a few profitable activities and making them happen ever more
flawlessly and quickly.

Open the lines of communication. Generally, those around you need more
information, not less, in order to feel successful. Let people know where you think
the business needs to go, the problems it faces and what keeps you up at night.
That makes it easier for you to involve them in finding solutions to your biggest
challenges. Ask their advice about what you are doing right, what hurts and what
needs fixing. That way, everyone has a bigger stake in your success.

Be open to new ideas, even if they sound silly or outlandish. One such idea just
might be your “next big thing.”  And reward people for extra effort. Non-cash
incentives—like time off or a company lunch—have gained popularity as a
means of rewarding employees. But cash bonuses still reign.

And always deliver what you promise. That includes keeping promises to
employees and suppliers as well as customers. Integrity fuels the success
engine, and it’s tough to recover if you blow it.

To learn more success-minded ideas for your small business, contact SCORE
"Counselors to America's Small Business." SCORE is a nonprofit organization
of more than 10,500 volunteer business counselors who provide free,
confidential business counseling and training workshops to small business
owners.  Go to www.scoredm.org on the web or call (515) 284-4760 between
the hours of 10:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M. Monday through Friday.