Business Mouth - Business Blog

There are more books about succeeding in business then curse words on MTV. It is not easy to define what makes a business succeed, but it is easy to describe what makes a business fail. If you are starting your business or currently being miserably unsuccessful, you might want to read on.

No doubt that most entrepreneurs want to succeed in business and I wont argue that failing is on the top of the do list for anyone. Here are five things you must do to fail in business.

1 You must want to become an overnight success. Isn’t it great to hear about some new product becoming an instant hit? Realistically, most overnight success stories take a lot more than one night of work. Think of any popular brand and think how long it took to create it. Even though things can happen quickly online, it takes a lot of testing and trying of what works for your business.

2 You must do it all alone. It takes a team effort to make any business successful. Even if you are the only member of your business, be ready to listen to what others have to say, and keep an open mind.

3 You must be convinced there is nothing new to learn. Even if you are an expert in your area, you will find that succeeding means learning. It is impossible to grow your business without a commitment to learning and improving your skills.

4 If you think you have to be the cheapest to be the successful, you might be surprised. Price is not the only factor when it comes to making an online purchase. Actually, pricing a product at the right price is an art form. The right price is more important than the lowest price.

5 Never forgive yourself for failing. Even the greatest business will have its ups-and-downs. You are going to have difficulties, and you are going to be making mistakes. It is OK to make mistakes. It is not OK, however, to keep repeating the same mistakes. The biggest difference between successful businesses and failed businesses is that successful businesses will learn from their mistakes and use it for improving.

Remember to do the above if you must fail in business.

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Ask most people why they are in business and they will give you any number of reasons. Things such as wanting to improve the lives of others; make the world a better place; provide for their family; have more free time; the list goes on and on.

Fact is business is about making money, which means the bottom line is the bottom line. Many business owners, managers and sales people seem to forget this. If you don’t have a strong bottom line you cannot continue to do business for very long. And if you can’t continue to do business you cannot achieve the other primary reasons you do what you do. The way you get a sturdy bottom line is to understand some basic truths about business.

A few fundamentals to running a successful business are to know what your product or service is, who your customer is, who you are, what drives you in business, and what trends are impacting the economy and marketplace.

Many people run their business without these key ingredients. Sure, a company can survive, but is survival all you are seeking? Don’t you want more? As previously mentioned, most people are in business to design a certain lifestyle for themselves and their families. Many are in business to create an experience for their customers. Still others are in business to improve the quality of their community. Unfortunately, many miss the mark by a long shot.

Think about why you are in business. What is it that drives you? Wouldn’t it be great to thrive beyond your wildest dreams and be a contributor to many of the causes you believe in due to the success of your business and professional life?

Regardless of where you are in business, whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been running your company for some time; whether you work for yourself or for someone else there are essential pieces of information that are key to your success. First, in order to thrive you absolutely must know who you are. Not only who you are in the business, but in life in general. You also have to know what you believe in, what your values are, and what drives and motivates you.

Another key aspect of succeeding in business is to understand the needs and wants of your customers. Until you determine exactly who your customers are, you will have a difficult time satisfying what they want and need. That is why it is so important to determine what drives you. If you understand what drives you, what your values are, your beliefs, your dreams and goals, and what your ultimate purpose is, it will be so much easier to figure out who you want to do business with.

As has often been the belief and practice of many business owners, sales professionals, and managers, when asked who their market is, they respond with, “Everyone!” Fact is, if everyone is your market, ultimately no one is your market.

It’s incredible how many people have never taken the time to determine who they would ideally like to do business with. The more clarity you have, the simpler your process of doing business becomes. Do not confuse easy with simple. Running a business is not necessarily easy and yet, the process can be simple when you gain massive amounts of clarity.

Additionally, your existing and potential customers will have a much easier time distinguishing you from your competitors. With a new competitor cropping up on what seems like every street corner, make the decision making process for your clients as simple as possible. By gaining clarity through self-evaluation and customer evaluation, you attract more of your ideal clients. As you attract more of who you want to do business with you can focus more on the business of providing a great experience to your customers.

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Leaders in the business world need public relations big time, and they show it every day.

How? By staying in touch with their most important external audiences and by carefully monitoring their perceptions about the company, audience member feelings about hot topics at issue, and the behaviors that inevitably follow.

Could there be an angle here for your business?

What I mean is, once you interact with, then learn what that key target audience of yours believes about you and your organization, a corrective public relations goal – a specific behavior change — can be established.

Which then requires that you identify a strategy. There are just three choices here, create opinion where none exists, change existing opinion, or reinforce it.

It’s a logical sequence. With your goal and strategy now set, you need persuasive messages with a good chance of moving perceptions (and thus behaviors) in your organization’s direction. But you must make sure the messages talk not only to the current topic at issue, but to any misconceptions or inaccuracies encountered during your information gathering, and to any problems that might be brewing.

What will you do with your new message? You will carry it to the attention of your priority audience. You’ll use communications tactics that are credible in the eyes of the receiver, and effective in reaching him or her. You’ll also want tactics that stand a good chance of moving opinion in that target audience, on the topic at issue, in your direction.

Fortunately, there are many communications tactics to choose from: newsworthy announcements, letters-to-the-editor, news releases, radio and newspaper interviews, brochures, speeches and on and on.

Now, you’re back to the monitoring mode as you interact once again with members of the key target audience. With your communications tactics hammering away, you keep one eye peeled for signs of target audience opinion shifts in your direction. The other eye, (and ears) stay alert for any references by print and broadcast media, or other local thoughtleaders to your carefully prepared message.

The bottom line is, are perceptions and behaviors within the target audience being modified? If not, adjustments to your communications tactics – often a big increase in, and wider selection — must be made. Your message may also need to be sharpened and its factual basis strengthened.

Gradually, you’ll begin to notice changes in opinion starting to appear along with a growing receptiveness to those messages of yours. This is real progress.

Should you still need encouragement to hang in there with your brand new public relations program, consider this. A single issue – for example, a potentially dangerous, unattended perception among a key audience — can spread like wildfire nudging any business closer to failure than success.

That statistic alone should make you feel pretty good about public relations.

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