‘Tale Means Business: 3 Important Things to Consider for Business Growth in 2018

Welcome to 2018!

The holidays were quite amazing and I had five whole days to rest, eat and spend time with Family. Everything was dandy until I climbed the scale during my year end medical checkup and I had gained 4kg!

That was the moment when my mind shifted back to ‘reality’ and I switched back to work and exercise mode.

I started work immediately after the holidays as I came to terms with the fact that nothing will be different this year in business and my body, if I did not hit the ground running.

As I got back in the grind of work on-boarding our new Business leaders circle members and planning for our new programs this year, it struck me that some business owners will set goals per usual this year with little or no significant growth.

For significant growth to happen in your business this year, you will need to pay attention to these 3 things:

Mindset
This is one of the most often ignored factors in all areas of life, but it has the most significant impact on how things turn out. I wrote an article middle of last year about a research I did on two business owners in a similar line of business.

One of them was making significant progress whilst the other one was struggling. We worked with both of them to redefine their business strategy and create tactical plans for growth, yet it did not change much.

Upon further investigation, I realized that the one that was struggling did not have a mindset that could comprehend the decisions that needed to be made or accept the kind of growth that the business needed. A few questions you could answer to identify your own mindset blocks for business are:

• What is your mindset about growing a successful business? Clue: Possible, daunting, painful or impossible
• What are the factors that will limit your from grow? Clue: Self belief, impatience, comparison, skill gap or lack of focus.
• Do you have a clear picture of the business you want to build and how it supports your lifestyle?

Strategy
Once you have the right mindset, then you can develop a winning strategy to clearly show how your business will go from where it is to where you want it to be by the end of 2018.

In developing your business strategy or strategic framework, you should be be clear about your core focus, competitive advantage, marketing strategy, brand positioning, revenue model and financing plan.

These are very important business terms that, when you clarify, will ensure that you don’t do business as usual this year.

Tactics
These are the actual steps you will take to implement your strategy. Tactics is about taking action, but action will be directionless activity without the right business strategy. I usually see business owners jumping from one tactic to another with the aim of growing their business or generating sales without a clear strategic direction.

Tactical activities are things like: distribution plan, marketing activities and promotional activities and other operational activities that will bring the strategy to life.

From my experience working with business owners, I have found that visionary entrepreneurs are better at strategic thinking than actual implementation. While tactical entrepreneurs are good at activity without necessarily considering strategic planning.

A combination of all three factors is important to drive business growth this year.

If you are interested in laying the foundation for your business to grow in 2018, we have an open session on the 20th of January in Lagos. You can register to attend HERE. It’s a free session, so seats will fill up fast.