Never Mind Goals, This is the Secret for Business Growth

Businesses everywhere seem to only be concerned about one thing: metrics. That’s all fine and good, but the trouble lies in what they do with these metrics.

They set goals. They take what they’ve learned from the past day, week, month, quarter, year, and so on, and they set standards on what these numbers should turn into in the future. If the numbers don’t hit the goals, usually the low-level managers are punished either through reprimanding or an insultingly low bonus check.

Large companies everywhere think that this method is the tried and true way to conduct business, but it’s not. Honestly, it never has been, but it’s taken the dawning of the age of technology to shine some light on this issue. Obviously, if this were the case, how are so many small businesses owned and run by a team of one person able to thrive? Either that person would have to have the mindset of a corporate fat-cat and be a total jerk to everyone if they didn’t spend enough money on the things he wanted (which will keep customers from walking in the door at all), or he’d be friendly and outgoing and make tons of friends, but not very many sales.

It’s not the goals that count. The secret for business growth is hidden away in the actions people take to make those goals happen. Every low-level manager knows this, and every (successful) small business owner knows this.

If you’re just starting out, especially with an online business, and you can’t seem to quite figure out why the numbers aren’t where you’d like them to be, despite all the different methods you’ve tried, that’s where your problem is. Stop trying different methods. Stop trying to figure out the missing variable. It’s right there in front of you. Have you ever tried one particular method that worked even just once or twice? There’s your key. There’s your secret for business growth. Take that method and run with it. Keep doing it on a daily basis, and you’ll have a working business model. Over time as you start seeing steady results, you can tweak it and change it slightly to see if anything makes a positive difference, but remember it takes time for anything to take effect. And never change your routine. Too many drastic changes over too short a period of time has brought billion dollar corporations to their knees in the past and continues to affect some today.

“The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.” -Mike Murdock

But what kind of routine are we talking about here? Is it the constant uploading of new content to your blog, the weekly distribution of newsletters, the friendly up to date personal answering of emails (as opposed to an auto-responder)? Is it something smaller like just making tweets and social media posts on a regular basis? Or is it something bigger like cold-calling potential clients? The secret for business growth is within all of these things. Continuing about your duties on a regular basis with a positive attitude is your key to success. Don’t try sending out a newsletter for a couple months and ditch it if it doesn’t bring in the number of visitors you want. You won’t get all the visitors you need from the same place, and you won’t get all the sales you need from one person’s wallet. (If you need a little mental boost, here are some great ideas on selling.)

If anything at all gets you any business interactions, keep doing it! Every penny counts, and every reader has the potential to make a world of difference. You never know when someone might bring with them a horde of followers right to your front door. Keeping a daily routine is the absolute best way to get as many opportunities like that and at the same time, show people what you’re all about upfront.

Stop worrying about goals and plans. They only get in the way. When you’re distracted by meeting a certain goal, you never know what kind of opportunity is passing you by.