6 things to know for your business to grow

• Mindset matters

Whatever you may think or already know about mindset it’s important to understand how powerful it can be: how it influences what you think, the actions you take, and how you behave in certain ways when you’re in different environments, around different people or when in times of stress, fear or uncertainty.

A strong mindset is a powerful force you can rely on. It’s more than just simply refusing to quit when times are tough. True strength of mind can come from a combination of awareness, focus and being resilient. It means you can stay focused on your intentions and not the negative thoughts. The key to handling negative thoughts is to allow them to flow in and flow out, don’t grasp hold of them to think about, let those negative thoughts go. Remain focused.

A strong mindset can have an extraordinary effect on your life and business. It helps you to understand that any challenge you may be facing is not permanent.

• Cultivate your business

How it fits into the current climate. Anticipate potential obstacles and challenges that may arise such as in industry trends or financial hardships. For brick and mortar stores, are there going to be changes to the street scheme or shopping centre changes where your business is located. If so, can you consider a hybrid whereby some products or all can be sold online. Always keep abreast of what is happening in your local council, community, industry and even have regular communications with the shopping center manager.

Really know the health of your business, no guessing. Knuckle down into fully understanding your business finances ensuring you not only know the exact dollars going in and out but also things like the percentage of revenue that staff wages swallow up. This makes it easier to see where you may need to cut costs to ensure longevity of your business and where you have scope to grow.

Detailed Org chart for future clarity. Every business should at least have an organisational chart that details the current flow of teams, but for someone with a clear vision and big goals always has an org chart for what the business will look like in the next 10. For example: your current org chart may have a CEO, Accountant, Team leader and 3 staff. However your long term org chart may look like this: CEO, Marketing manager, Accountant, Sales manager, Production team of videographer and editor, IT department and 25 team members. Knowing this means you can plan the activities for how you will reach the business goals that enable you to have such an org chart.

• Boost staff motivation

Getting to know your team is one of the most important aspects of leadership, and showing true appreciation for your team, their personalities, wants and needs helps to develop valuable relationships, trust and loyalty. Get to know what their values are, their life and career aspirations.

Discover their strengths, understand their mindset, find out what inspires them. A great way to start this is by setting aside time each week or month, depending on what best suits you both, for a casual chat. This may seem awkward at first but it will get easier over time as you get to know each other. If catching up with you team individually isn’t achievable then consider having group catch ups before your morning huddles where you all share something.

Inspiration for participation. Be the leader they need for inspiration and motivation. Set clear expectations and goals for employees and provide regular feedback. Empower employees through delegation and autonomy with meaningful and challenging work tasks. Align employee values with organisational value and create a positive work environment that fosters employee engagement.

• Increase staff performance

Increasing staff performance is not a one size fits all venture, but is a critical factor in achieving business success. High performers not only contribute to the company’s growth but are key contributors to a positive work culture. To help increase performance be sure to establish performance goals, a clear sense of purpose and direction, and ensure staff members understand their roles and responsibilities.

Similar to boosting staff motivation, communication is key for increasing staff performance as well. Setting clear communication channels, goal setting and objectives is the cornerstone of any successful organisation.

Training and Development plays an important role in these objectives. Regardless of your budget it is important to invest what you can, whether it be time or money. Continuous learning keeps staff up to date with skills and knowledge needed to excel in their roles. Prioritising learning cultivates a culture of growth, which in turn manifests high performance.

• Decision making made easy

Why can making a decision be so challenging sometimes? Is it because we don’t have all the information to make an informed decision, is it because we are scared of failure or is it because there are just too many decisions to make. I have found over the years that so long as I have documented what my goals are for the business, what type of team I want around me, and the plan that will get us there, then I find decision making reasonably straightforward.

Put in place a constructive environment where ideas can flow freely and without judgment (include your team in this). Have an effective strategy for brainstorming whereby all ideas are written down and make sure you do not start eliminating any yet. The idea is to get everything written down first, no matter how bizarre the ideas are. Now, the process of elimination is generally fairly straightforward because if the idea doesn’t align with the business goals and won’t move the needle then you can safely assume you are not going to use it and it can be eliminated from the list.

From this remaining list of ideas you can make your selection based on your business plan. Especially if you have quite a few ideas that can be seriously considered. Your business plan, if completed comprehensively will be your guiding light on which ideas to consider first. Remember that you don’t have to implement everything at once, for this would be extremely overwhelming. Just start with the top 3 decisions, implement them and monitor their progress and successfulness.

• Plan the plan

You have more than likely heard the phrase “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. I know I have heard it heaps of times over the years. Although it can get a bit stale hearing it over and over, it’s important we don’t take it lightly. Because like anything you want to do or achieve you will need to have some kind of plan attached to it. Whether it be a camping trip, going out to dinner or increasing your product range.

All your great ideas and strategies for you, your staff and your business will not come to fruition if you don’t plan for it to happen. A business plan is a crucial document for any business and is your roadmap and strategic blueprint for the company’s future. Ensure all goals for the quarter and year stem from the overarching 5-10 year goals.

Break the bigger goals up into smaller bite size pieces that are easily achievable in the short term but have a big impact over time. Create the daily and weekly steps in an action plan that everyone in your business will follow, giving them solely responsibility for actioning and the follow up regularly to see if they’re completed, what support they need to complete these actions and what changes need to be made moving forward.