Staying on top of your business and its growth doesn’t have to be such a grind. It may feel satisfying to work more hours than anyone else, it really may not be necessary. Here are five things you can do to grow your business without burning any midnight oil. In fact you may be done by lunch.
1. Stay in touch with your clients – The best way to systematically contact your clients is using some kind of contact management system. Salesforce.com is the leader in contact management software, but there are many great alternatives if you don’t want to go with salesforce.com Infusionsoft.com, SAP.com, NetSuite.com, Zoho.com are alternatives. A CRM system systematically places prospects or leads into your sale funnel and you scheduled events like phone calls, meetings, visits and proposals so you can organize a great many clients at different stages of your sales funnel.
2. Maintain social media presence- Whether you like it or not, social media is a part of every business and you need to be a part of it. Some businesses like retail may be able to sell using social media, but many won’t be able to sell due to complexity of the product or service or the audience may not be decision makers, etc… However, the benefits may come in the form of brand awareness, authority, or trust factor to name a few. Social media is an investment that may take several months or years to directly benefit, but the alternative is to be at a distinct disadvantage to those businesses that made the investment. There are a countless number of social media tools but Hootsuite.com, SocialOomph.com, SocialMention.com are popular tools that many businesses use to manage social media. These tools allow for automation and research to make social media quick and easy.
3. Schedule networking- Social media has its place, but there will never be a substitute for face to face interaction. Schedule yourself for at least 2 local networking events per month or more depending on your industry and your results. These websites make it easy to pick events that will get your business the biggest boost. Meetup.com, Eventbrite.com, Facebook.com, Netparty.com, Twtvite.com, and eventful.com to name a few. Remember “your network equals your net worth”.
4. Find new leads – For any business to thrive it is imperative that you are constantly getting new customers to continue to grow your business. Every business should have a systematic way of getting new leads so that your sales funnels will continue to develop new customers. Finding leads will require different activities depending on the industry that you are in. Retail may rely heavily on advertising while a manufacturer may rely on trades shows. BJ’s Wholesale Club gives free in store samples to push certain products and I have more than once taken the bait and put something in the cart that was a direct result of the free sample. Find what works for your business in systematize it and do it regularly.
5. Stay up to date with technology – Technology is changing at hyper speed. Understanding and applying technology in your business will allow you to spend less time doing critical tasks that are required for a healthy business. Technology like gotomeeting.com or join.me allow remote collaboration with colleagues, customers, and prospects, etc… Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote.com allow you to organize information and share with whoever you like as needed. These are just a few technology offerings that can make your day much shorter while making more profit. The biggest change to growing your business in less time is changing your mindset… Approach your day as you only have 4-6 hours to get everything done. Work has a way of filling up every available moment with mental and physical exhaustion marking the end of the day. This is unproductive and no fun compared to accomplishing planned objectives that are strategic to profits and the lifestyle you want to live. Start this change today by going to your calendar and scheduling less hours until your down to 6 hours or less.