Preventing Mediocrity

Your plan for a successful business may be to start an Internet company and sell it for millions before your first credit card bills are due. If so, this article is not for you. However, if you want some tips on building a firm structure for your business that will save you hours and dollars over the years, then read on.

There are three potential outcomes for most things in life-negative, neutral and positive. You can be sick, healthy or vibrant. The one to watch out for is neutral. Your business can fail. Your business can succeed. In either case, the decisions you need to make are obvious, but when your business is mediocre, do you continue or do you quit? The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the literal definition of mediocrity as halfway up a mountain. This is not a good place to be. You need to take action that will push it into either of the other 2 categories.

First, define success. Be specific and use measurable terms. I want 26 new clients this year or I want my product to save my clients 520 hours of labor each year (10 hours per week). Second, define failure. Working more than 80 hours a week, or sales within 2 percent of what they were last year. When you set your goals make sure you understand the consequences of achieving them. Don't be like the man who said, "I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous".

A company can stagnate once it gets out of the starting blocks because it looses sight of the big picture. It's easy to be caught up doing things that help only one client. Get in the habit of making at least one permanent improvement everyday. Like the miracle of compound interest, this will absolutely separate you from your competitors! On more than one evening, after I crawled into bed I crawled back out, returning to the computer to make the permanent improvement for the day.

We had a company wide rotating schedule of improvements. One month we would focus on reducing costs, the next month on increasing revenue. For example, one month we concentrated on improving training, the next month on better marketing, then simplifying the ordering process, etc. By doing this, we improved the long-term strength of the company. Keep your eyes open for bottlenecks.

Making a permanent improvement everyday should also apply to every staff member. Every complaint, whether from a customer or from an employee, points to an area that should be improved.

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