Wish your company could grow more? Try this one habit every successful entrepreneur has
Elena Margaria4 minEver wondered how some business owners just seem to always take the right decisions and never make a false move? Is it just a matter of luck, or are they super-humans?!
Neither of those. As someone once said: "Successful people aren’t born that way. They become successful by establishing the habit of doing things unsuccessful people don’t like to do." In short: anyone can do it, but very few choose to do it.
But what is it that successful business owners do consistently, no matter what?
Believe it or not, they never make decisions off the top of their head. And if they do, it's just because they know their numbers by heart and can visualize how every possible decision will affect them. They're well aware that data doesn't lie, emotions do. Which is why they've adopted this super simple routine and made it a habit: once a week, they have a date with their numbers.
Not too bad, right? But what is this date really about?
Don't expect anything too fancy, really. Business owner and numbers sit in front of each other for about 15 minutes: the former asks the questions, the latter replies. Lies are banned. The Qs vary from time to time, but their goals remain the same:
- GOAL #1: distinguish the wastes from necessary expenses and investments
- GOAL #2: distinguish the little jobs that do nothing but waste your time from those that bring you money
- GOAL #3: understand if the business is growing or stuck
Insignificant as it may seem, it's true, this habit cannot guarantee results (because honestly, nothing can), but it does give the best possible chance of creating them.
Here are three occasions you may say goodbye forever to if you just started practicing this new simple habit.
HAVE YOU EVER...
CASE N°1 - SPENT THE NIGHT TOSSING AND TURNING, TRYING TO DECIDE IF BUYING THAT NEW MACHINERY YOU SAW AT THE EXHIBITION IS WORTH IT OR NOT?
If the regular appointment with your numbers became a habit, the nights spent awake wondering would certainly be only a distant memory. Analyzing your numbers, in fact, you learn to recognize the wastes you could avoid, the purely necessary expenses that you just can't do without, and the real investments, which yes are a cost in the short term but give their fruit in the long one.
CASE N°2 - HAD TO WORK EVEN DURING THE WEEKEND TO FINISH A JOB THAT DOESN'T EVEN PAY OFF AS MUCH AS YOU'D LIKE?
Well, forgetting about Sundays spent in the workshop is pretty easy when your numbers have no secrets. If saying yes to a customer may always seem like the right thing to do, it's often not the case. Sometimes, it's better to turn down a job that would only be a waste of time, rather than risk leaving one behind for a client you've been working for every month for years. Knowing your numbers in depth allows you to do just that: to distinguish minor jobs from those that strengthen the trust of your most valuable customers.
CASE N°3 - FOUND YOURSELF AT THE END OF THE YEAR WITH RED ACCOUNTS, WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING WHY?
If your numbers weren't perfect strangers for you, avoiding these nasty surprises would be more than possible. But not only. Besides not falling from the pear tree at the end of the year, realizing the direction in which your business is going also gives you the opportunity to correct it if it is not the right one. Why going straight in the wrong direction and then realizing it only once you arrive at your destination, when you can just follow the directions?
No numbers, no growth
When you ignore your numbers, you miss two big opportunities:
In other words, you leave a lot of money on the table. And if you want to grow, that’s not what you want.
