Yesterday, I covered 3 questions to ask if your business is struggling. This morning while I was doing some social media work, I ran across a great video by Michael Gerber, author of the E-Myth, that also provides great insight on how to ensure that your business stays relevant.
The first point that Michael makes in the video is that your small business should be focused on growth. He states that if your business is not concerned with growing, then you should shut it down. In the talk, he also gives 2 essential ingredients for your business: Is it scalable? and Is it transformational?
One way to kill a good product is to have a poorly thought out delivery method for that product. I have experienced this personally. When you have a time intensive delivery process, hiring more people as you get bigger doesn’t solve the scalability issue. It’s important to think about your delivery method at the beginning of your business. The more automatic that you can make yoru business in the beginning the better.
Transformational business really comes down to creating value in the marketplace. How are you changing lives with your product or service? Or are you just selling stuff (Michael uses a different word in the video) just to sell stuff and make money. Business can be tough and many business owners reach a point of rock bottom where they feel like their world is caving in on them. The one thing that pulls business owners out of this is the belief in what they are doing and the passion behind it. You can only have that if you are looking to transform the market with your idea.
These are things that we all know to some extent but don’t always follow but if we are going to thrive in an uncertain economies the above mentioned ingredients of Michael Gerber will keep our businesses moving forward and more importantly make our business relevant as well.
What are your essential ingredients?