10 Things You Can Do To Improve Yourself As A Business Owner
Whether you’ve just started out on your own or you’ve already successfully managed to create a team for your business, then there are plenty of things that you can do to build on your experience and the way you lead as a business owner. Begin with hiring an Executive Coach to help you take your business to the next level. Beginning with an in-depth assessment of your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for growth.
Here are ten additional things you can do to improve yourself as a business owner.
Treat Your Staff Well
Richard Branson, the owner of Virgin Group, is known for promoting staff as being the number one priority for any business. If you give your staff the tools to do their job, make them proud of the place they work at and give them every opportunity to be happy, to be more than content with their role and offer them progression within the company, they’ll most likely stay forever. Of course, things happen, and you can never guarantee that a staff member will stay for long, but if you do everything that you can do as an employee, you’ll have been successful in trying to keep them for as long as you can as an employer.
Do Tasks One At A Time
Multi-tasking sounds like the solution to getting the most work done, right? Well, it’s actually not so effective, and also it impacts the quality of work if you’re attention isn’t solely focused on the one thing. So with that in mind, it’s a good idea to do everything individually so that you can focus your whole attention on that one task and in getting it completed within a quicker time and with much more perfection. Multi-tasking can also make you lose motivation, and that can lead to procrastinating. If you’re on one task and you’re struggling, stop and pick up a new task to focus on fully. Sometimes, it’s just a case of your brain not being engaged enough for that particular task.
Gain More Through Education
Education is powerful, and the more you have of it, the more likely you’re going to be successful from it. A lot of business owners may have done various qualifications and or had very little to get themselves where they are now. If you’re looking for some more knowledge on how business works or you feel at a point where your business has slumped through lack of knowledge, then doing a course from Northeastern University Online, might be just what you’re after. These courses because they’re online may be able to be worked around your business so that you don’t have to give it up. Otherwise, if you haven’t yet got it off the ground, why not spend your time learning and becoming more knowledgeable in business?
Attend Networking Opportunities To Build Confidence
Networking is essential for building connections in business. You never know who you’re going to meet and that’s probably the most exciting part about it all. As a business owner, you should see every social occasion in work as an opportunity to build relationships with staff, with clients, and with your customers. Networking also builds confidence because you have to approach people you don’t know most of the time and start a conversation. As each new conversation begins, your confidence rises, and that can be a great quality for any business owner to have.
Listen To Your Customers
Customers are everything to a business. They’re your eyes and ears and voices when you need it and even if you don’t. Customers like to feel valued, so as a business owner, you need to ensure that the treatment of customers is top notch right from the very top, all the way down the hierarchy of your employees. With every product or service you offer, there will always be things that can be tweaked and improved. It’s how the big businesses remain relevant because they’re constantly finding ways to better their products, so there’s something to sell. To keep those customers loyal, listen to customer feedback, and make it easy for customers to connect with your business on both a personal and professional level. Social media platforms and having a website are just two examples. Embrace the constructive feedback, no matter how brutal it may be!
Lead By Example With A Good Work-Life Balance
We’re all after the perfect work-life balance, and that’s because life is too short to spend all your life working. As a business owner, there may feel like there’s no opportunity to switch off, but if you expect to give your employees the work-life balance they deserve, then you won’t be doing them justice if you’re not leading by example first. Self-care is important, and making memories with friends and families should always come above work. You only have the one chance to spend quality time with your close ones, so learn to give yourself a break from work every now and then. Once you’ve got this work-balance perfected, you can then give that same balance to your staff. If you have a mindset of wanting to work 24/7 and that your staff should be doing the same, you’re not creating a happy or fair environment.
Keep Your Brand Image Monitored Closely
As a business, the brand image is very important because it can be vulnerable if not monitored closely. With social media also being so powerful these days, it’s beneficial to have an image and message of the brand that all employees portray at all times. Having someone controlling your social media, who perhaps says something wrong or an employee that treats a customer in a way that’s against your views as a company can be disastrous.
Prepare The Night Before For The Next Day
Preparing for the day ahead is always worth doing the night before. Just before you go bed, whether it’s to update your schedule on the computer or to have a journal by the side of your bed. Plan out your day in detail, so you can wake up immediately, ready to start the day. Getting all your thoughts and to-do lists out of your head will also likely impact your sleeping habits for the better. We often lay awake with our thoughts when there’s too many of them, so get them out on paper before your head hits the pillow.
Have A Strong Work Ethic
Even though it’s been discussed that your work-life balance should be equal, a strong work ethic is definitely needed as a business owner. Not only to show an example to your staff in how to work but to also improve the chances of your success. If you’re complacent with how things are going or you expect opportunities to land in your lap, that could lead to your business running out of steam and falling flat on its face. Look at how you work now and without sacrificing your personal life, find ways of improving how you work on a daily basis, and what you could do better. Work smarter, not harder!
Learn From The Setbacks
And finally, learn from your mistakes and most importantly, learn from the businesses’ setbacks. Mistakes will always be made, deals will be lost, and there’s always going to be things that you regret doing. However, instead of living with that regret or that attitude, learn from your mistakes and use it as an opportunity to grow from the experience. Make it into a positive, rather than a negative.
With these tips, you can improve yourself as a business owner and take your business to the next level of its success. So give yourself that opportunity and start today!
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3 Comments
Tamra Phelps
I like the idea of continuing your education, too. It can only help if you continue to learn things that can help in your day to day business tasks.
Kate Sarsfield
Business owners should be engaged with their staff. I’ve worked in places where the attitude of staff has been appalling simply because they felt (and rightly so) that “if he doesn’t care about me, why should I care about him. Clock in, do your job & go home”. That’s soul-destroying.
Tamra Phelps
You’d be surprised a the number of business owners who don’t treat employees with respect and don’t listen to customers. I would think those two would b common sense, too.