One thing I have learned in my business is that you have to get started by starting somewhere. Everybody does — so if you start, we, in my business, call that good enough for now.
What’s the other step up from that — better. So, we have good enough for now and better. Now, this is a continuous improvement program.
It’s also a great way to look at life. Now, don’t get me wrong here. This is very, very different from being satisfied here.
If you stand still, and you decide that everything is done, and when you look at it, you think it is bad and will never get better, you are indeed moving backwards instead of forward.
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If you put $100 dollars in a bank account, in ten years time, you may have $100, but it’s not worth the same as $100 was ten years ago.
It’s worth less.
When Apple brought out the Iphone, we all got excited and decided that the Iphone was the future. Now, I have had the Iphone 4, then the 5 and now I have the 6.
Apple didn’t just decide since they made one version that they were done. They moved on to improve it and make it better.
What about the blackberry?
These things continuously improve and that enables them to keep up with the latest and greatest smartphone available to date.
This is the same with everything. You can do this in your business, in your marketing and in your writing.
What you need to do is have something to measure everything by. So if you can find simple measurements then you can find a way to better that.
If you have a measurement and you call it a standard — for example — take a blog post — if you write a blog post you can analyze through your Google analytics.
If you set it up properly, you will have Google Analytics. If you do not have this on your website, then shame on you! This tool is free and easy to use.
Get in touch with me and I will put you in the right direction. I will even show you people who can do this for you for only $5 or to do it yourself.
You can anaylize your statistics and see how many people read that particular post.
Now you can take an average of how many people read your post. For example, say that 100 people read your post.
Then — why not try to beat it?
Think of how you can improve the post — better headline, better images, better introductory paragraph, subheaders, bullet points, or even more line breaks to make the post easier to read.
Once you have made the improvements, measure it again after a while and see how it has done since you updated it.
There are so many things you can do.
And — don’t get carried away with numbers — things like followers on social media, likes on a post etc. The main goal is engagement and getting people to read your post.
Everything in business can be improved. Now business is made up of many faceted parts. There are so many systems and ways that things are done.
You cannot improve everything all of the time, so you need to decide what are the most important areas of your business.
Which parts of the business have significance to the growth?
For example — if you have a system for who washes up the coffee and tea cups at the end of the day, I am sure you could improve this system, but I doubt that it is going to improve the business in any significant way.
Where as improving click through rates and emails, or the response to answering customer questions on the telephone or even taking surveys — those types of things. These are probably going to have a better effect.
Look at everything in your business and see if there is a way to improve it. Don’t think that the way it is right now is great and never needs to be better. Think of ways to improve it.
It is also a great way to be in life. Now, I don’t mean for you to pick apart the services you have in place while they are going on — like your warehouse staff for example.
Don’t stand there glaring at them watching them do the work and then tell them that “Hmmm..you need to do it this way instead.”
Talk to them and involve them and explain to them your theories and how you think that it will help them and they job that they do for you.
Explain to them that by embracing the new procedures and improvements will also help them retain job security, pay raises, and improvement overall in what they do for the company.
For example — what if you go to your warehouse staff and say to them, “I like the way that you are packaging things, but I think if we add a few improvements it might help. What do you think? What ideas do you have?”
I can guarantee you that if you give them a couple of days and come back and ask what they thought, they will flood you with ideas for improvement and that makes them feel appreciated and a part of a team.
You involved them in the thought process and the planning process of the business in their department.
If you are not entirely convinced, allow them to prove it to you and convince you that it would be better. Give them a couple of weeks to try it out and then come back and discuss how it helped or didn’t make that much of a difference.
Allow people to do the improvement for you because this is not all about you.
Drive Time Podcast
It is Thursday which means it is time for a Drive Time Podcast. Today I am going to recommend Natalie Lussier.
Her podcast is called Off the Charts Business Podcast. She has some great podcasts and has great experience.
She publishes one every couple of days and they range from 3-10 minutes along. Be sure to check out her blog too.
She started from nothing and grew her business to a wonderful size. She is wonderful. Go check her out!
Now — off to bed with you or Santa won’t come visit you. I’ll see you tomorrow.
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What have you chosen to improve on?
