3 Tips on Growing A Small Business.

In the last few weeks, listening to the small business owners in our latest 16 week ‘Business Transformation Program’, I was reminded of three great tips when growing your small business.

Here are the three I reflected on after those weekly coaching one-on-ones in the Program:

Let’s run through each, which I think most small business owners neglect and you can easily implement NOW.

As we believe the two main growth levers when growing a small business with ease are marketing and people, our coaching and Program first helps owners become better leaders and managers, so they get more out of their team.

That is from a combination of delegating and getting everyone on the team more productive and less stressed, through the ‘Transform Your Performance’ course included in the Program (also a great free online small business course you can do outside the Program).

But the bigger impact we see is from when the owners, and any managers in their business, delegate more.

From owning and growing 15+ of my own small businesses since 1999, I know all too well it’s in our DNA to be in control - it’s hard to let go (I have the t-shirt and coffee mug!)

AND if you want to live the lifestyle you signed up for, and have a much more profitable and valuable business, you need to master the art and skill of delegation (the less reliant the business is on the owner, the higher the multiple on sales or profits is used when it’s sold).

What many owners don’t understand is that great team members, A-Players, want more challenging work.

They want to excel and add value to the business, so why not try delegating some things off your plate?

When you think of a sizable responsibility you are about to start, or a discrete project, first ask yourself “can someone else on the team do this?”

If you can find someone, invest the time to delegate it to them and support their success with it - don’t just abdicate responsibility.

Delegation won’t work if you firstly don’t trust the person, and secondly, don’t coach and support them.

You will get frustrated with your first attempt of truly delegating, then revert to your control freak nature and try to do more than you should, and it’s usually lower-value IN the business things.

An A-Player is happy to do extra work, if you do your job as a manager and support them.

They won’t do things as well as you the first time, but with coaching they can get pretty close to the level of quality you could.

The gold is in the time and focus it unlocks for you to focus ON the high-value things in your small business.

Sometimes when you are delegating effectively, some things won’t get done - but these should be the lower-value things the A-Player you are delegating to has on their plate.

Which is fine, especially if it means you get an extra hour or more a week to work on the two big growth levers - getting more from your people, and marketing.

Try this week finding one chunky thing you were going to do, and delegate it (effectively) to another team member.

A big message in our Program and weekly coaching is for small business owners to build what I coined as the ‘ON habit’.

It’s simple, and sounds like common sense, but amazingly it’s not common practice from all the small business owners I talk with on and off the cast.

Dedicate a few 90 minute windows a week (we call them ‘sprints’), in the mornings, to work ON the most important thing that will move your business forward.

That could be marketing, leadership, management or strategic planning.

It’s not the small things, or living in your inbox, it’s time locked away from distractions where you knock out some highly valuable and productive hours.

Start with one 90 minute sprint a week, but lock it in your calendar so you know for example ‘10am Thursdays I lock myself away from people, turn off email and my phone and work ON the business’.

Once you have built that habit of at least one 90 minute sprint a week, add a second weekly block in your calendar on another day, then build this up to 3-5 ON sprints a week.

It’s really important you do these ON sprints in the morning - it’s when most of us have our greatest energy and focus.

Did you know, a human makes around 35,000 decisions a day?

Yes, a day.

So, by the afternoon and evening, we are fatigued just from all those decisions.

Again, our free ‘Transform Your Performance’ two week online course gives you the tools, habits and mindsets to not only build the ON habit, but also ensure you get into ‘Deep Work’ in those sprints.

By getting in the zone, time will fly by and you will get a shitload more of the right things done.

The best and most financially (and lifestyle) successful guests I interview on our weekly podcast always answer “a shitload”, or similar, when I ask “How much professional development have you invested in yourself?”

They know how important it is to keep expanding their mind - hearing mistakes others made, and new concepts and ideas that will help their business.

I invest 10 hours a week in PD, Professional Development.

And, as we talk about in our ‘Transform Your Performance’ course, leverage ‘dead time’.

That is when you are cleaning the house, weeding, driving, walking the dog or exercising.

And here’s a little trick I wish I had started before someone put me on it in early 2023 - listen to audiobooks and podcasts at 1.5 speed.

I have not yet come across one that I had to slow down to normal speed, and it means I get through 50% more PD.

Jump on the Weekly Leadership Email I send on Friday’s (it’s a 2 minute read) as I always include one tool or PD resource I came across that week (most of them are audiobooks or podcasts, so you can easily consume them during ‘dead time’).

There are 2-3 weekly podcasts I listen to religiously (plus a few other one-offs people recommend to me), and usually finish one audiobook a week.

That’s 40+ books a year!! (there are some weeks of the year I don’t work or learn).

Imagine what new ideas, tips you could adopt, and mistakes you could avoid, by consuming more than 40 books a year, as well as a heap of podcasts!!

It’s best to focus on 1-2 topics for a week or month, like marketing, management or business strategic planning.

If you enjoy doing courses, I have written about 3 great online small business courses in Australia.

Again, PD sounds like common sense - are you going to make it common practice?

If you want specific advice for specific resources to help you and your business grow, book a 20 minute Growth Chat with me and I will point you in the right direction. I always provide some books, podcasts, courses or contacts in my network to help you with your #1 growth challenge - I love talking everything small business!!

Remember to check out the footer on our website for other great resources we have to help small business owners grow their business with ease, so they can live the lifestyle they signed up for.

Cheers,

Troy | Founder | Grow A Small Business