Five Questions All Serious Business Owners Must Answer (but almost never do!)

By: John Dashfield Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Having worked with the owners of small businesses for over fifteen years, one of the things I’ve noticed is how few have a plan of how they will build and manage their business. Yet, according to statistics, over eighty percent of small businesses significantly under-perform their true potential. Could there be a correlation here?

Obviously, having a plan is no guarantee of success but when approached in the right way a powerful plan can lead you to breakthrough results because it influences behaviour.

By answering just five simple, yet challenging questions about your business you can create a powerful plan to drive your business forward and dramatically improve your results. These are:

1. What are you building?
2. Why does your business exist?
3. What results will you measure?
4. How will you build your business?
5. What is the work to be done?

The first question relates to your business vision. What will your business look like in 12 months, three years, or five years into the future? If you don’t have a clear representation of what your business will look like when it’s ‘done’ you may end up with a completely different business!

The second question is about your mission. From your customer’s point of view, what do you provide? What is it that they want from you? When you can describe what you do in a short but powerful way it becomes an organising principle to people’s thinking.

The third question is about the results you are aiming for, in order to make your business successful. What do you want more of over time and what do you want less of over time? These results must be measurable so you can plot, evaluate and adjust your progress. If you don’t track your results how can you possibly make properly informed decisions?

The fourth question is about the strategies you decide to follow. What are five to eight things your business must do extremely well, over time, to be successful? For instance, how will you market your business? Retain key employees? Use technology to increase profitability?

Finally, what business building projects must you successfully complete and implement over the next 12 months? Instead of having lots of projects on the go at once, and making slow progress, it’s better to focus on just one or two at a time and get them finished.

As you answer these questions and commit your plan to writing you’ll end up with a compelling plan to run and manage your business. By guiding your thinking and behaviour in this way doesn’t it seem so much better than simply ‘winging it’?

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About The Author: Visit my website at www.dashfield.com and sign up for your Free ezine "The Source", packed with tips, tools and strategies to help you fullfill your potential. Find out how we help business owners make more money, create more balance in their life and experience greater fulfilment. John Dashfield Dashfield Coaching and Development