Ensuring that everything goes well in your small business can be challenging, especially if you are merely starting. Millions and millions of ideas never come to fruition. For those that become and make something out of themselves, not every single business will survive. Only a fraction of companies launched every year become successful beyond five years.
While only 20% of businesses fail during their first two years, 50% overall will fail by the time they reach their fifth year. As more and more companies try to make something out of themselves and enter the fray, the number of businesses that will close down will reach exponential levels. Not everyone is trained to run a successful business.
Running a small business for yourself is eerily similar to any project presented at school. If you do not prepare appropriately for it, you will likely fail. It is the reason why some businessmen are called ruthless by casual passersby. It does not help that Hollywood shapes the idea of the public of business people. The acting prowess of decorated actors (such as Michael Keaton in The Founder as Ray Kroc and Christian Bale in American Psycho as Patrick Bateman) has defined how successful business people are. Sadly, these famous characters’ defining characteristics such as being diligent, their business acumen, and their insights are often overlooked.
What does it take to become the best at doing business? How can you practice and apply diligence to your small venture?
Everything Involved Must Be Disciplined
Discipline is such an easy concept to grasp in words but is essentially the hardest thing to do. Consistency comes first if you want to become disciplined in doing business. Discipline provides you with the standards you must live by to do something in their optimal manner. While discipline can cost you to sacrifice a bit in terms of the effort you put in every single day, the gratification it brings when you finally reach your goals will be ever-satisfying. If you are disciplined, it will speak volumes to your business and the people you employ. Sticking to being disciplined may not be easy, but there are some tools you can use to set you on a better path. Even simply creating a schedule for yourself every day can help your business grow in the future.
Everything Must Be Airtight
If medical doctors are afraid of losing their licenses to medical malpractice cases, so should you be fearful of losing your business license to regulations and restrictions placed by the government. Most small businesses tend to overlook the permits and licenses they need to acquire to function as a complete business. The usual small business tends to neglect getting permits and licenses because they always think that governmental regulations shouldn’t cover them.
However, part of being a responsible and diligent owner is making sure your business runs airtight. Compliance may always be hard to do, but it is a necessary evil that you must conquer. You wouldn’t want any law enforcement agency knocking on your door and claiming massive amounts in payments, fees, and penalties.
Everything Must Be Accounted For
To be a diligent business is to be the owner, the accountant, the manufacturer, and the salesman all at the same time. Being diligent about your business is all about accounting for every nook, cranny, and step you make in manufacturing your product or delivering your service. Every effort must be reduced in its simplest terms and written up in a way that can be traced personally by you. Accounting for every single cost of the items and every human element in the process will ensure that you will be saved from future losses. All businessmen must be assertive and inquisitory concerning each small component of their business.
Everything Must Be for Profit
Lastly, everything you do must be directed to generating profit. Every diligent business person must have the mindset that the capital must be converted into more capital. Each expense you make can hurt your business sometimes. However, each negative is merely part of the journey. Everything must be directed to profiteering and making money. Each expense must be treated as something that is headed for future profits.
Being diligent for small business owners can be a loathsome and troublesome task. In fact, being duly diligent about the income-generating element of your life can be soul-consuming. However, at least once in their lifetime, all successful businesses had an extremely strict and diligent owner. This is how they achieve growth and success.
