6 Steps for Taking Control of Your Business Success

From embracing control to committing to doing the work of business research, planning and tracking, these six strategies will help you take charge of your business success.
6 Steps for Taking Control of Your Business Success
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6 Steps for Taking Control of Your Business Success

Use these six strategies to put yourself in control as you lead your business to long-term success.

The pandemic has stress-tested many businesses, but the key strategies for achieving business success haven’t changed. From embracing control to committing to doing the work of business research, planning and tracking, these six strategies will help you take charge of your business success.

1. Take Charge of Your Attitude

Like many entrepreneurs and business owners, I had big plans for 2020. In January, I hosted an event that encouraged business owners to make it “your best year ever.”

We all know how that worked out. But in the end, 2020 reinforced an important message: Being a business owner requires taking full ownership of everything that comes your way, good or bad. Being in charge is not for the faint of heart. You don’t get to blame anyone if you don’t meet your goal. You don’t even get to blame a pandemic.

2. Embrace Control

While the urge to deflect responsibility by blaming the pandemic is understandable, it also amounts to ceding control. Why in the world would you ever give away that much power to something or somebody else? I’m a control freak — about me. Being in charge means that you take ownership of what it is that you want. You don’t settle.

3. Define what you want

In order to go all in on running a business, you’d better enjoy what you’re doing. If each day becomes a treadmill of tasks that you dread, it won’t be long until you succumb to burnout — and your business will succumb right along with you.

Here’s the trick for not doing things you don’t want to do: Don’t do ’em.

I’m not suggesting that you simply neglect important responsibilities that are a part of running any successful business. I’m just advising you to offload any task that isn’t directly related to growing your business.

4. … But Make Sure Other People Want It, Too

Some entrepreneurs go too far in the other direction. They’re so focused on launching a business based on something they enjoy doing that they never bother to research whether there is a large enough market to sustain it. For some reason, many entrepreneurs fail to do that basic background work. Unfortunately, the pandemic has exposed this fatal flaw on a huge scale.

5. Commit to Doing the Work

Even if you love what you do and there is a large enough market for you to make a business out of it, you still have to put in the work if you want it to succeed. Anything important in life, whether it’s a wedding or choosing a college or whatever it might be, requires a lot of planning and a lot of preparation.

For a business owner, that work includes:

That last item is particularly important. If you’re an expert in your field, you might rely on gut instinct to an unhealthy degree when making critical marketing decisions. You need to use actual data and learn to analyze it objectively. Your gut is not necessarily going to be wrong, but it’s not going to be as accurate as you think. Track the results and let them guide you.

6. Give Yourself Credit

For many business owners, recovering from the pandemic has been a long, stressful process. And many still have a long way to go. So while you stay committed to being in charge of your own destiny, and while you do all the hard work necessary to accomplish your goals, it’s important to also acknowledge the milestones that you reach along the way.

Take the time to celebrate even the smallest wins. Because as entrepreneurs, we can make ourselves absolutely miserable staring at these ever-growing to-do lists and never pat ourselves on the back for what we have done.

This post was adapted from the “Be in Charge, Take Action, Get Results” webinar in the Virtual Business Fundamentals Bootcamp Series | Chicago Far West Suburbs hosted by Dawn Hershik, Managing Director of Supporting Strategies | Chicago Far West Suburbs.

At Supporting Strategies, our experienced, U.S.-based professionals use secure, best-of-breed technology and a proven process to provide a full suite of bookkeeping and controller services. Are you ready to learn how you can move your business forward? Contact Supporting Strategies today.

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Erin Marcus

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Erin Marcus is an author, speaker and communications specialist helping organizations to “Conquer the Conversation,” and creating improvement in sales, customer service and team dynamics. To bring Erin to your event or business:

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