What to do for a successful business
To successfully operate a business, you have to effectively manage a broad range of issues – all at the same time.
The mistake made by most business owners is that, while they focus on some issues, they overlook or neglect other critical matters that undermine their success.
Here we introduce the full range of issues you must effectively manage to operate a successful business. These 5 things create business success: Purpose, Customers, Workforce, Process, and Structure.
As a starting point, I recommend that you memorize these 5 terms and these brief explanations:
- Purpose – A shared understanding of why your business exists and what it’s trying to achieve.
- Customers – The creation and delivery of value to your customers (hopefully at a selling price that exceeds your cost, and in a sufficient volume that generates an adequate profit).
- Workforce – The creation of a work environment in which workers will be able to, and will want to, perform at a very high level.
- Process – The development and continuous improvement of effective and efficient methods for doing the work of the business.
- Structure – The establishment and maintenance of an appropriate organization and support infrastructure.
Understanding that your management responsibility includes all 5 of these elements is a big step forward. If you continuously manage all 5 of these matters well, your business will thrive, you will make more money, and you will enjoy life more. But, while these 5 elements are simple in concept, their implementation is not so easy.
As you begin to apply this operational framework to your business, you should also keep the following points in mind:
- Success results from the proper management of all 5 of these elements. Any one of these elements will undermine your business if it is not managed appropriately.
- Every element is connected to all of the others in a web-like relationship. This is why every element has the potential to undermine your entire business.
- Your business currently has strengths in some areas (relatively speaking), and weaknesses in others. Identifying these strengths and weaknesses will help direct your improvement efforts.
- The Purpose element is often the starting point for business improvement because it establishes a foundation for everything else in your business. Sometimes, however, another element is so out of whack that your work has to start there.
- As manager, you have to constantly analyze and monitor your business across all 5 of these elements — all of the time. Your business, your people, your industry, and other factors are always changing. You have to be continually on guard to adjust your business in response to these changes.
As you hopefully recognize, the management of your business is a significant task. To effectively implement the directions and advice provided in this website, you must first create sufficient space in your personal role in your business so you can properly handle these management activities.
If you have already reviewed the materials on your management role:
Click Here to move on to — “Purpose”