Can You Deliver?

Can You Deliver?

by Sherese Duncan

Strategy, leadership, innovation, and marketability…all are crucial to business success; however can your business execute?

Small business owners normally spend countless hours organizing business plans and marketing plans without considering if they can execute the plan. Creating a plan whatever type of plan, should be your game plan to achieve your vision. This requires one of the most important skills of any business-Execution.

What is execution? In business, it’s exposing reality so that you can act on it. Execution is not just about doing what you say you’re going to do. It involves being realistic about your business in all areas including your own skill sets; it also involves having a ‘business mindset’ so that you can take action, and lastly it involves creating a success team that has execution integrated into their skill set.

So how do you begin incorporating execution into your business? Here are 5 areas to start with:

Face reality. Getting real about your business is the first step to execution. It sounds simple, but it’s hard for most people in general because we spend a lot of time in denial. Denial is a way to make life easier and comfortable.

For instance, I recently asked one of my clients this question, “How do you plan to hit your monthly targets?” His answer, “By incorporating a strong marketing strategy.” This answer illustrates that this client was trying to tell me what I wanted to hear instead of dealing with reality-he didn’t know the answer. This is denial. The answer should’ve been, “I don’t know, can you help me figure it out?” This is reality.

Do the right things right. Marketing is a great example to demonstrate this point. The goal of marketing is to persuade your target to buy your solution. Marketing is the right thing to do, but if you do marketing the right way, all it takes is being extremely confident about the solutions you offer and backing it up with a solid business that can execute. Many successful sales have been made without spending a dime on direct mail, advertising, networking, and other marketing mediums.

If you learn how to do the right things right; your business will execute consistently.

Get rid of your excess baggage. I say excess because we are human and we all have some degree of baggage whether its family challenges or internal challenges. If the baggage is exceeding your emotional capacity, you have excess. Excess baggage may include: negative self-talk, intentional fear, procrastination, laziness, and the list can go on.

The excess baggage can take on many forms and it will impede you from executing the vision. To begin peeling off those excess layers of baggage, learn the power of focus.

Identify your weaknesses. It’s really easy to identify our strengths or what you’re good at, but can you detail the true weaknesses of your business. I’m not talking about poor sales, lack of resources, or one that I hear most often-no money. These are not weaknesses, because you don’t have to do much to overcome them. A weakness is more about a lack of aptitude or skill when it comes to business. For example, if you have a lack of strategic direction-it will take some work to turn this weakness into a strength.

Another way to look at it-your competition is preying upon your weaknesses. They know what your weaknesses are, do you?

Learn the art of simplicity. Instead of thinking for ourselves, we rely on the thinking of others. For example, most of you probably know everything that I’m touching on in this article to some degree. I’m really not giving you foreign information-we just aren’t used to trusting our instincts. We feel that the more complex path or complex answer must be right. The simple path or simple answer just can’t be, “It can’t be this simple…can it?” How many times have you used this line or heard it from someone else? The next time the answer is yes, it can be that simple.

As you evaluate and manage these 5 areas, execution will present itself and clarity will take over. Just remember, don’t learn the tricks of the trade, learn the trade; if you do you will execute consistently and build a profitable business with longevity.

© 2005 Effició, Inc., Inc.

About the Author:

Sherese Duncan is the Author of the Award Winning Ezine, The Street Perspective, a bi-weekly eZine for small biz owners who want straight-to-the-point simple strategies to increase profits and increase cash flows. Sign up for your free profit strategies at http://www.thestreetperspective.com

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