Do you feel that your business doesn’t live up to its fullest potential? Do you miss the passion and drive that you used to feel when your business was new? Do you often ask yourself why you are in business in the first place? Does it sometimes feel you could be doing something else more worthwhile with your time? If you answered yes to any of the above, maybe it is time to reboot your business. Your business might need to be reset so you can square your ideals, dreams, hopes, and aspirations with your business’s results, systems, and processes. Otherwise, you might feel your business drifting downwards.
Stop settling for mediocrity. Follow the steps below to reboot and re-energize your business.
Take inventory
It’s easy to confuse your general frustration with your business results with other frustrations in your life and think you need to start over with your business. Well, if you want to reboot your business, you need to make sure you have a clear picture of where your business is. If you want to chart new directions for your business, you need to be clear as to where you are currently. Take the time to get your business’s current health reduced to numbers. Numbers rarely lie. Prepare a cash flow statement. Prepare an income statement and profit/loss statement. Are some of your products or services outdated? Which ones are profitable and which are not? Are some profitable products hiding the fact that others are losing money? Kill the unprofitable ones and free up resources to grow the profitable parts of your business.
Take inventory of yourself, too. Are you unhappy working in your business? Maybe you are not a good fit with the clients you are attracting, or the work you are doing seems boring or no longer challenges you.
Set objectives
Now that you’ve gotten an accurate snapshot of where your business currently is, you need to set your objectives. Where do you want your business to go? Don’t be afraid to set your eyes on seemingly ‘impossible’ goals. Don’t underestimate what your business is capable of achieving. Where do you see your business next year? Three years from now? Five years from now?
Pay attention to what your competition is doing. Set your objectives to not just match their trajectory but position yourself at 10 to 25 percent ahead of them. These might seem like pie in the sky projections, but rest assured by the fact that the biggest goals are achievable if you break them down into small enough parts.
Set timelines and milestones
Now that you have set up your big goals, write down all that you need to do to achieve those goals. Break the steps down into smaller parts. Separate them into what you can do every day, what you need to do weekly, and what you need to do monthly or quarterly. Apply timelines. Create to-do lists.
Focus and reboot your business by building systems
Now that you know what you are going to do, set up systems for each process. Come up with checklists for each task. Make sure you include quality control steps in your checklist. Explain your systems to your team. Make sure you get their feedback and incorporate these into the checklist. Train them to use the checklist for each step of the process so you get uniform results. Make videos to cross train your current team members and to make training easy for new hires or outsourcers.
By deciding to reboot your business, you can put together the plans and systems you need to take your business to the next level. The smart way to reboot your business is to put together the right plan and commit to that plan. Keep pushing ahead. Deciding to reboot your business is one thing, sticking to the reboot no matter what it takes is another matter entirely. Focus on your decision to build your business and don’t let anything get in your way.
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