Getting excited about a new business idea is easy. Starting a business is doable. But making it last? That’s a whole different story. Building a business that lasts under ordinary circumstances is a challenge. Building a business that lasts through a pandemic takes patience, planning, prayer, and a strong team of people.
2020 was a difficult year for many business owners. From countless nights fretting over meeting payroll to stressing over the difficult conversations that lie ahead with team members, and even just trying to figure out how to cut costs, yet still make the numbers work — it wasn’t easy. In fact, most businesses are still recovering from it.
5 Key Takeaways from Business Builders Live 2021
Our mission as a company has always been to help others grow their businesses, and the idea for Business Builders Live came at just the right time, giving us the opportunity to help other businesses get back on track and grow their businesses the way they deserve.
The feeling of being stressed out, worn out, and ready to quit is the exact reason our team put together Business Builders Live — a two-day event that allowed business owners, leaders, and their teams to reset that reality and get a clear plan in place for the decade ahead.
We held this event because helping others is what we do, and we knew we could provide value to those who needed it most. So we put together all the tools and resources business owners needed to scale their teams, be more profitable, and live the life they want.
CEO and Founder Jay Owen has grown his business year over year since 1999. Business Builders Live was the culmination of those 21 years worth of knowledge, failure, and tips you can actually use to build a business that lasts yourself.
1. People are the cornerstone of all successful businesses.
If you want to success in life and business, there are four types of people you should surround yourself with:
- Someone to look up to
- Someone who stands beside you
- Someone who looks up to you
- Someone who believes in you when you don’t believe in yourself
But how do you find those people, and where should they come from? Anywhere, really.
Business growth groups and company organizations are great places to meet and network with others who are on a similar path. If you’re in need of a group of likeminded business leaders, or need some extra support along your journey, check out our Business Builders large group coaching.
You can’t do everything if you’re going to scale your business. That’s the truth. You need to build a solid team you can count on to help you get there — people who are strong where you’re weak. With the right people in the right seats, you can create the right structure and hiring plan to build your dream team.
Patrick Lencioni says, “The right people should be hungry, humble, and smart.” It’s important to take the time to fill your team with those who don’t just align with your core values, but also have the skills, heart, and bandwidth to complete the job.
How do you find the right people? To start, you have to understand yourself before you can understand others. Self-awareness is a super power, and one of the best ways our team has been able to better understand our own personality styles, in addition to other team members’, is through the DISC assessment. This assessment measures how people behave in an environment and can be pivotal in creating a healthy, united workspace.
If your team struggles with varying communication styles that often cause conflict, check out our DISC personality workshop. In the workshop, you’ll not only gain more insight about your own personality and those around you, but also get an actionable plan that will teach you how to communicate more effectively yourself.
2. Don’t find customers for your products — find products for your customers.
As best said by Seth Godwin, “Don’t find customers for your products — find products for your customers.”
When it comes to pricing, give your prospects multiple options to increase the odds of buying from you. Let them decide between your options rather than between you and your competitors.
Whenever possible, look for products that have the potential to generate both recurring and passive revenue.
Once you’ve nailed down your offer, make it easy for people to understand what working with you looks like. No matter what industry you’re in, or how long of a process it may be to get started working with you, our brains like to see things simplified down into three steps. It’s easy to comprehend, remember, and repeat. If a prospect has to burn calories, or even really think when trying to figure out your process, it’s too complicated.
3. When it comes to process: eradicate, delegate, automate, or coordinate.
When it comes to tasking, all tasks should be assigned to one person, with a due date. Your inbox is not a task management system (say it louder for the people in the back!) so do not let past, present, and future tasks pile up there.
The best way to keep your inbox clean is to ask yourself the following questions:
- Can it be deleted?
- Can it be automated?
- Can it be delegated?
- Can it be scheduled?
If it can be deleted — great, delete! If it can be automated, find an automation tool and save yourself the time of scheduling or completing that task. If it can be delegated, task it to another team member, with a due date, and file it away. If it can be scheduled, then schedule it out and keep things moving. When things sit, they don’t get done, and that’s what you want to avoid.
After you get an organization plan in place, it’s much easier to focus on how you can improve those processes. Having the right numbers, on a weekly scorecard that gets reviewed by your leadership team is a great way to help predict the future. When you know the future, you can adjust before crashing (and hopefully avoid it!).
4. Promotion: The key to conversion is clear messaging.
When it comes to marketing, if you confuse, you lose.
Clear messaging is key when it comes to driving conversions. No matter what industry you’re in, you have competition trying to beat you. How sure are you that your messaging supports why a prospect should choose you over them?
When it comes to creating clear messaging and a strong marketing campaign, there are some things you need to make sure you get right:
- A quality website: Before having to scroll, your website should tell your audience three things: what you offer, how it’s going to make their life better, and how they can get it. Cute no longer cuts it. Be clear in the product or service you offer.
- Content offer: So your main CTA (call to action) on your website is to book a call. That works for those who are ready to move forward. What about the prospects that aren’t yet ready to talk? How do you get their attention? Create a free offer they can’t resist. Offer them a downloadable PDF, free course, ebook, anything that can give you the opportunity to get their email in exchange for valuable content they’ll want.
- Automated email sequence: You got their email… now what? Now you need to persuade them into booking that call. How can you help solve your customer’s problems? Answer their problems with an automated email sequence and keep the door open without taking up another minute of your time.
- Sales campaign: If they made it through the automated campaign but didn’t convert, you have to keep at it because now, there’s crossover between sales and marketing. Do a little more research on your prospects and customize your sales message to best suit their needs and better appeal to them.
- System to track results: Reporting without data is like getting behind the wheel of a car with your eyes closed. You have no idea how to get where you want to go. A CRM can help you track the results of your marketing efforts and calculate your return on investment. After all, you need to know what is and isn’t working! Our team internally uses and recommends HubSpot, but there are many other options you can use, such as Salesforce, Agile, and Zoho.
5. Make family time a must-do, not a should-do.
With the rise in remote work environments, many of us have lost that transition time to change your focus from work mode to family mode. Whether that was the car ride home from the office, a quick stop at Starbucks for an energy boost before picking the kids up from school, or simply just sitting in your car and taking 15 minutes to refocus before walking in from a long day at work.
It can become all too easy to let work take over the time you should be spending at the dinner table, or watching American Idol Mondays at 8 p.m. Allow yourself the time to unplug from work and reconnect with your family because the work will always be there for you tomorrow.
That isn’t’ to say that sometimes one area won’t be busier than the other. There will be times where work and life may truly not be balanced. Sometimes, you need to put a little extra work in to be able to get the time back down the road. Other times, you need to focus more on your family and less on what’s happening at work.
For those who run a business and have a family, Jay and Claire advise keeping communication at the center, especially through those seasons, so that expectations are clear for both parties.
It’s Time to Build Your Business That Lasts
For our team, Business Builders Live was everything we hoped it would be. Our goal was to teach others how to build a business that lasts, and from everything we’ve heard from our attendees, they got exactly what they needed from it.
As our business evolves, our mission will stay the same, and we look forward to hosting many more business growth events in the near future in order to help as many business owners as possible. If you could use some help growing your business, get in touch with our team today. Whether you need consulting or marketing assistance, we’re here to help!
