5 ways to grow your business

Many of us with small businesses may sometimes experience slumps in that business. No matter how hard you plan for the fluctuations in customer's buying pattern, it is still educated guesswork. This is the time when you should be referring back to your business plan and confirming that you are still on the path you had originally set. If you feel that your original plan is not working properly, take time to work out a modification to that plan, be sure to include measurable actions in it and continue working. If you are working your business plan and are still having some concerns, now might be a good time to look again at why you started your own small business in the first place. Tonight we are going to talk about 5 ways to grow your business even when you feel like nothing positive is happening.

1. - Now is the time to go back and re-discover why you loved going into business for yourself. When times get tough, it is hard to remember why you started down this path. Hopefully when you initially created your business plan, you included all the things that you loved about starting your own small business. Go back and rediscover why you were passionate about your business. Fall in love again with what you wanted to do, do not let the current economic problems color your feelings (hard to do, I realize, but important to not let current the situation ruin your long-term plans) but strive to remember what you were passionate about. Imagine yourself a year from now and where you want to be. Work to see past the immediate problems and you may be able to figure out a solution to the current obstacle.

2. - Make sure you have a vision of where you want to be. Not where you want to be tonight, but where you want to end up after all is said and done. Once you know where you want to end up, then make a decision that you will make it happen. After deciding you will make the outcome become a reality, start slowly making steps towards that destination. If you are able to focus on your long-term goals, the short-term problems will begin to resolve themselves because you fought to find a solution to them. Your short-term problems are not insurmountable if you are always looking towards the future.

3. - Don't be afraid of the obstacles that crop up as you work towards your ultimate goal. It may sound corny, but the difficulties you experience now will make you a better business person in the long haul. Another way to look at difficulties is, think of the success story you will have to tell. There are many millionaires out there that failed miserably in one endeavor or another, some may have even bankrupted themselves, but they still got up, dusted themselves off and started to work toward their dream again. How do you feel when you hear these millionaires tell you of the times that they failed? We are all human, we will encounter difficulties, we will fail, but we will get up and start again. Failing is only one way of discovering what not to do next time. Won't you feel good being able to stand in front of hundreds of people telling them that there were times that you thought you couldn't go on, but despite the problems and difficulties, you prevailed? It proves you are human.

4. - You need to continue working towards your goals. No matter how hard things get, nothing will ever beat out good old-fashioned work to help a business succeed. Do not fall into the trap that there are businesses out there that do not require large amounts of work in order to be successful. To find a business that does not require any effort on your part is like finding a needle in a haystack. Again, referring back to the numerous millionaire profiles we have been doing, they all have put in the sweat to get their business going. You need to work in order to reap the rewards. There is no free lunch, no matter how many Internet marketers will try to tell you otherwise.

5. - Lastly, don't believe your friends and family when they tell you your business will never succeed. New ideas always seem strange to many people. Inventions like the light bulb would not have occurred if people were afraid to follow new ideas. As long as you have a solid business plan and reasonable chance for success, do not let some people tell you it will never work. Some of the modern millionaires were told their ideas were stupid, but they continued anyway only to end up making millions more. If you decide to discontinue one particular line in your business, be sure you are terminating it for solid business reasons, not because you are bending to outsiders telling you that your idea will never succeed.

Hopefully these ideas will be helpful in igniting lagging enthusiasm in your small business. Times are tough, many businesses (even long-established businesses) are falling by the wayside. The key is to remain flexible, strong, and keep measuring your successes against your business plan.

If you are looking for a second income, perhaps we have something that will appeal to you. Please let us know if you have any questions about the business opportunities we offer on our website. We would love to assist you in finding an additional income stream, and hopefully even helping you to achieve the financial freedom you have dreamed of.

Until tomorrow...