We get so caught up in the daily life of running a business, it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees.

Not that you have a choice! You’re fighting fires, handling a pissed-off customer, rending your face over an emergency bug-fix, the website just went down, and the accountant is coming tomorrow and the books are in shambles.

All normal. But still every month or so it’s nice to take a step back and see whether you’re missing a chance to make a more meaningful change to your business.

Here’s some things you can do:

-View your website/product/service through the eyes of a new potential customer. *Do informal usability testing with a stranger. You’re too close to your own projects!

-Find a decision about your product or your behavior which is really due to ego rather than making life better for your employees or customers, or rather than seeking revenue. *There’s no shame in having a big ego and it’s natural to not want to admit mistakes or change your position on things, but sometimes it’s the right thing for everyone.

-Delegate activities you’re still doing yourself because “no one else can do them as well or as quickly,” but which don’t actually need to be done that well or quickly. *Delegation is hard, but healthy, and necessary if you expect to grow as a company and as a person.

-Do one thing to increase your company’s visibility on Twitter, blogs, Facebook – wherever.

-Identify one person who could really help get your company more exposure, and who might be personally motivated to do so. *Then spend real time trying to contact that person.

-Find one “number” in your business you know the least about (i.e. conversion rates, trial/sales rates, length of a trial, number of people who hit the home page and nothing more). Then spend time trying to learn more.

-Come up with one thing you could do that might increase conversion rates by 1%. Here “conversion” can mean any part of the funnel from home page hit to downloads to CRM opportunities to sales. *Usually conversion rates are in the 0.1% – 5% range, so just a single additional percent can result in a massive boost in revenue.

-Collect 10 pieces of empirical evidence about why your latest customers decided to give you money. *Use that to tune your website, ads, pitches, and marketing material to attract the next customers.

-Collect 10 pieces of empirical evidence about why people didn’t buy even when they were deep in your website or after they trialed your software. *The answer to more revenue lies with the folks who didn’t buy.

-Do one thing to prove to the world that you’re an expert in your field. *People like to buy from experts they trust.

-Identify one mundane, time-consuming tasks that you could outsource. *Even if it means spending money, it means you can spend your time on getting more revenue which will more than pay for the outsourcing.
Quantify how much completely disposable cash you have in the company’s bank account. *Whether it’s $50 or $50,000, maybe you should brainstorm how to spend it to get more revenue.

-Defer something you’re working on now that really isn’t necessary to be done now. *Take a minute to reset your priorities. What’s really timely?

-Admit one thing you’re doing because of an assumption rather than because of hard evidence. *You have to make assumptions to live in the world, but it’s worth stepping back and challenging even the most basic ones.

-Identify anything you’re doing because of a “plan” rather than because of hard evidence. *There’s no glory in following a business plan. Do the right thing with information at hand today regardless of any “plan.”

-Identify choices that don’t “feel” like the right thing to do. *If it feels wrong, it is. Do what’s right instead of what makes most revenue; in the long run Karma does work in business.

-Change your home page to be more specific in describing how you help your customers. *General phrases and wishy-washy statements don’t excite people or win customers’ hearts.

-Give your customers something wonderful, for free. *A deal on a related product, a free book, even just a thoughtful article of interest to them — give them something for free to show you care and they’ll reward you ten-fold.

-Take one step to become more visible in communities related to your business. *On-line or off-line, how can you be a part of other social networks?

-Further differentiate yourself from competitors rather than just try to “kill” them. *Explaining the niche you unquestionably own is a better path to sales than trying to win every deal on every point.
Congratulate yourself and your employees on the good aspects of the business. *We’re always battling problems instead of reveling in the good stuff; the good stuff is what makes business fun, and is kinda the whole point.

-Do something to invest in your customers’ experience after the sale. *We’re so caught up in getting new customers we sometimes forget how to keep them thrilled one year later.

-Take on a project that you could complete in under a week, and really ought to, but you’ve procrastinated because it sucks to have to do it.

-Remove 5 blogs from your feed reader because they’re not worth the time, and add 5 blogs that increase your chances of having a successful business.

I hope some of these ideas inspire you to reconsider your priorities and shift your behavior. Don’t let fire-fighting or your personality get in the way of healthy revenue growth!

About the Author: Jason Cohen is the founder of Smart Bear Software and mentor at Austin-based startup launcher Capital Factory. He blogs at A Smart Bear about startups and marketing with a geeky twist.

Small Business Advice, Small business operations October 19, 2009 By Jason Cohen
Source: Small Business Trends