Singer Annie Lennox once said of her career, “When you’re that successful, things have a momentum, and at a certain point you can’t really tell whether you have created the momentum or it’s creating you.”
Every small business owner dreams of the day when his or her organization has the kind of momentum Lennox is talking about. Companies with strong momentum find that new sales prospects, partnerships and innovations naturally come their way almost effortlessly. However, as every small business consultant can attest, in the early years of an organization’s life cycle, it’s easy to become distracted, distraught, or overwhelmed – all of which make it extremely difficult to keep business momentum going.
Fortunately, business consulting experts can also verify that it is possible to increase momentum in any organization. The five strategies listed below can help you build momentum in your own business.
1. Have a clear focus.
Before you build momentum, it’s important to figure out which direction you want to move in the first place. Business consulting sessions often begin with an interview in which the small business consultant asks the owner or manager about his or her overall goals for the organization.
Set a few clear, measurable, realistic priorities for your firm so your attempts at building momentum have a defined target. Once you start checking off achievements, you and your staff will have a natural impetus to continue moving forward. (Business consulting gurus would vouch that human motivation is often the largest obstacle to building business momentum.)
2. Focus on sustainability.
Every psychologist and small business consultant knows extremely hard work must eventually be offset with rest and recovery. While you may be able to pull a 12-hour day every once in a while, you can’t depend on that kind of pace for the long haul. And although your employees may be willing to stay late every so often, they will begin looking for work elsewhere if you expect this kind of superhuman work regularly.
For these reasons, it’s important to ensure your momentum-building efforts are sustainable. Only begin projects that you can keep up without driving yourself or your employees crazy. Practice saying “no” to any venture that is untenable for the long term.
3. Share the load.
As the leader, you may be tempted to take on all momentum-building efforts yourself. However, this approach is not scalable – you can’t very well clone yourself if all of your marketing strategy planning bears fruit. Instead, involve the whole team.
The old saw, “Many hands make light work,” is certainly true for building business momentum. Share the work among all of your employees by raising the bar slowly for the whole organization. If everyone in your firm is able to step up by doing their part to sell more and deliver more, momentum will inevitably build.
4. Sharpen the stone.
Steven Covey’s book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is such a classic text nowadays that it’s difficult to make this point in any language other than his. As Covey writes, it’s important to “sharpen the stone” by practicing lifelong learning.
Take classes. Network. Attend conferences. Stay open to new ideas, and be willing to embrace change. No industry is completely static; by staying up-to-date on the most current thinking in your field, you will naturally come across methods for boosting efficiency and building momentum.
5. Build on what you have.
While you may be tempted to jump straight into that popular but time-consuming new marketing strategy planning approach, the truth is that you already have plenty of resources for building momentum at your fingertips. One way every small business consultant recommends building sustainable momentum is to focus on leveraging the products, services, employee and clients you already have.
Your clients, for instance, are probably pleased pink with your service (if not, that’s your main focus) and completely thrilled to pass on recommendations to their acquaintances. Your products may be improved by adding just one or two key new features. And by surveying customers, you can figure out how a small tweak to your regular service would make it much more appealing (and much more worthy of a higher price). Employees are another rich source for momentum-building innovation; ask them what ideas they have for improving your services, products, and procedures.
