“Losers have goals. Winners have systems”- Scott Adams
Today’s post it’s overly simplistic.
And for sure it’s about something obvious and without a doubt something you already know.
It’s about goals and creating the systems that will allow your business to get to the next level.
But the reason I chose to write about this is because there’s usually a pretty big gap between what we *know* and what we *actually do*.
Let’s consider some examples on everyday life.
Most people know how to eat well and how much they should exercise -and yet they’re overweight.
Most people know they should sleep more -yet they keep browsing their smartphones endlessly every night.
Almost everyone I know would like to be more productive -yet they all spend hours weekly on facebook, twitter, youtube and watching TV.
So, the fact that we “know” something, many times doesn’t mean we’re applying it.
If you’re in business, of course you’d like more revenue, more customers, more profits, more reputation.
More of the good stuff -and less of the bad of course.
Who wouldn’t like that?
That’s a simple way to describe how success looks like.
And your business it’s a vehicle to get you there.
And if that´s the case, all you have to do is apply this basic approach:
KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING.
I told you it was simple.
(And yes, I’ll elaborate).
Many authors, both in business and personal development refer to this approach as “Beginning with the end in mind”.
You may know that you need or want more sales, more customers, get more recurring revenue, and so on (in other words: *GOALS*).
But if you don’t have *specific* ways to aim to all those increases, as well as ways to measure if you’re moving forward or not, then you might as well just pray and hope for all the best to happen.
When a business owner gets specific, the usual road is to outline some of the above goals.
And this is where the quote I shared at the beginning comes into play, so you can understand how to actually make things happen.
If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re not really growing a business.
You’re just keeping yourself busy through your business.
And once you know where you’re going, it´s not ONLY about setting goals and work hard to get them.
Absolutely everyone can dream with more sales.
It doesn’t take any work or skill whatsoever to project where do you want to be in one year from now.
So, your business growth it’s all about designing the SYSTEMS that will get you there.
Let’s break a simple example.
Suppose you have a store that sales vegan products and your goal is to sell $20,000 worth of products every month.
Your average sale is $ 25.
Your average email subscriber comes to the store twice a month, thanks to the newsletter that you send them, with some packages of products and the monthly specials.
Let’s suppose that non-email subscribers represent 40% of your current sales, with the same average sale of $ 25 , but it happens once every 3 months.
You see that your average email subscriber spends $50/month while the non-subscribers spend only $8.33/month.
First, you may realize that you need to keep track of these metrics if you are willing to improve your business sales.
Second, you then realize that by simply working on making *EVERY* customer into an email subscriber, you may be getting the chance of turning those $8.33/month into $50/month. That’s over 500% increase for these customers!
But, How do you turn them into subscribers you may ask?
Since you know that you have a margin of over $40/month that you’re leaving at the table as long as they don’t subscribe to your site, then you can create all sorts of offers or specials that are under that price in exchange for their subscription. Hell, you can even offer them 100% off in an average sale.
The key is to build a SYSTEM to make them into subscribers, and then they enter the already built SYSTEM around the monthly packages and specials.
You then can keep optimizing your sales systems to push that average sale over $25, or you can find ways to establish an Online SYSTEM that creates new email subscribers in order to keep growing the sales.
So, going back to the goal of $ 20,000/month, you then see that you can reach it once you have 400 active email subscribers.
That is: (Each subscriber spends an average of $50/month) x (400 subscribers) = $ 20,000/month.
And if you keep growing your list of subscribers, while optimizing your email systems, your sales will keep growing too.
And you don’t have to keep looking wishfully at the $20,000 goal, since you’ve broken it down to 400 email subscribers.
(Imagine how sales could look with 2,000 email subscribers!).
But what if you do not have an email list and don’t know how to create a business strategy tailored to your business?
Well, you have 2 options:
- Go get an education in business, or
- Get some business coaching.
Either way, you have options.
They’re not free, since you either have to pay for that education or pay someone to help you grow your business, but I hope you didn’t expect to get results in business for free.
So, breaking this post down:
Know where you’re going -> Set specific, quantifiable goals -> Build the systems to get there.
The systems will allow you to realize that the sales level it’s the result of a number of factors.
And all those factors, when handled like a pro, will increase your sales.
But the sales number is simply your indicator, it’s like the thermostat.
What really happens to get there is achieved through the *SYSTEMS* that you put in place.
But NOTHING will improve, if you don’t have clarity on that number, nor if you just hope to reach a magic number of sales.
A successful business is the result of having crystal clear clarity on your goals, that have systems behind them to make them a reality.
Makes sense?
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