Fear can stop your business from growing just as surely as anything else. There are many common fears that business owners face, and in this article, we tackle three big ones.
These three fears came from a discussion between Adi Klevit of Business Success Consulting Group and Andy Neary of Complete Game Consulting. During their conversation, they discuss the secrets to overcoming common fears and how a business owner can use these challenges to launch into greater success.
During their discussion, Andy also shares specific marketing techniques and processes you can use immediately. Listen to the podcast to learn about those techniques.
Three Fears and How to Overcome Them
What are the three fears that Adi and Andy discuss? They are:
- Comparison
- Judgment
- Failure
Succumbing to fear can stop you in your tracks, halt your business, and end any promotional activities or sales successes.
So, how do you overcome these three fears and launch your business toward success?
The answer is to document your successes.
You have started a business and are in the process of building or expanding it! So, what successes have you had in the past?
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to get started:
- Who is your favorite five-star client?
- What problem do you solve better than anybody in your market?
- What results have you created?
These questions are not only great for overcoming your fear, but they are also excellent for launching into process-building.
For example, identifying your five-star client allows you to define your ideal prospect clearly. You can go in-depth and break down the demographics, consider where the clients leave reviews or share referrals, and determine why they are your favorite clients.
Next, identifying the problem you solve best gives you a launching point for building a process. Why are you the best at solving it and what steps do you take to do so? From there, you can document your process to ensure consistency when resolving that problem.
Finally, look at the results! These are excellent measures you can utilize as you promote your business and build promotional processes. Focusing on results allows you to step out of the fear, deal with actualities, and build an even better process to support consistent growth.
How Processes Cut Through the Fear
One fantastic thing about your business processes is that they are tailored to your company. So, documenting these unique processes gives you the opportunity to build something that makes your company stand out and defines your business.
And, processes and business systems are dynamic. So, if they do not work perfectly the first time, you can revisit them and tweak them until they are just right - even while a process remains in use.
Knowing this and building processes specifically for your business can help you fight the fear of comparison, judgment, or failure because you know that the processes are unique, they will need work and tweaking, and they will not completely fail - because you are documenting what you and your team are already doing. So, not only does documenting processes and procedures make your business a greater success, it also helps cut through any fear you may be experiencing.
How to Document a Process
Here is a quick walk-through of process documentation that you can use to keep your business both unique and efficient:
1. Choose an area to document.
Usually, business owners choose sales or hiring as the areas that most need documentation. Often, the area to document is the one that has the most "fires" or which you need to help others most often.
2. Decide where the documentation will be stored.
Gone are the days of big binders that live in HR. There are many places you can store process documentation on the computer, intranet, cloud, etc.
3. Meet with the team in charge of that area.
You are not alone in process documentation! Get the team on board by sharing how process documentation can assist them with common challenges they face. For example, documenting processes will make it easier for others to take on a role while a team member is under the weather. Documenting processes also supports a smoother hiring and training process, making life easier for everyone as your business expands.
4. Work with the team to document their tasks.
Have the team block out time each day or every couple of days to document, record, and/or screenshot specific processes. Blocking out the time is important, as everyone is busy, and the whole team needs to be on the same page.
5. Perform a run-through.
Run through everything that has been documented. Are there gaps where processes need to be built? Does the documentation cover all of the important parts of the departments? Does the documentation work? Revise the documentation and run through it until it all works cohesively.
6. Utilize the processes day-to-day and as your team trains new hires.
Keeping everyone on the same page creates consistency and makes the entire team's job that much easier.
7. Set a review time.
Processes are dynamic and must be reviewed consistently. Set up a review time every 3-6 months to ensure they are up-to-date with software and product changes.
Overcoming your fears can be a stepping stone in your company's growth!
Are you ready to take the next step, but find process-building overwhelming? The process experts at Business Success Consulting Group are here to help! Schedule your free initial consultation today.
