Thursday, June 16, 2011

Leveraging your natural talents for success.

John Walters of 1-2-1 Business Consulting urges small business owners to leverage their natural talents, and to more effectively leverage the talents of others for greater success.

As a small business owner you face many challenges including managing the “if I don’t do it, it won’t get done” syndrome.

Of course it’s true that as a small business owner you have to take on many diverse tasks in order to become successful, at least in the early stages, from Marketing, Order taking, Production, Invoicing, Accounting and more.

However, I want to challenge you to think a little more about whether you do in fact have to do everything for yourself.  Is there a better way? Can you leverage your skills to be more effective?

Let’s say that you encounter a minor plumbing problem in your home.  Could you tackle it? Perhaps, but the plumber armed with the appropriate tools can do the job much more efficiently, and so it is with many tasks.
You may be saying, so what, I can’t afford to engage specialists every time I need a minor repair or a small job performing within the home or the business. Well, guess what, neither can the other small business owners that you come in to contact with every day.

The thing is that we are all blessed with different skills, meaning that we perform some tasks better than others, and we all have things to do in the business that we would prefer not to do, therein lies the opportunity.
My message is that you should look for potential opportunities to work together with other small businesses in order to maximize your respective talents for mutual benefit.

Let’s suppose that you are a natural at Marketing, but you loathe dealing with the administration aspects of the business.  Perhaps you know another business owner who really struggles with marketing, but is much more comfortable with bookkeeping etc.  Is there an opportunity to use your respective talents to help each other out and thereby become more productive?



Yes, I’m referring to a form of bartering, which has been around forever, and can be an excellent way to leverage your skills in order to be more effective.  And, so the next time you are thinking “if I don’t do it, it won’t get done, I want you to stop and ask yourself:
  1. Do I know someone that could perform this task more efficiently?
  2. Is there something that I could do for them instead?
  3. Is there an opportunity to barter for mutual benefit?
Good luck.

Implementing the above will certainly help to improve your business.  Should you need additional help you should contact “121″.  We have the tools, proven methodologies and experience and we are there to help you.

Find more scheduling and efficiency strategies in OED's Online Community, and via special events located at OEDGlobal.org.

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