Every business owner has unique values, goals, and personality traits. These characteristics often distinguish one brand from another. Yet branding alone doesn’t guarantee success. The most successful entrepreneurs embrace business practices that allow them to scale, grow, and adapt.
If you’re feeling burnt out or your business’s growth has plateaued, adopting one or more of these policies may help you break through to the next level.
Business Practice #1: Successful Entrepreneurs Delegate
It’s natural to wear many hats in the early stages of building a business. However, your time and energy are limited. Therefore, all successful entrepreneurs must eventually learn to delegate for business growth to continue.
Whether you prefer to hire internally or outsource to a specialist, delegating responsibilities that don’t require your expertise lets you step into a true leadership role. For example, overseeing business and marketing planning, and in some cases, client relationships, allows you to influence the long-term direction of your business.
On the other hand, managing payroll does not. In fact, businesses that outsource payroll and other human resources functions spend 18% less than businesses that perform these tasks in-house, on average, according to PWC. Meaning, delegating has benefits beyond freeing up your own capacity as a business owner.
Business Practice #2: Successful Entrepreneurs Systematize Business Processes
Entrepreneurs who find ways to scale their business operations can grow at a faster rate. In addition, systematizing your business processes means the business can run without you. This is a major benefit if you plan to exit your business one day—or if you just want to take a vacation.
Systematization doesn’t necessarily mean automation. It simply means you have a documented set of standard operating procedures (SOPs). SOPs ensure routine business processes are performed consistently every time, no matter who oversees them.
Adopting this business practice can boost productivity and reduce your overall expenses. It can also make your business more marketable if your exit plan involves selling to an outside buyer.
Business Practice #3: Successful Entrepreneurs Embrace Formal Planning
Research shows that entrepreneurs who have a business plan are twice as likely to succeed in growing their business than those who don’t. Unfortunately, only a third of small business owners have a formal business plan, according to a recent national survey.
Regularly carving out time for business planning is one of the most important business practices entrepreneurs can embrace. This includes budgeting, setting sales targets, and developing a marketing strategy, among other high-level priorities.
Business Practice #4: Successful Entrepreneurs Adapt
Successful entrepreneurs stay true to their long-term vision while maintaining enough flexibility to adapt as conditions and consumer preferences change. Embracing this business practice can help you survive both short-term setbacks and major shifts in the marketplace.
The Covid-19 pandemic is a great example of why adaptability is so important. In general, businesses that were able to come up with creative and innovative solutions at the start of the pandemic fared better than those with no Plan B.
As a result, six months into the pandemic, only 38% of small business owners said they were operating as normal, according to the latest Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business survey. Moreover, 32% of small business owners didn’t expect to fully recover from the pandemic for at least a year.
Bottom Line: Mind Your Business Practices
There are many paths to success. Nevertheless, successful entrepreneurs can typically be defined by the quality of their business practices, as well as their overall mindset. Making time to work on your business and not just in your business can significantly boost its growth potential and ultimately, its value.
At Oak Capital Advisors, our mission is to help you successfully exit your business and retire on your terms. If we can help you develop a plan to achieve these goals, please get started by requesting your complimentary retirement readiness assessment.
