Three Easy Steps for Growing your Business

You can grow your business in 2009! The promotional products world is a $200 billion industry. Even if it was down 30 percent, that still leaves $140 billion of opportunity. If you don’t currently sell $140 billion, this means there is potential for you to grow your business. Here are three easy steps for increasing your sales, even while others tell you that you can’t.

Plan — You must have a dream and a plan for making it a reality. Achieving starts with believing. You must believe that you can accomplish your goals. Thoughts become things if you remain focused on making them reality. By creating a dominant thought in your mind that you can succeed, you will begin to build the confidence you need to start making cold calls and start achieving.

Write your goal on a business card and place it in your wallet. Every time you see it, you will be reminded of the mission that you are working hard to accomplish. Just as a coach would not let his team step on the court without a playbook, you cannot run your business without developing a winning strategy. Don’t waste another minute without an action plan for your business.

Execute — Activity makes things happen if — and only if — you are doing the right activities. Too many times, business owners get bogged down responding to e-mails, returning phone calls and being stuck in the busy-ness of their business. Do everything in your power to prevent this from happening to you. There are three different types of work: $20 per hour, $40 per hour and $400 per hour. Real $400-an-hour work occurs when you are acquiring new business, increasing your business with current customers, hiring qualified sales professionals or growing through mergers and acquisitions. In order to grow, you must focus your time and energy on this $400-an-hour work.

Take a look at your daily activities, and determine if they are helping you reach your ultimate goals. Eliminate any less productive tasks from your day, and don’t be afraid to delegate. When evaluating your day, be honest with yourself to determine if you are doing the most $400-per-hour work possible. If not, adapt and adjust accordingly.

Evaluate — Large corporations, such as Google and Microsoft, must report to a board of directors. You’re not any different! Size may separate you from these companies, but the fact that you need an accountability system does not. Accountability is the key for ensuring the right actions are happening.

Consider what happens to fires, something I like to call the “beach fire theory.” The more logs you have in a fire, the brighter it burns. When a log falls out of the fire, it fizzles out. Similarly, the more people who can hold you accountable and whom you can bounce ideas off of, the stronger your business will be. Without this, you will be the lone log on the beach and your sales will fizzle. Develop an effective method for holding yourself accountable, and stick to it. Your accountability partners will motivate you to meet your goals and provide you with constructive feedback.

Are you on fire? Are your sales going to burn brightly or will they fizzle out? Plan, execute and evaluate daily, weekly and monthly to get on fire and stay on fire. Get started today and prove that you can grow in 2009.

Greg Muzzillo is the founder and co-CEO of Proforma with his wife, Vera. He founded Proforma in 1978 with a college friend and $200, and they grew the business to $250,000 in sales within one year. By 1982, Proforma’s sales reached $1 million. In 1986, Muzzillo developed the franchise model. Today, he is the co-CEO of the Cleveland-based company with his wife, Vera.