Are You Using A Hammer to Chop Down Trees?

By startupprincess | Published March 12, 2007

posey-headshot.jpgFairy Godmother Laura Posey, Founder of Dancing Elephants Achievement Group shares some excellent resources and wisdom here:

Over the last six years, I’ve been doing research on why some businesses succeed while others struggle or fail completely. I’ve made some interesting discoveries along the way and wanted to share them with you.

One of the biggest revelations for me is that most business owners are going about running their companies with entirely the wrong tools.

I liken most small business owners to a lumberjack who is chopping down trees with a hammer. He’ll get the tree down, but it is going to exhaust him and take him an eternity to get the goal accomplished.

It’s much easier to chop down trees with an ax, a chainsaw or some combination of tools. The challenge is figuring out which tools you need and how to use them most effectively.

Here are five of the most effective tools I can recommend for running your business.

1) A Good Accountant  – a really good accountant is going to set up QuickBooks for you and teach you how to use it to analyze what’s going on in your business. Yes, you are going to have to learn how to read financial reports and do some financial analysis. You’re running a business, what did you expect?

2) A Basic Financial Management Course – go to your local community college, live or online and enroll in a basic accounting course for businesses. You must know how to understand the data your company is giving you. If not, you’re doomed to guessing about what works and what doesn’t. Remember, measurement eliminates argument!

3) A Good Database – you know I’m a big proponent of ACT! as a database but just owning it and not optimizing its use is not helping you. You need a place to keep track of your clients and prospects and a way to analyze your information to make business decisions. I recommend the ACT! Coaching Club to teach you how to use the product for your business. Here is a link to receive a discount.

4) Sales and Marketing Training – yes, I own a company that does that but it’s true that big revenues cure a lot of ills. If you don’t have a solid background in sales and marketing, get an education. You can’t run a good business without understanding the basics of why and how people buy and how to generate referrals and repeat business. You can check out our site for some info and over 150 free articles on how it’s done right.

5) A Killer Website – this just isn’t an option anymore. If you aren’t on the web and looking sharp, you’re missing out on some money. If you don’t have a bunch of money or don’t know a kick-butt designer, check out www.elance.com for access to literally the whole world of web designers. They have sites starting at $395. If you need help on using elance, email me and I’ll help you.

Other good website tools I’ve found are 1 shopping cart for online stores, BYO audio for adding audio to emails, websites, etc., AWeber for sending mass emails. There are tons of other ones. If you are looking for something specific, email me and I’ll give you a referral to something good.

Running a successful business can be easy or hard. The difference depends on how much time you’re willing to spend getting the right tools before you wear yourself out with the hammer.

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2 Responses to “Are You Using A Hammer to Chop Down Trees?”

  1. Marina Westerdahl on March 12th, 2007 6:19 pm

    Great tips, thank you!

  2. startupprincess on March 13th, 2007 11:28 am

    I also found this helpful, I liked learning about all of the referrals she offered too.

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