Being a business leader is unlike any other job. You’re expected to be passionate about your work, carrying the torch of the business for your investors, your staff, your clients, and your family or friends – who may or may not be supportive of your vision.
You need to be determined and focused, as the path to success throws challenge after challenge at you. You need to be versatile and organised, understanding marketing strategy and finances as well as the ins and outs of your service or product.
Wearing many hats and carrying a significant weight of responsibility on your shoulders, your role as leader of a business isn’t an easy one.
Here are some of the characteristics of a successful business that you need to embody as a business leader:
Lean
For small businesses especially, keeping a keen eye on your outgoings is an important way of trimming the fat and maximising profit. Stay agile, keep an eye on your cashflow, and don’t get complacent.
Resilient
A large proportion of small businesses fold in the first year; and a decent portion of those who survive that first year will close in the three that follow. Those that make the distance have grit. You need to have a solid foundation of investment and skill, good people around you, and some serious determination.
Focused
The best businesses know exactly what they’re selling, and to whom. Wishy washy value propositions and a scattergun approach to targeting will get you one outcome: your business will be lost to obscurity and fail to resonate with any one group of people. Be remarkable, know who you’re talking to, and understand what you’re offering to change about their lives.
Innovative
The economic climate is unstable, and disruption is the status quo for most industries. It’s not enough to settle on one approach and then put your head in the sand; you need to stay abreast of developments, keep evolving, and stay relevant and compelling if you want to stand the test of time.
Passionate
Being a business owner can be a lonely road, and one that isn’t guaranteed to make you rich. You need to have a very solid WHY for embarking on this road less travelled.
Analytical
The key to a successful business: the Cycle of Action. Do your research, make a plan, implement it, evaluate and learn from the outcomes, then put this learning into action to plot a path of constant improvement. You need to understand how you’re performing, why, and how in order to be able to optimise your approach.
Results driven
So many small business owners we know have the passion and the skills to make a good go of their enterprise; but when it comes down to it they’re squeamish about getting their hands dirty with the money side of things. Without a consistent profit, your business will fail. So whatever your purpose, it pays to focus very clearly on improving that bottom line.