1.Great relationships, strong leadership and an engaged team are essential if you want your business to be profitable and successful.
2.Any business who wants to grow and not just survive, must constantly innovate (think Apple!). You need to think of new ways to retain and grow your patients and profits, don’t become complacent, be one step ahead.
3.A robust online and offline marketing strategy that produces results and a return on investment is essential. Test, keep statistics, analyse what’s working and what’s not and test again.
4.Cross training all team members will ensure a consistent service, with no missed opportunities.
5.Your business plan and financial goals must be shared for the entire team to understand, follow, believe and get honest feedback and ideas.
6.Customer service must be outstanding: create a compelling customer experience that out shines your competition.
7.Financial management systems must be in place to track, measure and improve. This is the lifeblood of your business.
8.Your team must be able to run your business for maximum profits and efficiency, even in your absence.
9.Take consistent daily action and focus on your top 5 business goals until they are achieved, then work on the next 5 goals.
10.Powerful and effective marketing is the 2nd life blood of your business. In this economy, doing it brilliantly isn’t an option. It’s a must.
11.Rediscover your desire. You can achieve some success without desire – but for really great success, you’ve got to find a way to fire up your passion.
12.Create a high level of belief. You must absolutely believe you can achieve your goal, however ambitious it is. Any ‘self-limiting beliefs’ can be the biggest saboteurs of your success.
13.Write it down!! Did you know that only 3% of people have written goals (and everyone else works for them!).
14.Analyse your starting point. If a goal is too big, your mind will just shut it down (and your motivation along with it). So create a series of believable “baby step” goals, one after the other.
15.Build a lifetime relationship with your customers. Don’t make the mistake of going for a quick sale; devise a great long term client relationship strategy now.
16.Determine the obstacles you need to overcome. Ask yourself: “What is constraining my growth?” Is it a lack of specific skills or a lack of will power? Pick the main one holding you back and work on changing it.
17.Identify any additional knowledge and skills you need. You know from your medical training it takes 5-7 years to achieve mastery (about 10,000 hours!). This time is going to pass anyway so you may as well put it to good use.
18.Don’t do it alone. Running your own business can often be lonely and isolating and a different perspective will help you see the wood from the trees.
19.Make a plan: 1 minute of planning = a saving of 10 minutes in execution = 1000% return on energy. If you have a goal and make a plan you will increase your probability of achieving that goal by 1000%.
20.Automate your way to become a true business owner and have a business that works for you rather than the other way around. Automate as many processes and interactions as possible.
21.Take deliberate and meaningful action every day. However small, you need to create some momentum. Read the ‘Compound Effect’ by Darren Hardy for practical advice and exactly how to.
22.Conduct regular reviews with your team by asking: What’s working? What’s not working? Do more of what’s working and stop doing what’s not working. What should you start doing?
23.Most importantly, make a decision today to become hugely successful!
24.Take action to implement all of these steps into your business.
25.Don’t give up. Nothing worth having is easy. If it was, everyone would be doing it!