10 Continuous Improvement Strategies
To Help You Work Smarter...
Not Just Harder
In today's demanding, quickly changing marketplace, all businesses are expected to do more with less.
This includes producing better results with fewer resources.
These expectations are true, regardless of the business and whether you are self employed or run your own small to mid-sized business.
Here are 10 strategies to help you achieve better results...by using existing resources better instead of adding new resources.
You can achieve these better results by working smarter...not harder.
1. Carefully Prepare & Follow A Business Plan
Some of the factors that contribute to good business planning are:- knowing your numbers
- knowing who your clients are
- know who can assist you and what they can do for you
- being aware of what you are doing
- having a schedule to dedicate at least 50% of your time towards building new business
- being clear of your budget and time
- knowing your peak performance time
- fully planning your year with adequate time off.
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2. Carefully Prepare & Follow A Marketing Plan
Preparing and following marketing action plans is an ongoing process.As you move forward, goals that you have achieved become the starting points--or benchmarks--for new goals.
The best marketing action plans start with personal marketing plans.
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3. Track Your Results
We have to know where we stand.How would we know where we are going unless we track results so that we know where we are?
The numbers provide the objective data about everything we need to know about our business activities:
- how many calls do you have to make in order to connect with a good lead?
- how many leads do you need in order to generate one client?
- how much money do you make from each client?
- how much money are you earning for each call you make...and for each hour you work?
- how many Internet hits do you need to get one client?
- and so on.
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4. Monitor Client Satisfaction
The best way to assess how well you have satisfied clients is to monitor client satisfaction.And the best way to know how satisfied they are to ask them.
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5. Keep In Touch With Your Clients and Network Contacts
Keeping in touch with clients and network contacts does more than help you maintain an ongoing, positive presence with these people.It also helps you continuously update you knowledge about your market niche.
This will help you stay on top of changes in your market and develop continuous improvement strategies to respond effectively to these changes.
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6. Be Willing To Learn From Others
Your life-long willingness to learn from others is one of the most effective continuous improvement strategies available.The best thing about learning from others is that you can benefit from their experience, without paying the price.
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7. Continue To Learn
Remember Robert Fulghum's book All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten? What a classic!In his own unique way, Fulghum masterfully explains how to get along with other people in style and format that kindergarten children can understand.
It's a must-read for anyone who ever interacts with other people..and apart from isolated hermits, who doesn't?
In terms of continuous improvement strategies however, it is light on specifics.
To continuously improve what you do, you must continuously learn new ways of doing what do well even better.
In addition to learning from others, you can learn new skills in traditional live in-person educational courses as well as today's huge range of electronic media...both online and offline.
It's no longer enough to continue to learn just to satisfy continuing education credits...you must continue to learn simply to keep up to your market.
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8. Maintain A Positive Attitude
All continuous improvement strategies require the positive attitude that situations can be improved.If your attitude is not always as positive as it might be, here are 5 ways to develop a more positive attitude.
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9. Be Willing To Ask For Help
It is a sign of strength to ask for help when you need it...and a sing of weakness not asking for help when you need it.If you are one of those people who have trouble asking for help, here are tips to help you.
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10. Remain Clearly Focused On Achieving Your Goals
Lack of focus is one of the biggest obstacles to the effective implementation of continuous improvement strategies.When we are clearly focused on achieving our goals, we are prepared to do whatever it takes...including implementing continuous improvement strategies...to achieve our desired results.
If however, our focus is less clear, we are more easily distracted...or attracted to other less challenging activities.
When this happens, our well-intentioned continuous improvement strategies fall by the wayside and we settle for...or are stuck with...the same old, same old.
Why settle for the same old results, when effectively implemented continuous improvement strategies can help you achieve better results?
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