“Sow an act, and you reap a habit.
Sow a habit, and you reap a character."
Charles Reade (1814-1884)
Part six presents two habits that are directly related your management skills as well as your attitude. Being consistent means you hold firm to your agreements, and that your actions are compatible with your stated intentions. Of course, follow-through is act of being consistent. We have found in our business that these habits are important in sustaining long-term relationships and customer satisfaction. How well you execute this habit will be a major factor in determining the level of success you will have holding customers and building your business.
Golden Mailer has found these nine habits to be very useful in developing our business model they have proven very beneficial in achieving a sustaining our place in a very competitive market. As a brief review here are the 9 habits have found to be the most useful in building our business:
- Know Your Market & What Your Customer Wants
- Develop a Mission Statement and Business Plan
- Create a Repeatable, Scalable Business Organization
- Develop a Culture of Discipline
- Be Professional
- Be Consistent & Follow Through
- Stay on Top of Profits & Cash Flow
- Keep Your Employees Involved
- Adapt to Changes
Many business owners have failed because they were unable to develop or lacked these habits of consistency and follow through. Good management skills is another way to describe these habits because without them your potential to neglect your responsibilities to your employees, and your customers will surely lead to your business’ downfall. Attention to detail is essential to the success of your business. This includes not only the running of your company, but, also, attending to employee and customer needs. You are the “mother hen”, in other words, you need to watch over every aspect of your business until you shut it down.
As the leader of your business, you must provide the motivation and climate to assure the productivity of yourself and your employees. Your ability to hire, train, delegate, and manage your employees will be enhanced by adopting these habits of consistency and follow through. Your objective in embracing these habits will be beneficial as the manager of your business when you face new challenges, create new opportunities to expand, and think through all of the strategic issues you will face in the daily operations of your company.
Your business will be built upon your ability to get things done, either by your self or through others. To overcome indecision and procrastination, you have to approach each day with an urgency and commitment to complete every task as though the survival of your business depended on it, because it probably will. This habit has saved many from becoming a failed business owner statistic.
Speaking of being consistent and following through:
- What management skills have you used to make sure employees follow through on assigned tasks?
- How do you motivate your employees, and yourself, to stay on task?
- Have you established a method to make sure you are consistently providing a level of service or quality that meets your standards?
Just as a reminder, here are the 9 habits we are presenting in this series: (1) Know Your Market & What Your Customer Wants, (2) Develop a Mission Statement and Business Plan, (3) Create a Repeatable, Scalable Business Organization, (4) Develop a Culture of Discipline, (5) Be Professional, (6) Be Consistent & Follow Trough, (7) Stay on Top of Profits & Cash Flow, (8) Keep Your Employees Involved, and (9) Adapt to Changes.
The following is a brief discussion of “habit” Number 6.
