Want a successful business? Want your business to be successful? Want to buck the trend? Then you need to understand what your business is really about.

It is all about you

All businesses in the world are exactly the same. Except one. Whether you are already trading or just about to start there is one thing that you must understand above everything else. Your business is different to every other business in the world, and all other businesses in the world are the same. Because your business has you, and every other business does not.

Is it true that the difference between success and failure is:

• Getting the right finance?
• Getting good suppliers?
• Getting the right, and enough, customers?
• Finding the right staff?

Maybe.

But more likely the difference between success and failure is you. The problem with most businesses is that they do not work, but the owners do. And they work very hard, and they fail, 24-out-of-25 times they fail. The owners work hard, but the business does not work at all.

If you want to succeed, you must do the following

1. Decide what your overall objective is

Not an amount of money, not quality of product, not a nice store or a beautiful office, car, house or spouse! What do you want your business to give you? Deep down, what do you want your business to do for you? When you have done with your business what do you want it to have done for you? How does your business make you feel, right now? How do you want your business to make you feel?

The difference between the two is your business plan - Write it down.

2. What your business does

If I walked through your door and asked your receptionist or your store staff, "What does this business do?", what would they say?

"We sell shoes"

"We are a shoe store"

"Well isn't it obvious?"

If we asked any business owner to tell us what their business does they start with one line; and then they start to clarify. They start to expand, they start to explain why their business is different, why their business is better, why their business is already great but is going to be greater.

Why their business is just the business we should be dealing with. They become interesting and their business becomes interesting

So what do you want your people, what do you want your suppliers, your financiers and your customers to say about your business?

Do you think they do at the moment?

The difference between what they say and what you want them to say is your marketing plan - Write it down.

3. Consistency

The difference between any great business you can think of and all the others? Let us consider McDonalds.

Now I know that your business is more sophisticated than McDonalds, I know your business has better products, more discerning customers and it could not possibly learn anything from McDonalds. Go and sit in McDonalds right now, there will be one near by!

The customers know what to expect, the staff, who all probably started there in the last month, know what to do, the products are consistent, the ambience is the same, the car parks look the same, the stores look the same, they are consistent.

Relentlessly so.

Now you have customers who are not consistent, you have suppliers who are not consistent and you cannot get the staff.

They have a simple product, they have customers who will eat anything and they can get anyone to work for them.

They succeed in thousands of locations in hundreds of different countries and cultures.

Is your business consistent?

The difference between where you are now and where you would be if, magically, you could become the McDonalds of your industry, is your organizational plan - Write it down.

4. Money

How much is your time worth? If you really got paid what you are truly worth, how much more money would you have? Are you the only person in the world who gets less than they deserve? Do you know someone who is grossly overpaid for what they do?

How can this be?

The facts are simple, none of us truly get the amount of money our talents deserve. You get less and I get more. True?

The only way to get the return you deserve is therefore simple, get other people to earn it for you. Nearly every failing business we see has a common theme, the owner is indispensable. The business cannot do without them, they are irreplaceable, nothing can happen without them and everything happens because of them. And the owner is convinced that they are not getting the returns they deserve.

Every penny that your business earns that you were not involved in is free money. The only way to get that free money is to make sure your business and your people are earning it, and you are getting it. Are you earning enough? Could your business earn more for you?

The difference between working for your business and your business working for you is your personnel plan, and your financial plan, and your business plan and it is the difference your business should be making to your life - Write it down

Our business plans are about saving you time and giving you the opportunity to plan and increase the chances of your success. We have more plans, more free gifts and easier to use business plans than anywhere else in the world!