Business
When it comes to your business, consistency is absolutely essential to increasing success. Becoming and staying consistent is not always easy, but it will always produce better results. What exactly does it mean to be consistent? I would say that Merriam-Websters dictionary probably says it best… “Consistent - Marked by harmony, regularity, or steady continuity: free from variation or contradiction.” Staying consistent will mean a number of things to you as you grow your business. To clients, you will appear reliable, dependable, capable, and steady. To your employees, you will appear congruous and constant. Consistency makes up a huge part of what causes a business to be successful, and achieving consistency will bring you a step closer to realizing this success on your own terms. We are going to explore 4 tips that can help you to become even more consistent each and every day. Some of these tips might seem like no-brainers; however, following them faithfully can have a dramatic impact on the outcome of any project that you might be working on, be it large or small. 1… Create and Execute a Game Plan Having a set plan is absolutely essential to staying consistent. Without a firmly established success road map, you could very easily veer off course. This could cause variation in any part of your business, even if you are trying as hard as you can to avoid it. In truth, it is really hard to stay focused and regular when you do not have a plan to work from that can help you realize how to get to where you ultimately want to be. To help you consistently execute your plan, you need to make sure you utilize your calendar, so you can stay focused on exactly what needs to be done every day. Does your business have policies and procedures for all of its work-related tasks? Do your employees have access to these procedures? How do you know that your employees have this information, and it is accurate? The failure to have a plan in place is a common-enough occurrence among businesses, but you would be amazed at how many businesses forget about putting together a plan for informing everyone involved, as keeping such information current is important! 2… Encourage Open Communication Have you ever had a team member who asked you a lot of questions or the same questions over and over? Believe it or not, some people naturally get aggravated when they are asked questions, even if they pertain to the important aspects of running the business. But unless this habit is broken and overcome, this kind of communications breakdown could result in setbacks that will hurt you and your company’s success. If you often find yourself annoyed when asked for answers that you feel should be common knowledge, then you really need to take a second look at the situation. Try to be open to any questions that make their way to your ears, and make sure that everyone else, whether they are directly involved or not, knows the answer as well. This is a great time to ensure that the answer to questions is being recorded in a procedures manual that everyone has access to so you don’t need to repeat it in the future. Successful businesses have procedure manuals for every position in the firm. Having a good, positive line of communication is essential to keeping things consistent and reliable. 3… Be Committed One way to achieve consistency is to commit to it. This could mean committing to work until a certain time each day, working by appointment as much as possible (minimize phone tag), completing a specific amount of revenue generation hours each week, or meeting with your employees on a regular basis to reduce distractions and interruptions (be more time efficient). Regardless of what you intend to accomplish or pledge to do, making one or more commitments is likely to affect your business in a positive way. One of the easiest ways to commit to your business is to be as passionate about it as when you first started. If you are having trouble finding