Recipes for Success
Success tastes good!
For the true entrepreneur there is nothing so sweet as achievement. But as with the perfect meal, business success is not easy. You need to plan your menu, cultivate or find the ingredients you need, then finally blend them in a combination you know is going to work.
Just as too little salt can spoil a loaf of bread, so too can your enterprise become unpalatable if even then seemingly most insignificant ingredients is left out. Short cuts in the business supermarket can leave your customers as disgusted as if you’d left the chilli powder out of a chilli!
And of course there is No accounting for taste. Whereas one person will be happy running a very traditional organisation, so equally will others seek a faster moving lifestyle. Burgers and bourguignon both contain beef, but the way that meat is prepared and presented are very different. This metaphor extends into marketing too. Both dishes can be made from the same piece of beef, but the market prices of the finished dishes are very different.
Then you have to decide what you are going to do yourself and what you will rely on others to provide. Do you create your product from start to finish or do you buy and blend the component parts of your service. The baker could grow and mill his own wheat although most prefer to buy it in a 25kg sack! As an entrepreneur, you need to focus on the part of your business food chain you enjoy, understand and will not tire of. These alone are good enough reasons to focus your enterprising activity.
Business practice, as does diet, will vary according to region, ethnicity, culture and even the time of year. You won’t sell Hot Dogs outside a Mosque. Nor will you succeed offering baked potatoes at a summer fete. A business is no different to a street party. You have to research your customers’ wants and adapt your offer accordingly.
Finally, you need the equipment and skills to do the job. You can’t make birthday cakes without a bag and nozzles to pipe the decorative icing. It is equally difficult to install a central heating boiler without the right tools. Of equal importance is the need to be taught how to do the job. Both plumbers and cake makers need training to become proficient at their art.
To really taste success you need to grab all the help you can find. Seek professional business help, invest in developing the skills you need, use a mentor to focus your mind and read good business books like this one.
© Robert Ashton April 2008 Andrew Rondeau recently interviewed me for a project he's doing called The Great Successful People Package. You can download his article about me here or click on http://talentdevelop.com/articles/WILFOOTU.html |