Are you thinking about the best ways to grow your business? Wondering if you’re doing all the right things to enable growth? Then, read on for our three tips for business growth. More specifically, we are going to look at MCP.
MCP is not some new medication or drug – MCP stands for mindset, capacity, and performance. The MCP approach is great for driving forward and growing your business. MCP is also needed if you don’t want your business to stand still. Do that, and be swept away by not doing anything.
Introduction to MCP
As mentioned above, our tips for business growth are having the right mindset, capacity, and performance. Now, these three words can mean different things to different people. To clarify what we mean by each of them, let’s go over the basics:
Mindset: It affects how we tackle anything – it’s our attitude towards everything that comes our way in business (and in life).
Capacity: Capability is another way to describe this, and no one business has it all. Think about skills and time to do all that’s needed in your business.
Performance: Check & manage your progress. (Pro tip: have a plan in place, and use KPIs)
Tips for business growth: #1 Mindset
The first of the tips for business growth is having the right mindset. It is about what you think about the world, your attitudes, your behaviour, and your assumption. It really influences how you handle situations in your business and your life.
In other words, your mindset plays a big part in your success, or what you trip up on. One of the biggest battles you will face is the space between your ears. How you choose to act based on the challenges that come your way will largely depend on the mindset you’ve got. And usually, there are two types of mindset that most people have: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. Let’s see how each of those can influence whether you grow your business or not.
Fixed mindset
Have a fixed mindset, and keep the status quo. With this mindset, you’re risk averse, and you’re a bit reluctant to try new things/new techniques/different ways of working. As a result, you can end up working in your business as opposed to on your business.
Why are we talking about a fixed mindset in a blog about tips for business growth? Well, in some situations, a fixed mindset may be what is necessary. Such instances may be when working towards your goals or when taking risks. A fixed mindset will keep you on your track, and it will prevent you from taking risks that could potentially be harmful to your business.
However, in other situations, a growth mindset is what is needed.
Growth mindset
The way you look at and do things differs when a growth mindset is in question. The status quo is no longer an acceptable option and you need to step outside of your comfort zone. What is worth mentioning is that your risk appetite dial moves away from averseness. Consequently, your approach to business evolves and becomes backed up with different ways of engaging with clients, and exploring new and creative working techniques. Ultimately, this can lead to recognising the importance of numbers and making better decisions accordingly, while simultaneously acquiring new customers and expanding your business. So make sure you don’t ignore this first one of the tips for business growth.
And while a growth mindset is normally the sexy kid on the block, do not dismiss fixed mindsets. They have their place, too.
Fixed mindsets and setbacks
Certain business disciplines and fixed mindset rules should not be abandoned since you and your business can benefit from them. Such are due diligence, compliance systems, and procedures for credit and financial control, as well as cash flow.
However, things do not always turn out the way we plan. Even with the right mix of both mindsets, things can still go wrong. I’ve made mistakes, you’ll make mistakes, all business owners have been down this road. Anybody who runs a business and says they don’t make mistakes is either deluding themselves, lying, or they’re extremely fortunate.
Setbacks are an inevitable part of business life, but, in a strange way, they can have a positive effect. Experiencing that pain (that discomfort) gives us valuable lessons. This is all part of the refinement and learning process.
Tips for business growth: #2 Capacity
Two terms that overlap and are often meshed in the business world are capability and capacity. The conventional meaning of capacity according to the Cambridge Dictionary is the total amount that can be contained or produced.
To get a better understanding of the word, here are a few examples that refer to capacity. For instance, this could be the production capacity of your business, the number of staff and workers to do the work, the number of seats in a restaurant to cope with the demand, and hours in the day to deliver workshops. You get the picture. Having enough of each component means effective running of the business, and ability to meet your customer’s expectations.
If this is not your case, that’s not the end of things here. As an entrepreneur, you could always look at ways of increasing the capacity of your business by working on your efficiency and productivity, building your team, and outsourcing. So, as part of our tips for business growth, we’re going to look at several things that are under the umbrella of capacity. Let’s see what they are.
Skills and abilities
Starting a business can be a challenging task, and maintaining one is an even bigger challenge. So, whatever you are doing, whatever you want to achieve, you need to create a plan. Having a plan will mean having guidelines – a route map that leads you to your destination points. It provides clarity and focus on where you want to go, and how you are going to get there.
The plan is the framework but the execution of the plan is a completely different story. Do you believe you have all the necessary skills and abilities to deliver and execute your plan? Do you have the management skills required? Can you work out the numbers and use that to improve your business? Remember, your leadership and how you run the business as an owner are crucial. You are the one who sets the directions and sets the dial to where you want your business to go.
Information
Learning is a life-long process that affects each aspect of one’s life. Business life is no exception. Therefore, in order to maximise your knowledge and understanding of how to achieve growth in your business, you need to constantly pay attention to the input that you receive from the outside world.
One area that business owners often neglect and ignore is precisely this: information. Since information is all around you, there’s loads of existing and valuable data that can be mined and tapped into, and turned into nuggets of information gold. You need to be on the lookout for new ideas, new concepts, and anything that can help you increase your performance and efficiency, and as a result, take you to your end goal.
Finding your business data
Every segment of your business activity, such as website traffic, social media engagement and financial transactions creates an abundance of business data. However, all that data is of minor importance if you don’t convert it into information.
Your social media platforms can be your best friends, should you use them correctly. Make use of those interactions. Every visitor, every person who checks your sites brings you valuable information. They may not leave a comment, but, surely, they will leave footprints.
While many of us do not drill down and explore that data, one thing is for sure: delving deeper is vital. Therefore, look under the bonnet of your website and you get an insight into what is going on. See who your customers are, when they drop by, what pages they look at, and which ones they don’t.
Lastly, don’t forget to keep an eye on your financial transactions as well. You need to know what you’re spending, how much money you’re making, which of your customers are profitable, and which ones are draining your resources. Hence, you will have a clear vision of how your business is moving forward, and what needs improving.
Management information
Have you started gathering valuable information about your business? Do you have insight into what is happening with it? Remember, whatever you have come across can be of use to you if you know what to do with the information.
Mining and using data does not require big budgets. However, it does require know-how. You need to focus on creating something that converts that data and gives you something useful. Hence, you can build your own management information system that will be of service to you in the long run.
Data is like raw food ingredients. It needs to be turned into information, as ingredients need to be transformed into a meal.
Tips for business growth: #3 Performance
The last of the tips for business growth is performance. Check your business’ performance and you’ll see how far you’ve come. Have you reached your goal? How have you done it? And is there something that needs improvement? Are you satisfied with the final results? These are the questions that will provide insightful information about the future of your business.
However, have this in mind: you manage what you measure. If you do not measure what’s important to your business, then how will you know what your progress is, whether you are achieving what you set out to do?
Making money, making profit might be a key objective for you. But if you don’t quantify i.e. if you don’t put a number to it, then you may never be satisfied, and will not know if you have made it.
Milestones
Lots of business owners often feel they’re not actually making any progress. That feeling of working hard, investing effort, and not seeing success is more common than it should be. In addition, deflation is added to the roller coaster of emotions business owners go through. That legal dopamine rush of making a sale, and getting paid becomes a fading memory.
Now, hear me out. You need to kick that overwhelming feeling of not getting anywhere out. One way to do that is by setting yourself mini milestones.
Set mini milestones for yourself. Make them daily, weekly, or monthly milestones. They will serve as markers to get you to your end destination. For example, if thing X is what you’ve got to accomplish at the end of week one, once you’ve done it, you tick that box. It reinforces a positive feeling, so you’re more motivated and able to continue forward.
On the other hand, no milestones means vague targets. Everything that’s not clearly defined usually doesn’t get done, or at least not within the time frame it should be done.
Conclusion
To sum up, the three tips for business growth are mindset, capability and performance. These are the three vital components that you need as part of the successful business DNA. So, think of MCP as the ingredients of your business plan. Blend them well, don’t go over the proportions, and keep an eye on the process.
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