If the business equivalent of Simon Cowell came across your company, would he think it had the X-factor?
For every business that succeeds, there are many more that go up the tubes.
Some people attribute this to luck, some people seem to be lucky over and over again
I agree that those who risk failure also stand a chance of success and both groups deserve a BIG pat on the back!!
Does such a thing as the business X-Factor exist and if so, how do you know if you’ve got it?
Practice makes perfect
In his best seller, Outliers, Malcom Gladwell explains that talent is a necessary, but not sufficient requirement for success on its own. Years of effort are also required and ten thousand hours of practice seem necessary to achieve world class performance. This principle is epitomised by the who famously said “the more I practise, the luckier I get”.
Gary Player golfing legend
We may think that Beckham could bend the ball with natural talent, but he spent a large part of his childhood practising. In fact, if you ask Alex Ferguson for the footballers secret, he'd say that “the important thing is practice”.
Did Bill Gate just do one thing and crack it?
Sorry, turns out that Bill Gates did huge amounts of programming – ten thousand hours - before he hit the big time.
The list goes on much longer than we have time for, I have seen this first-hand in direct sales business with (most) some agents not listening, not working hard enough and quitting because it is really harder than a job.
Some however, get rejected, get back in the game, get rejected, get sworn at, people cross the road to avoid a pitch and they get back in the game and just keep going
The result is a million or two, not in one lump, certainly in income from the day the buy that first starter kit and by the time the heirs to the estate and finished spending it... and perhaps they leave it as an heirloom and it is worth multiple millions. Those who do this don't just like driving all night after late night long distance meeting, or enjoy spending the food money on national adverts, or enjoy speaking with 70 or 80 phone callers from marketing and neither do they really want to phone 100 people on the list of a distributor that they just sponsored..... Some do because they know that a dynasty is being built
Direct Selling and Traditional Business is no different, and hard work in gaining the right knowledge and skills is crucial. Luck also plays a big part, being in the right place at the right time, but that won’t do any good if you haven’t put in the graft.
I come from a Chicken Farming background. But I soon escaped, my goal was the largest tyres on the pub car-park, not on a tractor, something very fast with huge servicing bills and would look good on a day at the races, firs selling, then started my business, Manufacturers Agent, I studied sales and marketing extensively and had been involved in marketing smaller businesses at board level for several years. I saw the whole marketing thing was try it, fail, try it, fail, try it, IT BLOODY WORKS, hang on to that, find another marketing tool.... Then the selling process, wwatch your appearence, manner, words.... try varioius things, fail, try again, fail, fail, and then you find that you convert more as the system works .....In other words, I practice first.
Dare to fail
Some people start a business because they want to get rich, others want to change the world, no one wants to fail.
To succeed in businesses you have to make a profit. Profit is oxygen, and is necessary even if the principle objective isn’t about money.
The biggest show stopper.........No profit means no reserves which means that the slightest setback kills you. So forget the X Factor if you haven’t set profitability as an early objective – you won’t be around to find out whether you’ve got it or not. If you know that part of what you do will take a medium term then do something to make short term cashflow
Having a compass
To arrive at your destination, you need to know where you are going.
Occasionally a business succeeds by accident, but that’s unusual. You must create a plan which gets to your objective.
So spend time working out who are your customers, what you are going to provide, what they will pay and how you will market. Then you need to understand your costs and find out what the competition is doing.
Customer obsession
SIMPLE
Customers pay the wages; if we forget this we’re in trouble. All successful businesses need to centre on their customers.
Flexibility
The newspapers take great delight in recounting stories about hapless travellers whose satnavs took them up a track, across a river or over a cliff. They thought they had the route cracked.
It’s is no different in business, when disaster is imminent it’s critical to be flexible.
Fun makes good business sense
If we find something enjoyable, we are generally good at it. Starting a business takes a lot of energy, and it is much easier to focus on an area where you have some expertise and interest. These are the same areas where we are likely to exhibit the X-Factor. If we are exceptional at something, we are very likely to enjoy it. So try to find a business you will enjoy, it makes sense on every front.
X-Factor
I wonder if any of this comes naturally? Concentrating on customers, having a plan yet being flexible enough to change it and enjoying the whole process is a tall order. Is this the business X-Factor?
If you watch the ITV show you know that the truly talented are sometimes hesitant about their capabilities. The crazy ones often come with the most certainty and the least talent. The best ones always want to improve, and maybe that’s it. The X-Factor could be a commitment to listen to advice, practise and continually improve.
It could be that’s what really matters. Or the bank manager might be your Simon Cowell and wipe the floor with you .....
