Growth Requires Focus - Taking Action Now Can Insure a Brighter Future

Where your focus goes, your energy flows. That's why small business owners who focus too much on the current economic condition, sacrifice the very real opportunity to grow and achieve market dominance down the road.

In the midst of the stock market's recent downturn Warren Buffet was quoted as saying, "when the market gets greedy, I become fearful. But when the market becomes fearful, I get greedy". In other words, finding opportunities to grow may mean doing things that the majority of people are not doing. Many times, going in a different direction can yield significantly better returns. This principle holds true for small businesses trying to survive during an economic downturn.

Recently, Houston-based Administaff (NYSE: ASF), a human resource services provider published the results of their latest business confidence survey. Of 6,200 small and medium-sized businesses surveyed across the U.S., 37% of owners expected higher rates of growth in 2009. A similar percentage of owners (38%) felt that 2009 would be no better than 2008. What causes some owners to be optimistic when others feel that the future is bleak? It's what the business owner is focused on and competition is neglecting, that creates the confidence and certainty about the ability to grow.

At a time when other businesses are cutting back, down-sizing, reducing staff or eliminating marketing budgets, business owners who want to seize the opportunity for growth and future market dominance, need to do the following:

·Avoid 'The Vanilla Syndrome'. Evaluate your product or service position to separate and distinguish yourself from your competition. If you look and feel like everyone else who provides a similar offering, that's how you'll be viewed by your customers. Determine whether you are faster, environmentally safer, more knowledgeable, etc. until you figure out what makes you different. Having a unique point of difference will convey value in the consumer's mind and make you less reliant on discount pricing schemes to compete for sales.

·Determine who your ideal customer is. Not everyone wants what you have to sell and the ones who are lukewarm will put price at the top of their decision-making list. Know exactly who your ideal customer is and what they want. Your unique offering and the marketing message that conveys it will resonate with these customers who in turn will pay your price, stay with you and refer others to you.

·Increase your personal market exposure. Do more networking in your local community. Find events to attend that will expose you and your business to potential customers and others who may refer friends to you. People do business with people they know and like. Delivering your marketing message during these events will enable you to explain why you do what you do so uniquely.

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Steve Smith is the OneCoach Business Partner for Saddleback Valley-CA, where he now coaches and mentors small-business owners and entrepreneurs, helping them get the answers they need to grow the businesses they want.