Momentum Monday: Are You Surviving or Thriving? 5 Must-Do’s to Build a Sustainable Business

Struggling to bring in enough business to cover the bills? Wondering what to do when your current project is finished? Wishing it was easier to find more customers? You need to stop surviving and start thriving!

The difference between just barely surviving and thriving has everything to do with how you build your business. It doesn’t matter if you are a setting up a solo business or a building multi-million dollar company the same principles apply (only on a different scale).

5 Must-Do’s to Build a Sustainable Business

#1: Generate Leads – Constantly filling your sales funnel with new leads is an absolute must. The only place “Build it and they will come” works is in the movies. In the real world, you need to let potential customers know you exist and get them interested in considering you.

How you generate leads depends entirely on your business. The key is generating new leads on a consistent basis – whether that’s from attending regular networking events to driving traffic to your web site.

#2: Close Sales – Converting leads into concrete sales is vital to your business. This is where understanding your metrics is important in identifying where you need to focus your attention.

If you generate a lot of buzz and interest, but no sales, focus on conversion. If you generate sales from very little buzz, turn your attention to lead generation and filling that sales funnel.

#3: Manage Cash Flow – Managing the day-to-day cash flow is more than just in minus out equals profit. A thrive strategy takes into consideration rainy days as well as the capital resources required to grow and expand.

Your cash flow management strategy should include diversifying your revenue streams. For example, a diversification strategy for a yoga studio could be to sell yoga accessories and natural health products.

#4: Create Systems – Building (and documenting) your systems is the cornerstone of a thriving business. Key systems include new customer intake, customer service, accounting and administrative, and marketing and sales.

Your internal systems should serve two core thrive functions: #1 allowing you to bring on additional team members and #2 handing product delivery in a consistent and efficient manner.

#5: Deliver Quality – Delivering on your promises to customers is the key to building a thriving business. Not only to unhappy customers not return, but they tend to share their negative opinions with others, creating a negative ripple effect.

The best way to deliver quality is to think of your product or service as an experience. Walk through the entire experience, from the initial contact through to purchase and customer service looking for ways to wow your customers.