But My Business Is Different is actually the title from chapter one of my book It’s no Secret There’s Money in Small Business, and the reason I wrote this chapter is because it’s a common response received from people when someone is trying to give them sound business advice, especially if the person offering the advice is not in the same industry or profession.
“But you don’t understand, my business is different”.
Here’s the truth…No it’s not
Every business has customers, clients, patients, etc, and we all generate revenue in one way or another.
We also all have expenses, so at the end of each week our expenses are deducted from our revenue and we've either made a profit or a loss. Sounds simple, and this is pretty much how every business operates.
Now even though a butcher may not fully comprehend what a bookkeeper does and how they enter information into spreadsheets and accounting programs, they may have skills and expertise in others areas that may be very helpful to the bookkeeper, such as:
- Customer service tips
- How to use social media effectively
- FACEBOOK advertising
- Time Management
Being Successful
As you can see, these skills have nothing to do with bookkeeping, yet everything to do with having a successful bookkeeping business.
It doesn’t matter how good a bookkeeper is at entering data, if they have the personality of a house brick and poor customer service, is it any wonder their business is struggling.
Being able to take advice from others, especially people from outside your industry or profession, shows real business maturity.
Of course taking advice from someone within your industry and profession is also extremely important, but it’s not always readily available, especially if you live in a small town.
For every business that’s doing it tough, there will be someone else in the same industry absolutely killing it.
How is this possible?
A lot of the time it comes down to attitude and action. I'll repeat that...attitude and action.
If you think you’re a failure and if you keep telling yourself that you are a failure, then you’ll subconsciously start doing things and performing certain actions, to make this a reality.
The same occurs if you tell yourself you’re a success, even if the results are not yet on the board.
“When you tell someone you’re a success way before it’s true, you’re not lying, you’re simply predicting the future”.
– Zig Ziglar
If you’re determined to be successful you’ll do whatever it takes to be successful and you will take action to make it a reality.
You will:
- Pick up the phone and make that phone call.
- Write that blog for your website.
- Review your KPI’s on a daily or weekly basis and make the required adjustments as needed.
What you won’t do is blame others for your shortcomings or inactions.
For me personally, I’d much rather work my arse off and fail, than admit failure from the start and never give it a go.
Let’s look at the butcher and bookkeeper again.
You need a positive attitude
If the butcher told the bookkeeper he or she needed to look at their morning routine and how they started their day, as this may be what’s holding him or her back, a bookkeeper with ‘stinking thinking’ may tell the butcher to shove it, before even giving the morning routine any consideration.
However a bookkeeper with a positive attitude, open mind and one that is prepared to take action will usually say, “tell me more”, and the butcher will do just that.
Most successful business people have become successful because they've had a mentor or taken advice from others, so if someone asks their advice they’re quite willing to share what they’ve learnt.
So as a final note, keep your mind open to what others have to say and never, under any circumstance let the words, “but my business is different” ever come out of your mouth.
If you have any questions about this episode, my book, one-on-one mentoring, or anything else please email me directly
And if you're ever on iTunes I'd love your thoughts and opinions via an iTunes Review, or a review on your chosen podcast platform. Thank you for listening and reading.
