Secret of Successful Businesses

Many years ago a friend hired me; he was moving his very successful practice into the building he had just built, which was in a very upscale area at the time, and wanted me to help him with marketing his business. I remember asking why he needed my help; he was already at the top of his field, everyone knew him, and he was the one everyone wanted to train with. What he told me stuck with me all these years. He said that if I could increase sales by at most 10% that it would be great and would be worth my fee. I looked at him strangely with the ‘What?’ expression!  I was used to people who wanted and needed much more growth real fast.

He then explained the first of many secrets of successful people that I have learned over the years.

He was looking for a slight edge that would increase business.

Successful people operate on the principle of the slight edge. They say “I’m doing well, but I want to do a bit better.”  Let’s say my friend had a 10 million dollar a year business. By tweaking his business and giving him a slight edge over his competition, we were able to increase it by 1% to 10%. That’s a lot of money, isn’t it?

The guy who has a $50,000 a year business is looking for the one big thing that will boost business by a lot quickly. There are ways to do that, but it will cost him. And most of the time, he’ll moan and whine that he can’t afford it.

Now it’s important to understand this about successful people: They understand that even one tiny little idea, one tiny little improvement equates to big dollars over time. As another friend always says “little hinges swing big doors.”